The Growth of Car Pooling for Music Festival-goers.

Music festival organisers are always looking at ways to make their events more environmentally friendly to meet sustainability credentials. One of the largest contributors to a festival’s carbon footprint is festival-goer transportation and to help tackle this car pooling schemes are becoming a popular option.

Transport options for festival-goers are varied and organisers prefer to push public transport alternatives like trains, buses and coach travel. The majority of festival-goers still opt for private cars because of the convenience and time saved, especially considering the remote nature of many music festival sites. Car pooling can help reduce transportation costs even further and reduce the carbon footprint associated with private car travel. There are numerous generic car pooling services available in the UK, in addition there are festival specific schemes and even self-help groups linked to specific events. How do these schemes work and are they a possible solution to reduce overall festival carbon emissions? 

Benefits of Car Pooling. 
A large-scale music festival with significant car pooling could see a reduction in private transport typically by 50% or more and with fewer cars there will be reduced CO2 emissions attributable to the event. Fewer private cars can reduce traffic congestion around a festival site which are notoriously bad post event. The cost savings for festival-goers are significant as fuel costs are shared particularly for larger capacity vehicles that can seat 6 or 7 people. Festival organisers sometimes offer preferential parking and reduced rates for car sharers. Festival-goers sharing transport also get the opportunity to meet new people and make connections with those who have a similar interest. 

Generic Car Pooling Schemes. 
There are a number of generic car pooling apps available in the UK that are popular amongst the festival-goer community. These apps allow drivers and passengers to connect, and the most popular apps include GoCarShare, Liftshare and BlaBlaCar. Drivers publish their routes and riders connect with them through these apps, a small fee is usually payable by the rider once confirmed. 

Festival Specific Schemes. 
A number of UK music festivals promote their own car pooling schemes and although they are partnering with the generic car pooling apps the festival organisers can make the service more specific to their event. Glastonbury partner with GoCarShare and festival-goers using this service get priority parking plus other incentives. Reading and Leeds festival partner with Liftshare and heavily promote the service on their event website, users get preferred parking. Boomtown Fair also collaborate with Liftshare to promote car pooling to festival-goers and users get discounted parking rates. 

Alternative Informal Schemes. 
There have always been a number of informal ways for festival-goers to connect for car pooling and have existed before the emergence of apps and included classified ads and student notice boards for example. For every festival there are fans who have set up groups that are not run by organisers. These groups have a been a great way for festival-goers to connect and car pooling has been a key feature of them. Festival-goers who regularly attend the same events each year often make friends and connections during festivals, and they keep in touch to make their own car pooling arrangements for future events. 

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.

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