Most large festivals as we know them today produce a tremendous amount of waste, the most distressing of which is food waste. Edibles are thrown away on a large scale in many areas of festival culture:
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The food the visitors bring is often more than sufficient in amount and a lot is left on the campgrounds.
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Food stalls often have difficulty in bringing and producing the right amounts as their sales are hard to calculate and very dependend on the weather, so most will rather bring too much then too less.
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Backstage catering can be a large producer of food waste as a certain abundance is often expected in these areas.
We as foodsharing try to find solutions to minimize food waste in all these sectors together with the festival host. Solutions can be:
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Creating “food-share points” on the festival grounds where the visitors can bring leftover food and people who have not brought enough food can take what they need.
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Collecting the food, that’s left behind at the camping areas. The saved food can be given to organizations nearby that care for the needy or to local foodsharing groups, that will make sure the food is brought to where it is needed
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Collecting the excess from food stalls and backstage catering and either distributing it at the above-mentioned sharing points, or giving it to above-mentioned organizations
In addition to these services we are also interested in sensibilizing people for the matter of food waste.
We have not only a lot of information material and expertise in how to prevent food waste on a household level, but also a very elaborate system for minimizing food waste in trade, gastronomy, etc. which we would like to make interested festival visitors aware of. For this purpose we can offer information stands (best in combination with the above mentioned sharing points), give talks and/or organize the presentation of a documentary movie on the topic.