ROBBY RECOMMENDS
Morning ladies and gents!
Welcome to the first Robby Recommends, a new monthly column intended to take a sideways and hopefully entertaining look at how we’re all tacking climate change and what I think could work in 2010 and beyond.
We sure don’t know all the answers at Bestival HQ but we’re certainly trying to pull our weight and hopefully some of my ramblings will make sense.
The last couple of years has seen a definite case of green/eco/one-upmanship among many groups of people from political parties down to corporate giants and even us lowly festivals. I really hope that in 2010, some of the showboating will fade away and everyone can just get on with greening up their acts at work and at home without trumpeting it from the rooftops.
Maybe it’s also time we injected a dose of humour in, too, and don’t get too worked up that everything must subscribe to a strict green policy — personally running a festival with just under 50,000 people coming over to the Island, I feel guilty about the transport emissions and huge amount of resources needed to bring everyone over… but I have to balance that with the enjoyment that people get from the show. It’s a balancing act that we need to keep revising. We want to stay on the Island forever with Bestival, our fans love the Island and we’re not just here for one weekend of the year, so if we can contribute at other times, too, all the better.
In terms of practical ideas, I’m a keen sailor, windsurfer and when I’m not attempting to drown myself in The Solent, going to places like Fort Victoria and seeing the untapped force of the tidal rip makes you wonder why someone doesn’t stick a massive water wheel in and plug it into the National Grid. It seems like these ideas are taking shape slowly and I’m sure it’s not as easy as I make out but if we can send people to the moon…
It’s also great news that a wind farm seems to be taking shape off The Needles, 12 miles away is surely far enough away for even the most anti-windmill activists. As an Island resident, I feel proud the Island can embrace these new technologies and this really should create jobs on the Island… or we’ll want to know why.
Planning is going full steam ahead for Bestival 2010 and as well as worrying who’s going to headline, I’m just as conscious of trying to get more solar-powered stages on site, more people travelling by public transport and our fans bringing less packaging and tents that they throw away on the Monday.
If you’ve got any thoughts, do e-mail me at info@bestival.net and see you next month!
Rob da Bank is the founder and promoter of Bestival
www.bestival.net
Bestival 2010 takes place on September 10 to 12, at Robin Hill Country Park.