We are aware that the celebration of major musical events can have an impact on the environment, and from Cruïlla we have been working for years to reduce it to a minimum.
Here we tell you about all the actions we carried out this year to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and improve Cruïlla’s relationship with Barcelona and the planet with the support of Endesa.
In our immediate surroundings
95% of our audience is local and the majority of attendees travel on foot or by public transport. In that sense, we worked with Renfe and Moventis to create access routes to the festival and minimize pollution in the movement of attendees, hired staff and artists.
This year we also offered free parking powered by Endesa with 50 daily spaces for zero-emission cars, both electric and plug-in hybrids. To access it, you had to book a place at this link and present the 0 emissions environmental badge.
In addition, we limited the capacity of the Parc del Fòrum to a maximum of 25,000 attendees per day to reduce the pressure on the neighborhood and promote environmental awareness within the festival grounds in order to sensitize the audience about the climate emergency and the individual and collective actions we can take to stop it.
We take care of our homegrown artists, who we program at the festival and in the clubs throughout the year. In all areas of the festival we work with local suppliers and products in order to generate positive environmental impacts and involve them in the development of our sustainability plan.
Minimising direct impact
At Cruïlla we are working hard on the challenge that we have the great festivals to become a more sustainable event. In this edition we worked to reduce the use of generators that use fossil fuels by connecting to the electric grid whenever possible in order to increase the consumption of a greener, more efficient and environmentally friendly energy.
This year we evolved from a 0 plastic festival to a 0 waste festival. Not only we encouraged the recycling of materials to reduce the environmental impact associated with their consumption, but we also promoted the use of reusable and returnable cups. These cups, made of polypropylene, were cleaned and can be used about 150 times and in many other festivals, as they will not include the Cruïlla logo.
On the way to total waste reduction, we also offered free water fountains throughout the festival and recycled aluminum water bottles for staff and artists. Regarding the sale of physical merchandising, this year we were committed to reducing surplus and we set up an on-site printing system offering the possibility for the public to bring clothes from home and print them with the design of their choice so as not to use new pieces of clothing.
In order to protect the attendees, especially the younger ones, from noise pollution and preserve their hearing health, we offered protective headphones for everyone who needs them.
Looking to the future
In this edition of Cruïlla, together with Endesa, we made a study of the impact of the carbon footprint by measuring the CO2 emissions generated at the festival, as well as various public awareness campaigns and offsetting emissions, in order to apply the results and lessons learned in future editions.
In addition, we also studied the waste flow, accompanied by the Waste Agency of Catalonia, and the challenges faced by all those events that intend to respond to the increasingly widespread public concerns about their ecological viability. All this, with the aim of developing and validating a specific sustainability plan for large live music events.
Once again this year, we carried out the Sustainable Festival Challenge, an innovation project that aims to find and promote startups that work to solve environmental problems related to the celebration of major events. This year this challenge, fruit of the collaboration between Damm, Cruïlla Festival, the Waste Agency of Catalonia, the Ship2B Foundation and the Barcelona Music Lab Foundation, is focused on waste management.
Sustainability is not a fad, it is the only way forward. And, in our case, it is a firm commitment.
We believe that large events should tend towards the Cruïlla model. A model of medium-sized festivals, aimed at local audiences, committed to the territory, citizens and the environment.
