After its ‘Take Your Tent Home’ campaign won Marketing Campaign of the Year at the 2023 UK Festival Awards, Kendal Calling 2024 has drawn to a close and as the fields of Lowther Deer Park return to the wildlife that calls it home, the festival is delighted to share the results of its Leave Nothing But Memories campaign. Calling on everyone in attendance from the festival goers and staff, to traders and artists, the campaign was created to encourage collective efforts to make Kendal Calling one of the greenest festivals in the UK.
The call-to-action aims to promote greener festival-going, with everyone mucking in together and doing their bit for the environment. And this year’s results demonstrate the remarkable efforts of the Kendal Calling community, with the festival seeing further year-on-year improvements as the campaign continues to gain traction.
Andy Smith, Kendal Calling Co-Founder said, “Each year, we strive to further reduce our environmental impact alongside our fantastic audience and partners. Our ‘Leave Nothing But Memories’ campaign was proudly displayed across all corners of the site this year, and we are incredibly pleased to see that an enormous 81% of festival goers are now actively aware of this important initiative. We take huge care of our beautiful site at Lowther Deer Park, a place we are proud to call home. And we are equally proud to have one of the most wonderful, environmentally conscious communities of festival goers who don’t mind mucking in to help – without you, none of this would be possible. We’re not done yet though, and we embrace a challenge, so let’s make it 100% of tents taken home next year!”
This year’s efforts in minimising the environmental impact at Kendal Calling through extensive sustainability solutions were followed up with a detailed report from betternotstop, experts in climate change and positive eco-ation. The report, commissioned by Kendal Calling gives an all-encompassing view of what worked, areas for improvement and tangible statistics on successes in 2024 vs 2023.
The campaign was front and centre across site during the four-days in August – and saw an enormous 98.9% of all tents taken home from the festival. This sees a continuation of the incredible work in 2023 where 98% were taken home. A surefire sign that the campaign message rings loud and clear, with even more attendees taking it upon themselves to clean up and take their tent home, along with the rest of the Kendal community.
The festival’s reusable ONE planet ONE cup scheme continues to see impressive results, too. This year, festival goers embraced the scheme more than ever before, with 22.5k cups returned to collection points across the site, vs. 15.3k in 2023. This, plus a newly-introduced token system across the bars which festival goers used when they didn’t want to carry an empty cup around the site – festival goers can then be redeemed for a cup later on. Plus, Kendal Calling works with Event Cup Solutions – a Climate-Certified company who washes the cups locally, using water efficient machines, at facilities powered by renewable energy, and the remaining carbon impact is off-set by green initiatives. The tokens and cups are used at other events and any damaged cups are ground and remade into new cups.
New for 2024, Kendal Calling introduced seven voluntary food collection points in a bid to further reduce food waste. These drop offs were available across the campsites from Sunday and Monday. This year alone, 270 kilos of food was collected. This has since been distributed locally, to Windermere And District Food Bank and Kings Food Bank. Another new addition was in place at Kendal’s dedicated area for little ones, Kids Calling. This year for the first time, the area ran entirely on renewable energy, something the festival is keen to build on across the site.
As Leave Nothing But Memories becomes a vital part of the Kendal Calling fabric, festival goers have shared their feedback. A huge 87% of attendees say they had not littered at Kendal Calling thanks to the campaign, and there was an increase from 54% to 79% using waste bags in the campsites. Awareness of the campaign amongst Kendal’s audience has almost doubled, from 43% in 2023, to 81% in 2024.
Artists came on board as well, making more conscious choices with their rider requests and making reductions wherever possible to help the festival as a whole reduceWe ran Kids Calling entirely on renewable energy – the trail was successful! and manage waste and consumption. From switching to local suppliers for food items, to committing to more realistic orders on drinks, artists continued to be supportive of the initiative. Even Gary Neville, ahead of his packed-out DJ set with Tim Burgess took the time to show his support.
Going above and beyond other UK festivals, Kendal Calling dedicates huge efforts to directly tackling the environmental impact events of this scale have on the wider climate. These efforts evolve and grow year-on-year, with Kendal Calling now boasting one of the most robust sustainability programmes, industry-wide. These carefully considered measures are put in place with the support of industry experts, to protect the picturesque location of Kendal Calling whilst encouraging new change in behaviours to improve sustainability not only at Kendal Calling, but at festivals in the future across the globe. The ‘Leave Nothing But Memories’ sustainability programme will continue and evolve into Kendal Calling 2025 and beyond.
