More and more festivals are adopting green initiatives, but for the Ottawa Folk Festival, it’s always been second nature, the festival’s director told Metro recently.
“Environmental awareness has always been a part of that community,” said Dylan Griffith. “These festivals are about sharing and community and love of music, and there is always a sense of awareness in the community. Nobody wants a negative impact.”
This year, the Ottawa Folk Festival continues its bottled water-free initiative, said Griffith.
There will be no plastic water bottles sold or distributed on site, and instead, the festival returns its hydration stations so festivalgoers can refill their water bottles with the city’s clean drinking water.
The festival is also expanding its waste management programs, Griffith said.
While festivals are usually synonymous with food and containers, the folk festival’s reusable dish program gets around all that, Griffith said.
In addition to compostable beer cups, the festival will use a solar-powered dishwasher to clean durable, reusable dishes, keeping an estimated 20,000 disposable dishes out of the landfill.
“It means a huge dishwashing crew, but it’s important to our organization.”
