Creating Cleaner Festival Campsites Across Australia
Camping Buddy is a new web tool created by Green Music Australia in partnership with Queensland University of Technology.
In 2020, the two organisations accepted a 4-year research and IT creation project grant from the NSW Environmental Trust to undertake a challenge, “How can we use technology to battle the nationwide problem of festival campsite litter?”
Festival campsite litter is a major environmental problem. Research we commissioned shows more than half of the waste generated at music festivals is campsite litter - read the full report here. Broken tents were a primary cause of littering, facilitated by a lack of respect and disregard for waste reduction. With 1 plastic tent equalling the equivalent of 8750 straws, we need solutions that help encourage responsible behaviour and waste reduction.
Using research, insights and findings from the wider festival sector and our official partners Byron Shire Council, Mullum Cares and Strawberry Fields Music Festival, Camping Buddy was created.
Our hope is that by using this tool, festival goers will be better equipped to make smart decisions around what to bring to a camping festival - through smart planning and camping resources.
Camping Buddy is supported by Party With The Planet - an alliance of major music festivals, promoters, social enterprises, and nonprofits led by Green Music Australia aiming to reduce festival waste.
About Green Music Australia
Founded in 2012, Green Music Australia is the national peak body for music and the environment. Led by a staff and board of musicians and music industry leaders, our role is to organise, facilitate and inspire musicians and the broader industry to make changes to improve our environmental performance and to advocate for ambitious political climate action. Through leading by example and bringing our audiences along with us, we are sowing the seeds for deep, cultural change.
About Queensland University of Technology
Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is an ambitious institution, with a growing research output focused on technology and innovation. QUT ranks in the world’s top 200 universities.
Our strategic plan establishes QUT as 'the university for the real world' and charts our provision of transformative education and research that is relevant to our communities.
With more than 50,000 students across two inner-city campuses in Brisbane, QUT offers academic programs in fields spanning business, creative industries, education, engineering, health, law, science, and social justice across five faculties.
Partners
Camping Buddy is funded by the NSW Environmental Trust