Green Guardians 2025:
Into The Great Wide Open

Into The Great Wide Open's ambition is to become fully circular and climate-positive.

By IQ | 8 September 2025

Into The Great Wide Open (ITGWO) views a festival as the ideal testing ground, driver, and platform for the transition toward a future social and circular society. The event’s ambition is to become fully circular and climate-positive.

Circular meaning no waste incineration or dumping – reuse, recycle, or compost all materials – while purchased products must be second-hand, refurbished, bio-based, or made from recycled materials. And climate positive meaning sequestering more CO2 than is emitted.

ITGWO’s approach consists of:

The most recent data shows that the festival is increasingly closer to its goals, with 95% of its energy being from green sources in 2024, when the festival also switched to emissions-free construction equipment – electric forklifts, gators, and vans replacing all fossil alternatives. This led…

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GREEN GUARDIANS 2025:

Co-op Live

Co-op Live was designed and constructed to provide the best-possible live music experience by combining the latest in performance technology, sustainability, and multifunctionality

Weezevent

Weezevent and Aucxis have joined forces to develop a fully automated system for managing reusable cup returns at events.

TRUCKINGBY

TRUCKINGBY is one of the leading names in live event transport and operates under the CARGOBY brand.

Elisa Toffoli

In 2022, Toffoli became the first artist to be formally named a United Nations ally for promoting the 17 sustainable development goals of their 2030 Agenda.

The Rock Factory

For three years The Rock Factory has run solely on rechargeable batteries and solar power, allowing organiser to drastically reduce its carbon footprint by eliminating the use of diesel and petrol generators.

Massive Attack

“A blueprint for the way live music can be produced,” stated Robert Del Naja after Massive Attack achieved what has been hailed as a world record for a festival with the lowest-ever carbon emissions.

Coldplay

After pledging in 2019 that they would not return to touring unless they could do so in a more sustainable way, Coldplay have lived up to that pledge and have been trailblazing for the industry/

Boom Festival

Boom Festival has garnered a reputation as one of the most forward-thinking events on the planet when it comes to its far-ranging sustainability programmes.

RÖDER

RÖDER UK is a leading supplier of temporary structures to the live events, music, and sports industries. The company is passionately working to minimise its impact on the planet.

PreZero Arena Gliwice

PreZero Arena Gliwice has proven that even a large, multifunctional venue can become a model for sustainable operations and industrial waste management.

Ultra Music Festival

Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2025, Miami’s Ultra Music Festival also commemorated a significant milestone with the fifth anniversary of its sustainability programme – Mission: Home.

GOAllAreas

Ginger Owl’s GOAllAreas (GOAA) initiative was built with sustainability in mind. The system is effectively an online event management and data collection tool designed to refine live event operations.

Sunny Hill Festival

Since launching in 2018, Sunny Hill Festival has been building its sustainability credentials, but ramped up efforts in 2022 when it moved to its current location in the Bernica village suburb of Pristina.

BM Park Live

BM Park Live, who operate Junction 2 and Paradise in the City festivals, is implementing a NetZero by 2025 strategy to accelerate its drive toward carbon-positive events.

Wilderness Festival

The team at Audi presents Wilderness Festival, were keen to take on and tackle decarbonising one of the most challenging aspects of festival operations: small-scale distributed power for brand activations.

Eat to the Beat

Eat to the Beat’s Sustain-ABLE strategy is all about implementing forward-thinking, sustainable food choices within its everyday operations and delivery.

LIDO

Created and run by AEG Presents’ European festival division, LIDO Festival set a new standard for sustainability in live events.

OCESA

OCESA applies rigorous sustainability standards, eliminating single-use plastics, implementing reusable cups, & replacing 18m physical tickets with digital alternatives through Ticketmaster’s SafeTix programme

Ascendance Sustainable Events

Ascendance claims to be Miami’s “first sustainable event consultancy” and is transforming the way events are planned by infusing purpose, accountability, and measurable impact into every stage of production.

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