From July 7-9 2020, the striking red sands of Outback Queensland’s Simpson Desert will play host to the world’s most remote music festival – the Birdsville Big Red Bash.
This spectacular Channel Country on which the festival is held is widely considered one of the last untouched pristine land areas in Australia – and festival organisers works steadfastly every year to preserve that status.
The Big Red Bash team have introduced innovative sustainability initiatives to continue growing the increasingly popular festival to host more than 10,000 people, while at the same time keeping their environmental footprint to a minimum.
“We have been running the Big Red Bash for seven years now and have always made proactive sustainability measures a massive priority. It’s one thing to hold a huge film festival in the middle of the Outback; but doing this in a way that’s environmentally friendly is a challenge we’ve been keen to tackle head on right from the very start. It’s something I’m very proud of, and a great credit to the team we have in place,” said Big Red Bash Founder and Organiser, Greg Donovan.
“We have made significant investments in infrastructure and procedures to ensure that as event attendance has grown from 600 to 10,000 people, we can leave the land virtually as we found it each year.”
The event also continues to attract a slew of musical artists synonymous with environmental conservation – from Midnight Oil in 2019, to 2020 headliner Paul Kelly, whose powerful new single Sleep, Australia is a critique of Australia’s lack of action on climate change.
“Our green creds are definitely right up there with some of the best sustainably-run music festivals in the world, and it’s something we will continue to embrace and work on for years to come,” added Greg Donovan.
The remote desert setting of the Big Red Bash means that everything required to operate the event, including water, must be transported in. The systems and facilities in place are all geared towards ensuring the land is returned to its natural state when the event finishes.
Some of the Big Red Bash’s key green initiatives include:
ODOURLESS COMPOSTING TOILETS
The Big Red Bash has spent more than $400,000 designing and manufacturing over 250 hygienic, odourless, composting toilets to use instead of chemical port-a-loos.
The compositing toilets eliminate all water usage – a key consideration for the desert event. The toilets don’t smell and are supervised by a watchful team of volunteer ‘Dunny Angels’ to ensure they remain squeaky clean.
The toilets use sawdust instead of flushing, which significantly reduces the amount of water that needs to be trucked in for the event. Event organisers also ensure that only environmentally-sound cleaning products are used. This means no bleaches, Formaldehyde or other chemicals.
At the end of the event, toilet waste is taken to a contained compost site. Within a year, the dry and germ-free compost can be given to nearby farmers to fertilise their land.
RUBBISH
Bins are provided in the concert and plaza areas for use by attendees – however, campers are asked to take all their campsite rubbish with them at the end of the event for disposal at the Birdsville tip.
By taking responsibility for their own rubbish campers are more focused on minimising the rubbish they generate.
Most event vendors join the Big Red Bash operations team in undertaking food composting to further cut down on waste from the event, and we have an initiative in place to encourage use of re-usable cups.
RECYCLING
Aluminium can recycling bins are available in the plaza and concert area.
In 2019 over 120,000 aluminium cans were crushed and transported to the nearest metal recycling facility in the Central West of NSW.
No disposal of grey water is allowed on the ground at the event. For those unable to store and remove all their grey water, there are grey water disposal tanks at each toilet block around the event site. These tanks are collected and disposed of in an environmentally safe absorption pit.
BLACKWATER/TOILET CASSETTTES
All black water (including toilet cassettes/buckets or containers) must be taken back to the dump points near Birdsville by festival goers. There is no black water disposal anywhere at the Big Red Bash site.
More information on the sustainable initiatives undertaken by the Big Red Bash is available at http://www.bigredbash.com.au/bigredbash/sustainability
The Birdsville Big Red Bash is supported by the Queensland Government through Tourism and Events Queensland and features on the It’s Live! In Queensland events calendar, worth $880m to the state’s economy in 2020.
The event provides a significant economic boost to the many small outback towns within a 1,000 radius of the festival.
Tickets to 2020 Big Red Bash sold-out in record time one month after going on-sale in September 2019.
Big Red Bash promo vid: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y241voqbyt6ihym/AACOApSqmZXUpjF8yUpYe2bta?dl=0
What: 2020 Birdsville Big Red Bash
Where: Big Red sand dune, 35 km West of Birdsville
When: Tuesday 7 July – Thursday 9 July, 2020
More info: www.bigredbash.com.au
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