Thursday 29th December 2011-1st January 2012

A bit of background...

Peats Ridge is three days of laid back Festival goodness, situated in the stunning Glenworth Valley, one hour North of Sydney. Rolling together Music, Arts, Culture, Sustainability and Camping, it is one of Australia’s most pleasing New Year’s events and is internationally recognised as a world leader in presenting a sustainable event. Peats Ridge was founded in 2004 with the intention to marry sustainability to the Festival experience. It is Australia’s leading sustainable event. UNSW Ecoliving centre based at UNSW in the past has been readily involved in setting up the festival and therefore reduce not only the impact of the event but more broadly reduce it’s carbon footprint. They were based on the ISO 14001, the international standard for establishing an environmental management system.

Ecodirectory partnering with Peat’s Ridge.....

The sun was shining and stall holders were asked by Ecodirectory what they thought about the sustainability aspect of the festival :)

Sustainability was certainly being put into action and practice, the Nissan electric car was used to power parts of the festival, there was disposal waste areas set up with bins for recycling, compost, general waste and people were manning the areas to inform festival goers about which bins to put waste in and why. Environmental Education initiatives were certainly in place which the festival has been formally acknowledged for by the UN. An eco living tent had workshops, lectures and presentations going all day long which were very informative giving people practical advice as well as tools to help attendees to live a more sustainable life outside the festival!

Stalls ranged from Animal Libertion, Wilderness Society, Protect our coral sea, solar gadgets, Japanese invented toothbrushes which need no toothpaste, clothes washing discs where no detergent is needed, vintage clothing, natural mascara, Hawkesbury Nepean CMA, natural candles, mayan coffee stalls and more.... There was a general consensus of being impressed about how the festival was managed!

Some comments included how good it was that all the eco living stalls were grouped at the front entrance which generated more interest in the specific campaigns, people were very impressed by the Nissan electric car and meeting such a large group of supporters for their eco stalls. The manager who was at the Nissan Electric car would like to see all cars with no tail pipes, why? Because zero emissions. Stall holders also showed their appreciation that the opening and closing of the festival was hosted by local Indigenous community members.

Hawkesbury Nepean CMA said “"That's why we came to this festival due to sustainability focus I took the message it's a zero waste event telling people not to bring leaflets and being on the ground speaking with young people about our programs is also very satisfying”.

EcoDirectory offered a prize draw for free advertising on EcoDirectory which went to Hawkesbury- Nepean Catchment Management Authority (CMA). Congratulations to the team at CMA who did a great job behind the festival scene in planting over 650 trees at the Glenworth Valley property plus undertaking land restoration projects. Keep up the great work!!

After 9 hours of walking around we finally sat down to eat a vegetarian mushroom burger which was absolutely divine might I add!:) It was a small quant food stall that only sourced local and fresh produce. They were a cafe that originated in Byron Bay. Then off we went for a relaxing wander, to be painted with what was eco friendly Derivan body paint (major sponsor of festival) and dance the night away to the man himself Xavier Rudd......