Cleaning Up After The Throwaway Society

Wissenschaftszentrum in Bonn, Germany, is ready to host GreenEvents Europe’s annual gathering Nov. 25-26, where delegates will discuss how to clear up the mess left behind at festivals and how to encourage people to leave less of it.

It’s as if the measure of a good party is the number of hours it takes to clean up the following day.

The German conference will discuss the value of the waste collected at events, whether people behave better in a cleaner environment and “Upcycling” – or how worthless junk can be turned into valuable items.

Those demonstrating the Midas touch will include conference organizer and former Rheinkultur Festival chief Holger Jan Schmidt, who’s now focusing more time on Green Events Europe.

The other speakers include Jacob Bilabel and Roman Dashuber, who are both with Germany’s Green Music Initiative, Jörn Fischer from Hamburg’s O2 World, ILMC Production Meeting organizer Carl Martin, Teresa Moore from the UK’s Bucks New University and Claire O’Neill from the UK’s Association Of Independent Festivals.

The festivals are represented by the likes of Stepan Suchochleb from the Czech Republic’s Rock for People, Michaela Tanner from Switzerland’s Open Air St. Gallen, Morten Therkildsen from Denmark’s Roskilde Festival, and Vladimir Vodalov from Exit Festival in Serbia.