First 2016 Greener Festival Award Winners Announced at ADE Green

The first winners of the Greener Festival Award 2016 have been announced at ADE Green, part of the massive Amsterdam Dance Event.

Welcome to the Future, DGTL, Liberation Festival and Extrema Outdoors were all winning Dutch events who participated in the Award scheme in 2016, and the awards ceremony was organised with Green Events Nederland.

The one day ADE Green took place yesterday (October 19th 2016): ADE Green is a pioneering conference on sustainability, innovation, and social change looking at meaningful solutions for the future. This year, panels and workshops included a focus on sustainable management at major festivals, and series of in-depth workshops where initiatives such as the reusable festival cup and sustainable event management were explored, Green Events Nederland offered tips and tricks for a waste free festival, and other workshops included sanitation - and whether human waste is the the "new gold", and how to make the right choice of food - whether biological, local and vegetarian, as well as the impact this choice has on the environment. ADE Green returns to ADE in 2017.

To enter the award scheme, led by A Greener Festival, events submit a self assessment which is followed by an on site independent inspection, post event data gathering and a detailed report by the environmental assessor. The assessment forms the basis for the events Environmental Impact Assessment and is a important tool to help events to identify where improvements can be made, as well as celebrating the positive and successful existing actions.

Organiser of Extrema Outdoors, Marcel Mingers’ said: “We are delighted to win this award, which is a great reward for our efforts. Extrema is looking forward to an even greener future.”

A Greener Festival has assessed over 300 festivals over the last 10 years, and re-launched the Awards criteria in 2016 raising the bar and increasing the feedback and reporting available to events. This year's winners have also already added another 25 trees to AGF's Festival Wood in Scotland, a decidious re-forestation project managed by Trees for Life.

Ben Eddie, the AGF Awards Co-ordinator said "I am thrilled to have represented A Greener Festival at the sold out 4th edition of ADE Green at De Brakke Grond, the perfect platform and a new partnership. I was even more pleased  to have opportunity to meet familiar names from coordinating our UK & Europe awards for the first time this year. It was a real pleasure to present the Dutch awards to Liberation and Extrema Outdoor NL (both Commended), and DGTL and Welcome to the Future (both Highly Commended). It was an inspiring program and what better way to finish a packed day of workshops, presentations, and panels than by celebrating the successes of our first Award winners of 2016. It was also awesome too see such a mix of industry professionals, suppliers, and the next generation of festival and live event organisers and students in the same space. The future is now!”

The first results:

Welcome to the Future (HIGHLY COMMENDED)

DGTL Festival (HIGHLY COMMENDED)

Liberation Festival (COMMENDED)

Extrema Outdoors (COMMENDED)