Split Festival - Sunderland’s annual celebration of music and culture that attracts national and international audiences - is going green. The event organisers have stated their ambition to provide the most eco-friendly event in the annual festival calendar and are working on a 3-year plan. Rob Deverson, Split Chairman, said: “As well as Split Festival I work in the Energy and Environmental sector helping large organisations throughout the UK reduce their carbon footprint and so improve environmental performance. As our Festival has developed we wanted to bring a similar ethos to Split. We are aware that many people in the performing arts industry have concerns about the ecocredentials of live events. It’s great to recycle plates and glasses but what about the energy used for tour buses, generator sets and other major fossil fuel burners at live outdoor entertainment?”

Working in conjunction with Julie’s Bicycle - a music industry project that makes environmental sustainability intrinsic to the business, art and ethics of music, theatre and the creative industries (www.juliesbicycle.com) - the organisers have a plan to not only do everything they can in 2011 to reduce their carbon impact but also to measure this using empirical evidence from festival goers. Split Festival is working with several local environmental agencies to audit its overall carbon impact and will be setting itself even higher goals for 2012 and beyond.

“Unusually for a growing festival we are close to a city centre location so already have excellent local transport links,” commented Rob. “We can do all we can inside the venue to reduce our carbon impact by using bio-fuels in local generators to power the site as well as carefully managed waste streams and recyclable food and drink materials. However, that is all for nothing if everyone turns up to our event in their cars! We want to encourage all Festival goers to use public transport to the Park Lane interchange in Sunderland and we will provide courtesy bus travel for the short ride from there to the venue. A team of volunteers will be conducting entry interviews on methods of travel and we will be offering spot prizes throughout the weekend for festival goers who can show public transport tickets for their trip to the event.”

Another area that the Festival is very keen to encourage is the younger music element and this year offers all primary school children free entry on both days as long as they are accompanied by an adult. Once inside, there will be a dedicated “play zone” for all youngsters where they can be entertained by a variety of rides, games, circus performers and tasty treats to suit everyone. Rob Deverson, Split Chairman, commented, “Since we started Split in 2009 families have always been very much at the centre of our ethos. In our first year we made arrangements for an 87 year old disabled Gran to come and see her granddaughter play and we have also developed a “child friendly” event with appropriate supervision and entertainment for kids of all ages!”