Glastonbury audience urged to go green
Revellers at this year's Glastonbury Festival are being asked to go green in an attempt to halt climate change, organisers today announced.
Festival goers – will be encouraged to think about ”reducing their carbon footprint” through a series of initiatives held during the three-day extravaganza.
Music lovers at the festival, held at Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset, will be asked to sign up to the ”I Count” climate change campaign.
The campaign encourages people to take 16 steps in their everyday lives to reduce their carbon footprint.
The target is for 100,000 people to sign up to the campaign by the end of the weekend (22-24 June).
Everybody arriving at the festival will be given a special wristband with the ”I Count” message, ”We can stop climate chaos”.
As people sign up, the rising total will be registered at the main Pyramid music stage.
Legendary festival organiser Michael Eavis explained: ”We’ve put a lot of effort into focusing Glastonbury on the environment and climate change this year.
”We hope to see at least 100,000 new supporters sign up to the I Count campaign – and I’ll be the first to put my name down.”
The campaign is supported by the Stop Climate Chaos coalition of over 50 organisations, as well as the three main causes supported by Glastonbury - Oxfam, Greenpeace and WaterAid.
Greenpeace, Oxfam and WaterAid will also be urging people to think about climate change with a series of environmentally-themed events during the festival.
Hungry revellers will be filled up in the Greenpeace field with organic food and then washed clean with carbon neutral showers, with water heated by solar and biomass energy.
Bob Wilson from Greenpeace said: ”We have to start reducing carbon dioxide emissions immediately and begin to phase out fossil fuels and switch to renewable energy.
”Oil companies, instead of spending money exploring for more dinosaur fuels, must begin to invest in the future – clean, sustainable energy and a huge investment in energy efficiency.
”We need more efficient cars, fewer flights, and better and cheaper trains. None of this will happen unless we make our leaders feel the heat.”
Oxfam will be inviting festival goers to try out their carbon cycle, and test out the weights of carbon footprints.
Stuart Fowkes from the organisation said: ”The world’s poorest people are being hit first and hardest by climate change.
”We can’t tackle poverty unless we work together to stop climate chaos. But it’s not too late to act: immediate action is vital in the fight against the biggest crisis facing us today.”
WaterAid volunteers will be supervising the popular ’She Pee’ female toilets and also running posh VIP latrines.
Duncan Wilbur, from the charity added: ”Climate change means that not only is the world warming up but rainfall patterns are changing and water tables falling.
”This puts increased pressure on already stressed water resources. The survival of millions of people depends on careful water management.”
Other green initiatives include supplying each festival goer with their own roll of recycled toilet paper.
A record 137,000 revellers expected to attend the festival next month.
Tickets sold out in less than two hours after first going on sale.
The line-up for the festival will be announced later this week with artists expected to include Arctic Monkeys, The Killers, The Who, Kaiser Chiefs and Shirley Bassey.
