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If you have ever witnessed the shocking aftermath of a music festival, it may be hard for you to believe only a few pieces of rubbish were left behind at this festival campground.
If you are not privy to how dire those sights can be, you can get an idea from the image below.
That picture is from Glastonbury Festival in England, which can attract a crowd of over 100,000 each year, but over at Panama festival in Tasmania's Lone Star Valley, there is something more contained and earth-friendly going on.
After three days of festivities in mid-March, 1,400 adults and 200 children packed up their campsites and left virtually no rubbish behind.
Such a small amount in fact that the festival's directors had to forage for what skerricks remained.
A biodegradable cup, Bunnings receipt, part of a Pokemon card and a tiny spattering of nondescript rubbish is all they found.
One of the festival's directors, Tim Carroll, said he knew who that Bunnings invoice belonged to and thought the bio cup was probably wedged in someone's tyre and came loose when they drove away.
The result boils down to a campaign that called for "respect for the space and respect for each other", and extended beyond sustainable waste management to addressing sexual harassment at events and the gender gap in music.
And, as Mr Carroll noted, the punters and scale of the festival also had a major part to play in Panama's success.
No to mention, the location is pristine and picturesque and "tends to have an impact on people, being in a special place and wanting to look after it", Mr Carroll said.
"We're in a unique position, we're so small, 1,400 is just so tiny and we're thinking that's about as big as we're going to get," he said.
"And so I feel like other festivals have much bigger challenges and I wouldn't purport to judge them."
Panama is small but attracts artists regularly seen on bigger festival bills. This year US musician Kurt Vile and Australian acts Emma Louise and Big Scary led the line-up.
On the flip side, mess is a 'testimony to the good times'
Toilet tents, cigarette butts, mud-soaked clothing, nitrous oxide canisters and thousands of empty beer cans are just some of the things you will find when hungover revellers abandon festivals like Panama.
Tents turned into makeshift toilets is a real thing, confirmed Henry Smale, who runs sustainable initiatives at festivals and the recycling department at Woodford Folk Festival in Queensland.
"There's a culture of people making a mess ... almost like a testimony to the good times they've had that weekend," he said.
Mr Smale said the attitudes towards waste can differ greatly between festivals.
"Sometimes it's like preaching to the choir," he said, but "some people will drink their beer, throw it over their shoulder, pat you on the back and say 'nah mate, that's your job'.
"Some people assume that's what they're paying for."
How did Panama's campgrounds scrub up so well?
Information about Panama's policies on sustainability and harassment was emailed to guests in the lead-up, and the messages were beamed on social media.
Panama processes recycling and compostables on site and patrons are asked to take any of their hard waste with them — "you ship it in, you ship it out," it says.
The tiny bag of that resulted from this year's event was not a fluke. Punters were made aware of the festival's aim to record the rubbish once it was also over — Panama did the same thing last year and posted in on social media — and they obviously took the call to action seriously.
Beyond that, the festival has an all-encompassing eco feel. There is "the great Panama clothes swap" and food stallholders are required to use biodegradable cups and compostable plates.
One stall took that further, offering plungers of fresh coffee and reusable mugs.
The festival runs its office on solar power, and brew cider and grow food on site.
Mr Carroll said they were working to reduce their carbon emissions but acknowledged people still had to fly and drive to get to there and generators were used on site. "It's important to be realistic about what you're doing," he said.
The idea to use tin cups at the festival bar has been discussed by the Panama team, but Mr Carroll said that would mean bringing at least 1,500 cups into the world to be used for just one weekend of the year. "Is that actually a good outcome?" he said.
"It might feel good but would we be better off using the same amount of bio cups that potentially have a lesser impact?
"And there's also some issues around health and safety and the logistics of how you implement stuff like that."
'People want a clean festival'
Mr Smale said he and some like-minded colleagues were pushing for more reusables at festivals.
He said food stalls could go through 50,000 compostable plates during a festival, and while the idea of composting was a great initiative, and some festivals were lucky enough to have those capabilities on site, reusing plates and cups and avoiding landfill all together would be he better a option.
At a festival Mr Smale recently worked on, they used a system called Wash Against Waste — a solar powered trailer with hot-water washing facilities, which is helping stall holders and festivals transition to reusable crockery and utensils.
"A lot of festivals now are wanting to be more conscious about the impact they're having. And its certainly come at a time now, when festivals like Big Day Out and Stereosonic are shutting down and people want a boutique festival experience," he said.
"People don't just want a good variety of music and stages, they want a clean festival."
Topics: environmental-impact, environmental-management, music, carnivals-and-festivals, community-and-multicultural-festivals, golconda-7254
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