When I ask Michel Welter, Booking and Communications Manager for Luxembourg’s Rock-A-Field festival, why the event has such a strong environmental ethos, he explains with an apt French expression ‘C’est dans l’air du temps.’ Essentially, it means something’s in the spirit of the age, and literally translates as ‘It’s in the air of the times.’ And refreshing air it is, too, as this small rock festival has taken some fine steps to protect the environment, something Welter insists “goes hand in hand with the message of rock music”.

One of the festival’s biggest environmental credentials is its insistence on the use of public transport. There is no parking on site (a clearing in a wood south of Luxembourg City) and no cars are allowed on the roads between the surrounding villages. In fact, the festival organisers have partnered with part of the public transport ministry, Mobilitéits Zentral, so that festival tickets are also valid for travel on all trains and buses in Luxembourg during the festival weekend (23-24 June, if you’re interested). Part of the ticket cost helps to fund this innovative scheme.

The festival also encourages people to cycle to the site, and around a thousand of the 15,000 festival goers act on the suggestion, taking advantage of the (many) on-site bike racks.

What’s more, organisers have put a lot of effort into reducing waste and seem to have a firm grip on the waste hierarchy: “In the first place, we try to make sure the least possible amount of rubbish is made”, explains Welter. “And then if rubbish is made, we want it to be reusable or recyclable.” To aid waste minimisation efforts, Rock-A-Field has instituted a ‘no gadgets/goodies’ rule. This affects your ubiquitous event giveaways like pens, which Welter says sponsors used to distribute, “and the kids might take it in the first place, but then an hour later it gets on their nerves and they drop it”.

The most commonly distributed item before the advent of this policy was the innocuous-seeming flier. However, lots of fliers add up, as Welter explains: “The festival is in a clear area surrounded by woods, and in order to get to the area, you need to go through woods, and usually people would distribute fliers there. And that’s really messy because it’s tonnes of paper and it lands on the soil and it’s completely dirty. So, that really was the main problem, people distributing so much paper on the way to the festival grounds.”

Welter notes that the public, at least, see this policy as a very positive step. They also really seem to enjoy the festival’s own recycling incentive scheme: collect 20 items (cups or drinks bottles) in exchange for a free soft drink. Welter says the response to this is “pretty great”, but all the recycling isn’t left to the ‘punters’, of course. The festival keeps different materials in separate streams, and at the end of the party, the drinks containers are handed back to the supplier Sinalco for reuse or, in the case of PET water bottles, recycling. Welter notes that this is a bit difficult logistically, but well worth it.

Another step the festival has taken is ensuring all food is served in biodegradable containers, which Welter assures me are kept separate, too, and recycled at the end. Combined, the festival’s efforts have seen the amount of ‘unrecycled’ or ‘unreused’ waste drop by 74 per cent since its first appearance in 2006.

This year, however, they’ll face a new challenge as they’ve extended the festival from one day to two and will be allowing on-site camping for the first time. Festivals here in the UK often showcase the nastiest aspects of our ‘throwaway culture’, with thousands of tents, sleeping bags, roll mats and even some fridges and televisions left every year at Glastonbury, for instance. So, how will Rock-A-Field handle the camping side of things? Welter insists they’ve “prepared for the worst”, though he admits it could pose quite a challenge. They’ve purposely kept the camping numbers low – 2,000 people – for this trial run, and have mandated that all campers pay a €5 deposit for a sack for recyclables that they must return in exchange for their money when they’re leaving. The festival’s website states: ‘We’re strongly urging all campers to respect the environment and take their litter home or to the next designated dropoff point.’ Organisers of Glastonbury and other festivals make similar and even more vociferous pleas to no avail, so we wait with baited breath to see how Rock-A-Field fares.

Whether or not the campers do their bit, the festival site will be left spotlessly clean, Welter asserts, as it will be subjected to a thorough clean-up operation after the revellers depart: “If it’s not clean, we won’t be able to organise the festival on the same location again. Because it’s a very sensitive area, it’s environmentally protected. So, we need to be very careful – and that goes for things from rubbish to tearing down trees.”

Welter notes that much remains to be done to make Rock-A-Field as sustainable as possible, citing energy and camping as two of the biggest challenges. Rest assured that plans for further improvement are more than hot air, however, and will result in more concrete actions, done in the spirit of the age.