the eco-responsible festival being held at the Bois de Vincennes this weekend continues to innovate

Known for its ecological commitment, the We Love Green festival pushes further each year to reduce its waste and its carbon footprint. Its all-out green experiments show the way and even served as a laboratory for the Olympics

So what’s new in this area, for the 2024 edition planned at the Bois de Vincennes from May 31 to June 2, at which 120,000 people are expected and where sixty concerts by Justice, Burna Boy, Ninho, Sza, Shay, Hamza will resonate , The Empress or Kim Gordon? Overview with its director, Marie Sabot.

An unprecedented impact study on biodiversity

A little music has been coming up regularly lately: large open-air festivals would be damaging to biodiversity. But what exactly are we talking about? What is the real impact of an open-air festival on the surrounding flora and fauna? To be clear, We Love Green, which is not the most important festival of its kind in Ile-de-France (Solidays and Lolapalooza far exceed it in daily attendance), this year initiated a study of unprecedented impact over three years, in and around the perimeter allocated to it each year by Paris City Hall since 2017 in the Bois de Vincennes. A perimeter that takes place on sports fields and has never grown and will not grow, that has been the pact from the beginning.

“To get as close as possible to the subjects, we approached the Natural History Museum and offices of ecologists who scout each season and analyze what plants, small mammals, birds and insects are present., explains Marie Sabot. “They identify whether there are protected species, and highlight the issues and problems. Their analyzes are usually used to authorize or not real estate projects. We wanted to do this same type of analysis, but for a festival. It’s a long job and these are substantial budgets.”

Forty bird nesting boxes were installed around the festival area, at different distances and right up to the edge. They are equipped with small cameras to observe the passage of animals before, during and after the festival, in order to determine their reproduction period. “We are the first festival to do this. We are transparent, we put ourselves in danger”, underlines Marie Sabot. “The ecologists’ analysis protocol will then be made open source to be shared by other festivals. The question is: should we put the festival at another time, a month later for example? Is the future of festivals to be at the Stade de France? I don’t know. But according to the Natural History Museum teams, it is also crucial that festival-goers continue to go to the heart of nature to know that it exists and to return there, with friends and family.”

An increasingly efficient “routing” of artists

Transport, for artists and festival-goers, remains the largest source of emissions for the carbon footprint of festivals. Until a few years ago, few were aware of it and the European festivals taking place at the same period were in direct competition. It was up to the one who managed to have the best artists, wherever they came from. “We were making offers and hoping the rival festival wouldn’t have the band.”, remembers Marie Sabot. Today, the situation has changed. Impossible to bring a group from the other side of the world for one evening, exploding the carbon footprint of the festival. What was once an economic issue is now an ecological imperative.

“Now we get things together.”, clarifies Marie Sabot. “From September, we are working with six major European festivals which take place one week apart : Primavera in Spain, Forbidden Fruit in Ireland, Best Kept Secret in Holland, Northside in Denmark, Orange Warsaw in Poland and Parklife in Manchester. We ask: who wants to do this group this year? No, that’s too expensive. I won’t be able to. You can. Afterwards, we arrange the days. The one with the biggest budget will choose the most important date for them and we will line up behind. We make sure that the routing is as efficient as possible, the cheapest and the most consistent. We never bring an artist from far away anymore. We had to fight at the beginning but now it has become part of our customs. At least for pop festivals, because for electronic festivals it remains a big subject. Being alone, star DJs still fly from date to date on jets. In short, we are moving forward but it is not yet obvious to everyone.”.

100% vegetarian is all good

Last year, We Love Green went completely vegetarian for its catering offerings. A real gamble, which paid off beyond expectations. First, largely thanks to this initiative, the festival managed to reduce its carbon footprint by two thirds, certified by the Greener festival, an independent English NGO which audits around a hundred festivals around the world. “We knew that this meat-free approach was very important. But the toll is colossal. The catering footprint has been divided by six in one year “, welcomes Marie Sabot. The second good news is that “the festival has never had as good a figure in catering as last year. However, the 50 restaurateurs, who offered inventive plant-based dishes like chickpea fries and breaded beet burgers, were not very reassured. The curiosity of festival-goers for this daring street food really blew us away, so we are renewing the principle this year.