Boomtown Fair
Sustainability
Proposal
A plan aiming to help Boomtown reach its sustainability goals through technology backed incentives & eco-education.
The Problem
As like many other festivals, Boomtown Fair has a serious issue with festival goers leaving their waste behind. Not only does this impact the local environment, but it also costs a lot of money to run such a large cleanup operation that could otherwise be avoided or heavily reduced.
We are aware that the Boomtown Festival management team have already been implementing a variety of methods to reduce the amount of waste left behind.
After watching Luke Mitchell's festival summary video on Facebook from August, we wanted to offer our ideas to try and address the ongoing issue with waste and clean-up.
- Get festival goers to think more green, to educate, incentivise and convert the ones that don't care.
- To build an incentive based system that rewards citizens for keeping their campsite areas clean throughout the festival, with a focus on leaving day.
- The system should been designed to integrate with your existing systems (such as the serial number RFID wristband system & Woov app), to be relatively cheap, and scaleable.
- The plan is both optional and progressive, so citizens are not forced into anything or penalised for messy campsites, only incentivised to do better.
- We have broken the plan down into 'implementations' and 'incentives' which explain how the system actually works, and proposed incentives.
- Their festival RFID wristband
- A info leaflet (also supplied via email campaign in weeks leading up to the festival)
- A set of A5 or A4 waterproof QR stickers (just a QR version of their wristband serial number) for the side of their tent
- Some bin bags (I feel a lot of ill prepared people let their campsite become shit state purely just from not packing bin bags)
- 'Green status' is a verification status that a citizen can achieve and is used for giving out rewards such as extra stage access, separate queues (for busy venues like scrapyard), nicer toilets (like the water aid ones near area404) and cheaper tickets for next years festival.
- A citizen gets ;green status' for each day that they prove their campsite is clean, this status is tracked against their wristband serial number.
- Each daily image a citizen takes can then be validated by uploading to our system at one of the WiFi zones or 'green points' in the campsite hubs. making sure the QR code is clearly in the image or that they supply their unique wristband serial number during upload
- the exact way we handle upload and verification can be done in a multitude of ways to cater for all citizens and scenarios such as people struggling to upload, not bringing a phone, or no phone signal/battery.
- I have created a mock up of the system to show it in action.
- There are some great benefits to this system that will be explained shortly.
- The system utilises a MongoDB database to do some validation checks (using AI) to ensure that the image is litter free (this reduces costs and stress on staff)
- The system can then automatically give the user green citizen status for that day, and optionally stewards within the campsite area can manually give 'green status' in case the automated system gets it wrong or someone doesnt own a phone
- Optionally we can notify the user somehow, via SMS or Email or other integration methods such as the Woov app.
- Data embedded in an uploaded image (EXIF data) can be checked to ensure the image was taken on that particular day and is not a screenshot.
- EXIF data also includes geolocation data. This realtime data is extremely useful for pinpointing areas that appear to be struggling with the green incentives,
- Extracted GPS data can also be used in conjunction with medical tent admissions to analyze specific campsite areas where dangerous drugs may be in circulation so a fast and appropriate response can be put into action such as tightened security or circulating dangerous drug alerts.
Incentives
Host a 'green status only' stage
Some artists that are in popular demand and fill out stages such as Napes, Bish, Mandidextrous etc can get more sets to play whilst also encouraging people to clean up as a reward for access to these exclusive sets.
A separate 'green status' entry queue for all stages that can accomodate it (such as scrapyard)
Separate 'green status' entry queues for all stages
For busy stages that can accomodate an extra entry lane such as the scrapyard, allow green status users to use the faster queue, this should help encourage non green status citizens to clean up their campsite to benefit from faster stage access,
Separate 'green status' toilets
Have a set of nicer toilets somewhere in the main arena specifically for green status users. In our opinion this should encourage a lot more people who may not be encouraged by other incentives.
Cheaper tickets for following year or % refund on RFID spend
Add an extra 10% onto drinks prices and mark all drinks prices at the higher price but make it clear when ordering at the bars and stalls that the cumulative 10% that has been taxed on each purchase will be automatically refunded to those who have a full sheet of green status days for the duration of the festival.
The second option is probably a bit more cost effective. It is essentially exactly the same thing but rather than refunding the money, it can be offset against the cost of next years ticket.
This will help with citizen retention for the following year as it only actually costs the festival if they buy another ticket and also it should help to shift plenty of tickets earlier in the year if it’s sent out as a “green status email campaign.
An important point with this is that the green status is only given on the final day of the festival once the citizen takes a picture of their packed up campsite (like many people did this year) showing that they have not left any waste in or around their area, as ultimately it’s this final day when things like broken tents, camping chairs, air beds, and trolleys etc get left behind.
Tackling The Last Day
This is probably the single most important part of the plan, as this is where most of the mess is left in the form of broken tents, chairs, rubbish left post Saturday night.
Also the incentive of stages and queue jump is gone, and festival goers will be tired, hungover and looking forward to going home so much more focus must be placed on this day.
Rather than the usual campsite upload, instead citizens upload a image of them stood with their packed bags in their clean, packed up campsite.
This final image can be uploaded and users can verify prior to leaving the festival site if they have qualified for full festival 'green status', which gives them the RFID spend discount on next years ticket (or a similar incentive)
The second part of the plan for the last day is to attempt to reduce the mess left by the small minority of people that just don’t care at all and never will, but still attend the festival.
The plan is to ask those who do believe in the sustainability plan to assist in the cleanup in return for extra incentives such as extra eco bond/RFID cash back, or free/cheaper tickets for next year.
Spreading The Word
- On festival entry when visitors get their QR code stickers, wristband and bin bags, (small welcome leaflet explaining the sustainability commitments)
- Place small LED screens around the festival to display images from an instagram hashtag feed so users can upload their daily clean campsite images and see them appear on screens across the festival (such as a #leavenotrace hashtag). The screens could also be used for displaying important alerts and information such as dangerous substance alerts.
- At all the bars, clearly label the drinks menus or have signs explaining the drinks wristband discount / refund if you have a full clean sheet of “green wristband” days at the festival
- Spread the word in the daily rag as well as at the green stage entrance, green status queue entrances, the green toilets and in the campsite hubs where users upload their images.
- Spread the word digitally via email campaigns prior to the festival and push notifications on the woov app.
- Artwork on the large recycling bins placed around the site (similar to what you do with the toilet doors). the green recycling bins should be labelled as 'recycling', but the normal bins should instead be labelled as 'landfill', as this small name change from just 'trash' to landfill should make people think twice about the final destination of rubbish that they put in that bin.
- Similar to your mobile cleanup teams last year, Campsite Stewards and cleanup teams could walk through the campsite handing out bin bags and scanning bands to give green citizen status as they pass through and see clean campsites. Also talking to those who’s campsites are messy and just letting them know how they can get green status if they want it
Cool Extras
- Pinpointing areas that are not green so that cleanup teams can focus on these areas for education and walk-around incentives
- Analyze Medical tent submissions. If a pattern of admissions appears in a specific geolocation, begin harm prevention procedures such as posting of alerts and increasing security in that area.
Citizen enters the festival and is given their wristband, QR code stickers, information pack and bin bags.
Citizens
Click on the citizen QR codes below to view the data attached to them
Josh Van Riel
Wristband: EX1M3D
Entry: 9/17/2022, 4:10:58 AM
Submissions: 1
Green Days: 0
FINAL STATUS: RED
Campsite Litter Check AI
Upload some campsite images to verify whether the campsite area is being kept tidy or not.
Download some test images here which you can upload wito see the QR code, GPS metadata and auto litter detection in action.
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Results
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Map
Shows Citizen daily Submissions as GPS co-ordinates
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