GO Group plans a busy year

With three panels at this week’s EUROSONIC NORDERSLAG Conference in the Netherland, GO Group (Green Operations Europe), co-initiated by Bucks New University, GreenEvents Conference, Green Music Initiative and Yourope (the European festival association) is moving forward in 2012 with more projects related to sustainability in the festival and event business. GO are happy to announce the first confirmed dates and our online-home and social media sites:

-  New web and social media-URLs

-  GO Group hosts three panels on event sustainability at Eurosonic Noorderslag

-  GreenEvents promoter Holger Jan Schmidt to present the green festivals award at the EFA

-  2nd GO Group Workshop at Gödör Club, Budapest, Hungary on April 23/24 2012

-  GO Group will be part of the 3rd GreenEvents Europe Conference at Wissenschaftszentrum, Bonn, Germany on November 5/6 2012

The new contact details for web, Facebook and Twitter are

www.go-group.org

www.facebook.com/gogroupeurope

www.twitter.com/gogroupeurope

1) 2nd GO Group Workshop for Sustainable Festivals & Events in Budapest | 23-24 April 2012

GO Group goes east with its second international workshop. After the successful debut in Amsterdam in May 2011 with 35 international participants, Green Operations Europe heads to Budapest for a second edition on event sustainability with great presentations, information and best practise exchange. In four intense sessions taking pace over two days, the GO Group workshops will cover major issues for sustainable event management such as international green standards, green issues communication, waste or mobility management. The workshops will feature speakers from festivals and science alike. Find out more on www.go-group.org soon.

GO Group meetings are open to stakeholders interested in actively pushing the sustainability and green agenda. Therefore everybody – you, your sustainability manager, your production managers – are invited to take part in the discussion. Participation fee for the 2nd GO Group workshop will be 200 € (plus VAT). There is a special offer for Yourope members (25% deduction for max two participants per Yourope-festival). Registrations will be available at the Bucks New University online shop shortly.

The workshop will be kindly co-hosted by Gödör Club (Erzsébet tér, 1051 Budapest, Hungary).

About Gödör Club – Cultural Centre on Erzsébet square

Gödör Club has been set up as a community space and a meeting point for artists. Within a short span of time the Club has become one of the defining art venues and community spots in Budapest. Now, it is a popular meeting point, a café, a civil agora, arts venue – all in the city centre, open from early afternoon until dawn. In 2010, they launched an environmental programme, GreenGödör.

www.store.bucks.ac.uk

www.godorklub.hu

2) GO Group at 3rd GreenEvents Europe Conference at Wissenschaftszentrum, Bonn, Germany on November 5/6 2012

The 3rd international GreenEvents Europe Conference in Bonn will take place on November 5 and 6. 2012. After the huge success of the second edition with more than 100 German and international guests joining to discuss sustainability and environmental protection at (major) events, the conference aims to grow even more. For the third time members of the international live music industry and related suppliers, scientists and initiatives will come together in Bonn to discuss sustainability and environmental protection within major events. The aim is bringing together experts and practitioners and stimulate exchange between participants.

The GO Group and Yourope will support the conference content wise and by hosting various sessions.

Find more information at: www.green-events-germany.eu

 

Euronsonic 2012 gets the green agenda

EuroSonic Nooderslag is now one of Europe’s most important music conferences and is joined to a massive European live music showcase which is all held in Groningen the Netherlands from Wednesday 11^th to Saturday 14^th January 2012. The whole show kicks off this year on Wednesday 11^th January at 18.00 with the European Border Breakers Awards (hosted by Jools Holland and live on NTR TV in the Netherlands) and then at 20.00 its time for the European Festival Awards – and the special recipient this year is Michael  Eavis, organiser of the Glastonbury Festival who wins the Lifetime Achievement Award.

There are two key green panels this year in the conference programme organised by GO Europe and the first looks at communicating the “green” message and the second looks at the different international standards that can be used by green events: There are quite a few other panels at the conference which might be of interest to our readers and we have highlighted some below. Highlights of the live showcases include James Vincent McMorrow (IE), Anna Calvi (UK), Elektro Guzzi (AT), Boy (D) and Selah Sue (BE) along with many many other performers including The Medics, Animal Kids, Death Letters, Lilian Hak, Blaudzun,  Baskerville, Effi, Haas, Krystl, Bombay Show Pig, LeMaitre, We Are Evergreen, Wolfendale, The Cyborgs, Pinkunoizu, Lucy Rose, Tove Stryke and Reptile Youth.

Some of the Conference panels:

Thursday 15.00 – 16.00  ACTS OF GOD – ISSUES FROM WEATHER AT FESTIVALS: With Sabine Funk (Rheinkultur/IBIT, D),  Henrik Neilsen (Roskilde Festival, DK), Gary Latham (DF Concerts, UK) and moderated by Professor Chris Kemp (Buckinghamshire New University ,UK)

Thursday 16.30 – 17.30 NEW EURPOEAN UNION SUPPORT FOR THE CULTURAL AND CREATIVE SECTORS with Ann Branch from the EU Commission, moderated by Willem van Zeeland (VPRO, NL)

Friday 12.30-13.30 LESS TOURS, LESS TICKETS? With Rob Chalice (Coda UK), Charlie Presberg (Pollstar, UK),  Eric van Eerdenberg (MOJO, NL), Sebastien Vuignier (Paleo Festival, CH), Stephan Thanscheidt, FKP Scorpio, D) and moderated by Allan McGowan (UK).

Friday 13.30-14.30 GREEN FESTIVAL COMMUNICATION with  Julia Gudzent (Melt! Festival D) and Carlijn Lindmulder, ID&T, NL) moderated by Holger  Jan Schmidt (Rheinkultur/Green Events Germany, D)

Friday 15.00 – 16.00  THE DEBATE ABOUT DISCOUNTING TICKETS  with Stewart McKie (UK) and Will Page (PRS for Music, UK) and moderated by Greg Parmley (UK)

Saturday  12.30 – 13.30 GREEN INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS IN EVENT MANAGEMENT WITH Rachael Saunders (Sustainable Events, UK)  and moderated by Jacob Bilabel (Green Music Initiative, D)

http://conference.eurosonic-noorderslag.nl/en/home/

Muse and Boom top European Festival Awards

The cream of European festivals, artists and promoters for 2010 have been announced at Festival Awards Europe in a ceremony at Groningen’s Stadsschouwburg in The Netherlands, on the opening night of the 25th Anniversary edition of Eurosonic Noorderslag. Decided by a combination of public vote and industry juries (with more than 350,000 public votes cast) the winners are: 

Best Major European Festival: Heineken Open’er Festival – Poland

Best Medium-Sized European Festival: Electric Picnic Music & Arts Festival – Ireland

Best Small European Festival: 5 Tauron Nowa Muzyka Festival – Poland

Best New European Festival: Temple House Festival – Ireland

Best Indoor Festival: Rolling Stone Weekender – Germany

Best European Festival Line-Up : Oxegen – Ireland

Best Newcomer – Florence and the Machine

Best Headliner – Muse

Festival Anthem of the Year: Muse – Uprising

YOUROPE Green ‘N’ Clean Festival Of The Year: Boom Festival – Portugal 

Artist’s Favourite European Festival – Melt! – Germany

Virtual Festivals Europe presents Promoter Of The Year: Kilimanjaro/K2

Yourope Lifetime Achievement Award: Leif Skov

Eurosonic highlights green events

This week’s EuroSonic Noorderslag conference and festival will highlight green issues in a panel featuring Holger Jan Schmidt (Rheinkultur Festival, Green Events Conference, DE) , Jacob Bilabel (Green Music Initiative, DE) and Catherine Langabeer (Julie’s Bicycle, GB) promising  a critical view on the actual standard of sustainability and environmental friendliness of the music industry. Catherine from  Julie’s Bicycle will deliver a short, sharp and punchy summary of facts and numbers regarding the supply chain of the music industry; The panel will report on the results from the GreenEvents Conference in Bonn (November 2010/Germany) and will talk about how a green event (festival) should look like today – and what it will be like in twenty years time and why: and Jacob from Germany’s Green Music Initiative will present the international “One million green heads“ project.

Thw panel is supported by Yourope – The European Festivals Association.

http://www.eurosonic-noorderslag.nl/en/

Oya get top green gong at European Festival Awards

The Öya Festival in Norway has won the prestigious overall Green n Clean Award at the European Festival Awards which took place last night (January 13th) at Eurosonic Noorderslag convention in Gronigen in the Netherlands. The Award is one of a handful awarded by an expert judging panel, with most other awards up for audience members to vote for. The Awards were organised by our friends at www.virtualfestivals.com  and the European festival organisers association, Yourope, along with Eurosonic Noorderslag.

Öya Festivalen, which also won a Greener Festival Award in 2009, is built on high sustainability principles that seem to infiltrate right through the event. On it’s websites green pages, it describes its aims to be one of the most environmentally sound festivals in Norway and to give our visitors an opportunity to act in an environmentally conscious way as well. Our own environmental auditor reported that at the event, its clear that the organisers give their audience an opportunity to act responsibly with regards to the environment, as well as being encouraged to think about the issues. The use of renewable electricity from the national grid across most parts of the site. Being close to the centre of Oslo, the audience were encouraged to walk or use the good public transport system, including subsidised fares (by Oyacard) for festival ticket holders.

Other winners on the night included:

Best Major Festival: Heineken Open’er Festival (Poland)

Best Medium-Sized Festival: Dour Festival (Belgium)

Best Small Festival: Cactusfestival (Belgium)

Best New European Festival: Openfields Festival (Belgium)

Best Line-Up: Rock Werchter (Belgium)

Festival Anthem Of The Year: Coldplay – Viva la Vida

Best Artist Newcomer White Lies

Best Headline Artist: The Prodigy

Artists’ Favourite Festival: Rock Werchter (Belgium)

Promoter Of The Year: Herman Schueremans (Live Nation, Belgium)

Lifetime Achievement Award: Jan Smeets (Pinkpop, The Netherlands)