When you think of festivals what pops up in your head? Artists and musicians are obviously pretty key, but what about the lighting to create amazing stage sets, a variety of tasty food stalls, drinks bars, entertainment tents and portable loos?
Particularly nowadays with the huge amount of festivals taking place all over the world, when you go to a festival, you expect the facilities to be pretty good, and for the amount your ticket or wristband costs, you’ll expect no less than the essentials to be in place ready for you to have an epic weekend.
However, whilst you’re soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying some pretty awesome music, you probably haven’t spared much thought about what actually goes on behind the scenes at festivals.
Did you know that Glastonbury marked its 45th anniversary in 2015? There’s no doubt you’ll be very much aware of the popularity of this festival which has been running since 1970. A whopping 175,000 festival-goers attended Glastonbury in 2015! You can find out more interesting statistics about the festival according to the Mirror’s Online article here.
But how do large festivals cater such a massive amount of people who flock to them every year? Glastonbury uses over 30,000 megawatts of electricity during the weekend, and just so you can put this into perspective, this is the same amount of electricity the City of Bath would use within the same period. If you want to read more on British Gas’s Energy Efficiency article on the methods used to power Glastonbury, you can find the full article here.
Generators
The majority of power needed to carry out many of the festival essentials will be provided by generators. From the stage sets and sound systems to lighting and heating, generators are essential sources of power keeping the whole event together!
Generators are available in a variety of volt sizes depending on the size of the event and what the power will be used for, something which, here at Event Electrix, we specialist in.
Towerlights
You may have seen mobile lighting towers used for a variety of purposes, such as construction sites, road works, airports, but they are also fundamental for festival and entertainment events.
Rather than you having to stagger around in the darkness in search of your tent, towerlights have their own generators which are effective in lighting up large areas, great for festival settings which tend to run on till the early hours of the morning.
As well towerlights, fluorescent and halogen fixtures and even HQI floodlighting in a variety of colours are also popular at festivals and large entertainment events which are fantastic at providing lighting that’s more architecturally and aesthetically attractive!
Waste
One of the downsides to festivals is probably the amount of waste and rubbish produced at such large scale events.
After the festival has finished, a huge amount of waste is often left for the organisers of the event to clear up. This isn’t just waste which goes in bins, but tent and camping items are often left behind.
Sewage is the other more unpleasant form of waste which the festival has prepare for. 3,220 toilets were put in place for Glastonbury Festival back in 2008, and as you probably would rather not think about, a huge amount of sewage will have been produced over the weekend.
On the other hand, many festivals are getting their act together and are trying to adopt ‘greener’ methods in order to try and reduce waste as much as possible. Glastonbury have tried to ensure that half of their two thousand tonne of waste from the festival is recycled. If you want to know more If you want to know more about Glastonbury’s green policies make sure to check out their website here.
Hopefully you’ve learnt a little more about how festivals are being powered which you probably hadn’t considered before, and you’ll also have understood the importance of these sources of power which are pretty essential to ensuring that your festival experience is top notch!