Sustainability
Sustainability is a keyword for Way Out West and has been since our start in 2007. As a festival promoter and inhabitants of the earth, it’s our responsibility to raise these issues and strive to always be better. This is something we work with on a daily basis in all aspects of the festival. Here you can read more about our sustainability work.
Way Out West is a vegetarian festival – which applies for all visitors, workers and artists (yep, there have been a few discussions over the years). Nowadays that fact may be viewed as uncontroversial, but when we announced the news in 2012 it caused quite a stir and a big social debate. The meat and dairy industry accounts for 14,5% of the greenhouse gas emissions globally*, which exceeds the emissions from the transport sector (cars, boats, trains, planes, others). By becoming vegetarian we lowered our emissions by 40% – and 15% of the festival’s visitors say they eat more veggie food after they’ve been to Way Out West. Yay!
To us, working with sustainability means working with all aspects of sustainability – not least the social parts. We don’t tolerate any form of discrimination at Way Out West. Everyone is welcome at the festival and we strive hard to make sure all employees, visitors, suppliers, partners and artists, feel good at Way Out West.
Gender equality is a priority for Way Out West and to us, having a 50/50 gender split line-up is something that goes without saying. Since 2017, Way Out West has worked closely together with West Pride in order to stand up for human rights and join forces for a more inclusive society, free from prejudice and discrimination – starting with an LGBT certifying of the festival. In cooperation with the anti-drug initiative Let’s Hear it from the Crowd and other concert and festival organisers, we take all the necessary steps to prevent people from being in touch with narcotics at live music events. In the project Dare to Care we work closely with RFSU and Svensk Live to create a safe environment without sexual harassment and assault within the live music world – and society at large. People come to Way Out West to relax and have fun, no one should ever be afraid.
In 2023 Way Out West and Stadsmissionen joined forces to make our festival merchandise circular. The merchandise collection consisted of second hand garments collected by Stadsmissionens second hand, and was printed with unique prints ahead of and during the festival. The profit from the merchandise sales was donated Stadsmissionens second hand and their important work for a more humane, inclusive and sustainable society.
Even though there are numerous initiatives aimed at encouraging more people to choose second-hand and prolonging the lifespan of clothing and textiles, progress is slow. Through this collaboration, we aim to reduce our own emissions associated with merchandise, while also challenging the traditional perception of what festival merchandise can look like.
As part of our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint, for the last couple of years we created a circular merchandise collection, aiming both to reduce our own emissions associated with our festival merch, as well as to challenge the image of what classic festival merch actually looks like.
For work wear at the festival, we’re working in collaboration with Dvala, which sources shirts that would otherwise be burned or end up in a landfill. After each festival all staff can choose to return their clothes to be washed and stored for next year. It’s part of our effort to enable and develop a circular economy for textiles within the event industry, something we hope others will follow.
Anyone interested in bringing circular textiles into their own events is more than welcome to reach out to us on info@wayoutwest.se. We’re happy to share all the tips and tricks we’ve learned along the way to help other events become more sustainable.
For four year’s straight, companies, public actors and civil society have gathered at the climate conference Greentopia. The climate conference, taking place in Gothenburg during Way Out West, has its aim to explore the transformational power of festivals and events. On stage; world-leading researchers, young activists, disruptive artists, opinion leaders, as well as pioneers from both the cultural and sports sectors. You’ll find more info about this year’s Greentopia here.
Starting in 2019, we removed single-use plastic plates, cutlery and straws from the festival. In the long term, we want to remove all single-use plastic items in our business, reduce the use of plastics in general and strive for increased recycling.
