approved Koala Management
ENVIRONMENT
We take pride in our commitment to environmental sustainability and minimising its impact on the local environment. In addition to its care for wildlife, festival site management leads a strict rubbish removal and recycling policy that is reviewed and executed impeccably every year.
This is reflected in the festival winning six International A Greener Festival Awards since 2007.
Bluesfest is committed to greening the festival. The festival employs a number of environmental initiatives, including recycling strategies; in 2015, 28.50 tonnes of recycling was collected during the festival including 4.64 tonnes of cardboard. A recycling increase of 3.3 tonnes from 2013.
4 tonne of organic waste from the festival was given to a local pig farmer and 500 litres of used oil from the food stalls was given to a local farmer who converts it into bio-oil to run his machinery.
Landfill from the festival went to ‘Titree’, a green energy plant, and gets converted into Methane gas which powers about 10,000 homes in the Ipswich (QLD) area.
Every year the festival team seeks new ways to expand and improve on our environmental initiatives.
The Byron Events Farm site is also the home of Koalas. Koalas are native to Australia but are an International icon. The presence of koalas and the opportunity to observe them in their natural habitat is a privilege but also a responsibility we take seriously.
In 2013 we planted 170 swamp mahogany trees as a Koala Corridor and we fund regular koala monitoring programs conducted by the University of Queensland since 2012.
Byron Events Farm monitors its on-site koala population all year round with help from the University of Queensland with the goal of creating a disease free koala community able to breed a disease free colony.
The site has a policy for attending to wildlife on site that minimises disturbance, risk or harm to any animal in the area, including education of festival attendees in this delicate matter.