Nostalgia Festival gears up to go green

Organisers of this weekend's Nostalgia Festival are going green in partnership with the Christchurch City Council.

The Nostalgia Festival is being held at Ferrymead Heritage Park in the Heathcote Valley on Saturday.

Nostalgia Festival is taking part in a Council trial to compost food packaging from events.

Last year's festival attracted 3500 people. This year’s line-up of acts includes Connan Mockasin, The Chills, Estère and The Swan Sisters, with an expected crowd of about 4000.

The festival organisers want to minimise the event’s impact on the environment and have jumped at the chance to take part in the Christchurch City Council’s Composting Food Packaging at Events Trial 2.0.

This initiative aims to divert as much waste as possible from landfill to an organic composting site. All of the food sold by vendors at the event will be served in Council-approved compostable packaging.

“Nostalgia is a really sustainable event. The organisers are forward thinking and have lots of great ideas, so they’ve been a really good fit with the trial,” Council Events co-ordinator Shanti Campbell says.

The 18-month trial, which has been co-ordinated by the Council’s Events Team, began last September. Food vendors are trained in using four different brands of Council-approved compostable packaging. When the discarded food packaging has been sorted, it can be processed by the Council’s Organics Processing Plant in Bromley, operated by Living Earth.

Nostalgia Festival Site and Volunteer Manager Gina Papahadjis says one of the main values behind the event is environmental awareness.

“We want to create a unique festival that integrates the Christchurch community through collaboration, creativity and quality music. It’s one of the leading festivals in New Zealand for sustainability.”

Reusable cups will be provided by Globelet, with wash stations, waste minimisation and sorting from festival partner Our Daily Waste.

Festival-goers are also being encouraged to travel to and from the event using ride sharing, private or public buses, or on their bikes. An official event has been created for cyclists called Bike Gang to Nostalgia Festival, and those who take part will be rewarded with a complimentary beer on entry. The 10km route will start in the city centre and use several of the city’s new cycle lanes.

Upcoming events involved in the Council’s Composting Food Packaging at Events Trial 2.0 include the Night Noodle Markets in North Hagley Park from this Friday until 18 February, Sparks on 17 February, Electric Avenue Music Festival on 24 February and the Christchurch Lantern Festival on 10 and 11 March.

So far, more than 11 tonnes of waste generated at events has been diverted from landfill since September, under the second stage of the trial.

More information on food packaging and how it relates to green organics and yellow recycling kerbside bins can be found on the Council website.