Culture secretary Ben Bradshaw is off to Latitude this weekend: champions "greener festivals"

In a piece for this week's Music Week Culture secretary Ben Bradshaw announces he is off to Latitude this weekend to check out Thom Yorke. Bradshaw also says he is a Big Chill regular. (What happened to the good old days when you could the difference between Government ministers and ravers, eh?)

In a piece for this week's Music Week Culture secretary Ben Bradshaw announces he is off to Latitude this weekend to check out Thom Yorke. Bradshaw also says he is a Big Chill regular. (What happened to the good old days when you could the difference between Government ministers and ravers, eh?)

But the real point of the article is Bradshaw trumpeting the new Industry Green (IG) standard set up by the formidable Julie's Bicycle:

Latitude, writes Bradshaw, like many music festivals, has always championed green issues. It has some eye-catching initiatives, such as the reusable beer cups with a £2 deposit to stop many thousands of plastic cups ending up in landfill. Campsite lighting is powered by waste vegetable oil biodiesel, and the profit from all bottled water sold on site goes towards providing clean drinking water pumps in Africa. They are taking sustainability further this year when they pioneer the new Industry Green (IG) initiative set up by Julie’s Bicycle, the not-for-profit company which aims to reduce CO2 emissions across the music and entertainment industries.

To win its IG status, Latitude will be measuring and publishing its climate impacts and finding ways to reduce them. If successful, next year they will be the first major festival to display the IG logo, a major achievement. Wood and Truck festivals are also piloting this initiative as is Glyndebourne, and PRS for Music and others in the industry are working closely with Julie’s Bicycle to find ways of reducing their carbon footprint.

For an industry founded on an aesthetic of profligacy, rock music is making some serious strides to discover a new way of doing business. Read more about Julie's Bicycle launching IG tools. Photo by DG Jones.