We’re truly into festival season now, so it’s time to get your wellies on and listen to some live music in a hopefully sunny but probably soggy field (well, let’s face it you can’t rely on the British weather and that’s a fact!).
In a bid to become Britain’s greenest festival this year Glastonbury encouraged all traders and festival goers to drink from reusable bottles rather than disposable ones. It’s also the fab Tolpuddle Festival in Dorset this weekend, so here is our top 5 list of products for ideas on how you can be as green as possible at festivals this year, and most are available online from Ecotopia so you can save on postage getting them all together too!
1. Essential Eco Festival Kit Special Offer £28.46
Ecotopia’s Essential Eco Festival Kit is designed to see you through your favourite festival in true eco style. It includes Ecoleaf toilet rolls (how decadent!), a Bentley Organic Hand Sanitizer and a reusable Ohyo Water Bottle.
2. Outdoor Eco Festival Kit From £21.99
Light up the Eco BBQ for some delicious food during your festival weekend. Make sure you’re eating free range, better still organic meat, or I highly recommend enjoying some meat-free burgers or veggie sausages if you really want to be eco – VegiDeli Meat-Free Quarter Pounder Burgers are my absolute favourite and are available in all good healthshops, and I don’t think you can beat Linda McCartney Vegetarian Sausages in a hotdog, (both are vegan-friendly) available at most supermarkets (I also recommend bbq-ed onions and smothering everything in ketchup and mayo!). If you’ve got the room and a chillbox then take salad, and ready-cooked baby new potatoes and corn on the cobs to bbq too, yum! If you don’t buy the Essential Eco Festival Kit above then this kit also comes with a wind up Collapsible Lantern to brighten up your evenings and you can avoid bites with the Natural Insect Repellent.
3. Freeloader Pico £24.99
The Freeloader is a compact and lightweight solar charger for mobile devices and is great for people on the move (and at festivals!). Pico charges in 10 hours using the sun, 3-4 hours when plugged in, and comes with a number of connector tips for charging multiple devices. I’d like to think festival-goers could get back to nature in the great outdoors and live without their mobiles for a day or two… but most of us just can’t resist checking messages or sharing photos and videos on facebook so best to be prepared!!!
4. Spudcoat from £5.99
Okay it doesn’t look very cool at all but sometimes dismal weather calls for desperate measures, and it also doesn’t feel very cool getting soaking wet!!! Stay dry at festivals this season with the (not-so!) trendy Spudcoat. It can be worn over and over again, is made from potato starch bioplastic and has seeds embedded in it – so once you’re finished with your coat you can plant it in the garden and it will grow into cucumber or tomato plants – how cool is that!!! They are perfect for adults and children alike as they come in two sizes.
5. Compassionate Tees from £15.10 / £20.10 Organic
To counteract the possible threat of having to wear a Spud/Rain Coat (!) I recommend standing out from the crowd in one of Compassionate Dorset’s cow t-shirts, or their new ‘100% Organic’ t-shirt in you’ve guessed it, 100% organic cotton. All profits are donated to the leading farm animal welfare charity Compassion in World Farming to help end factory farming which is the biggest cause of cruelty to animals and environmental destruction on the planet, so you’ll look cool and feel good too!
Have fun and please let us know which festivals you’ve gone to and how you get on with any of these products by posting your comments below, or recommend more eco festival essentials!