Visitors to Festivals Using Electric Vehicles Could Increase Overall Carbon Footprint.

Music festival organisers are putting great emphasis on their sustainability polices and reduction of an event’s carbon footprint. Encouraging festival-goers to use transport with a low carbon footprint has been popular and some organisers offer free parking for visitors using EVs and PHEVs but why might his increase the event’s overall carbon footprint?

In principle having a policy that favours festival site visitors using EVs and PHEVs Is a logical step as their carbon footprint from travelling to an event is minimal. The popularity of these vehicles is increasing but the charging infrastructure may not be developing at a sufficient pace to keep up with demand. In the UK the media jumped on news of large queues and long waiting times for charging stations during busy holiday periods. As music festival sites are often located in remote locations it is likely that owners will need to charge their vehicles on arrival and prior to departure.

Benefits and Free Parking. 
For some time now many festival organisers have offered free parking to festival-goers who use EVs and PHEVs. Additional benefits have included priority parking reserved spaces close to site entrances for quick access. To provide peace of mind to EV owners organisers have also provided some form of charging facility to enable recharging.

Powering Charging Stations.
Traditional electricity power for music festivals has been provided by diesel generators although these are largely being replaced with biofuels and supplemented with wind and solar power generation. There are now more hydrogen powered generators becoming available for festival organisers and may prove popular in the longer term. However, for now the lowest cost option is to switch to biofuels and if providing temporary EV charging facilities, they will probably be hooked up to one of these. Whichever temporary charging station solution is provided there will be an impact in increased emissions and carbon footprint.

EV and PHEV Policies for Organisers.
Festival organisers can implement policies for drivers of EVs and PHEVs travelling and parking on-site. Organisers may insist that EV drivers do not arrive on-site with an empty charge and provide a route planning service that identifies charging stations located near to the festival site that can be used prior to entry. Drivers of PHEVs may be banned from using any charging facilities so they are reserved for those who rely on 100% on charging. An alternative could be a small charge for using a charging station perhaps combined with a carbon offset charge.

Festival organisers can negate the increased carbon footprint of providing on-site EV charging stations by relying only on wind and solar power or generators or using green hydrogen. All these options will require some additional investment but may be the solution to ensuring that EV charging does not increase the event’s overall carbon footprint.

For festival organisers planning their events using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Photo by Mike B via Pexels

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