Pilot Year

In 2022 we ran a trial with six partner festivals to establish the best practice for engagement. These are the five key learnings to roll out in 2023.

VALUE – €2 TREES
The Festivals Forest’s USP is the partnership with Skogræktin in Iceland. Their decades-long experience pioneering afforestation, their access to land that isn’t being farmed, their ongoing land-management, and their seedling cultivation brings the unit cost per tree down to €2. This compares favourably with other local plantation schemes around Europe, the cheapest of which is €6 per tree. And the other crunch factor – there are no squirrels in Iceland, so seedlings thrive there without rodent ravaging rates of depletion. 

COMMUNICATION
The best way to ask our audiences to support festivals working towards net zero is to make conversations about the ambition a core part of the festival experience, live and digital. 

TREE-BUYING
There are three ways to join the Festivals Forest: 
– Festivalgoers buying trees at €2 per tree as a voluntary climate action. The best way of doing this during the booking process is to add this as an “opt-in” option to the total cost of their festival tickets at checkout.
– Automatically adding a Carbon Coin €1 to all bookings in recognition of a formal carbon tax. 
– Simply buy hectares of land with 2,500 trees to mitigate your CO2 consumption.

FAVOURITE FESTIVALS
Festivalgoers like the opportunity to offset their own travel throughout the year and the option of crediting their favourite festival with the carbon benefit. 

CARBON TONNAGE
Festivalgoers like the tree cycle timeframe of 50 years that allows us to estimate the sequestration of 1 tonne of carbon as the planting of 4 trees.

Pilot Festivals 2022

Festivaletteratura is one of Italy’s most anticipated annual events. Since its inception in 1997, this five-day festival of gatherings with authors, readings, performances and concerts has seen artists come from all four corners of the globe to come together in Mantua, getting first-hand experience of the truly unforgettable festive atmosphere.
 
The Festival plays host to world-famous writers and poets, some of the most interesting voices from emerging literatures, artists and scientists who foster a more complex notion of literature.

For six days in October, the International Chamber Music Festival Schiermonnikoog combines music with nature. The festival offers master classes, music documentaries, lectures and trips into the island’s beautiful surroundings. Each year, over 60 musicians from across the world travel to the peaceful island of Schiermonnikoog, dedicating this week to their music and performance. The intimacy of chamber music and the unique nature of the island enhance one another’s beauty, and give the festival its unique character.
Walden Festival is an initiative from the founders of Klarafestival. The concept? Enjoying music in all its diversity on various stages in and around Brussels’ Leopold Park, the green heart of the European Quarter. 
 
Walden Festival is the informal counterpart to Klarafestival, organised by Festival of Flanders Brussels since 2004 and now one of the largest classical music events in Belgium.
Wonderfeel is a three-day outdoor festival for classical music. The seven stages are spread out over 60 acres of nature reserve near Amsterdam (NL) and offer over 100 performances: from medieval to minimal, from classic hits to brand new notes, with lines to jazz, pop and non-western music. The program also includes dance, poetry, music documentaries, walks, talks, yoga, and various activities for children. The audience listens while relaxing on benches, on beanbags under the trees, or simply lying in the grass. 

STROOM stems from the Ghent Festival of Flanders, a festival that has kept its finger on the pulse of today’s society for 65 years. With STROOM, we follow the meandering Schelde river between Ghent and Antwerp. STROOM lets artists speak, in a unique symbiosis between nature, culture, heritage and tourism. Together with you, our audience and local partners, we look forward to a sustainable future for this area, for our country and for the planet.



ReMusica Festival is one of the main pillars of cultural life in Kosovo, with a specific focus on classical / modern music. Its initial mission since 2002, was the promotion of the contemporary music and conveying innovative expression in the art of music, through channels of different stylistic tendencies of the XX century. For a Newborn country, such as Kosovo is, it has had an enormous impact on the music lovers and others, thus creating a strong bond and making ReMusica the most protruding music festival in Kosovo. 

Wonderfeel is a three-day outdoor festival for classical music. The seven stages are spread out over 60 acres of nature reserve near Amsterdam (NL) and offer over 100 performances: from medieval to minimal, from classic hits to brand new notes, with lines to jazz, pop and non-western music. The program also includes dance, poetry, music documentaries, walks, talks, yoga, and various activities for children. The audience listens while relaxing on benches, on beanbags under the trees, or simply lying in the grass.