Being Green at Glastonbury Festival

In June, our PR intern, Robyn, went to Glastonbury Festival 2017 and reports back to us on how the festival still inspires a green future. She took along first-time festivaler, Nicky to show her the ropes… who also happens to be her Mum!

Glastonbury Festival is one of the biggest events in the world, the energy is euphoric and you are always going to discover something different.

Found at the south of the site, The Greenfields welcome all; newcomers, lost wanderers and returning visitors. you can relax with a morning yoga class, weave your own willow basket or learn more about great environmental causes. I've been coming to Glastonbury for three years now and each time I spend more and more time here. I knew that this was a place my Mum, a supporter of the ethical and sustainable lifestyle, would really love. One section you could explore for hours is Green Futures, an innovative space built by pro-active organisations and people. Here, we met an incredible team chilled out in their campsite made completely from pre-loved and redundant trampolines! The group are called Creative Recycling and they are led by artist Phil Stewart, a regular at Glastonbury Greenfields. Trampolines are very difficult to recycle, so, he found ways to re-use them as creative furniture pieces, like sun-loungers, sofas and tents. It was very easy to pass the time away swinging in a Sofaline.

Thousands of stalls come to Glastonbury Festival and bring incredible handcrafted clothes, accessories and jewellery. At The White T-Shirt Co we have very strong ethical values (find out more here) and truly respect other ethically-led businesses. Global Seesaw is a wonderful charity who offer opportunities to women exploited by human trafficking. They work directly with suppliers to empower women through sustainable employment of handcrafting clothes, gifts and homeware from recycled or fair-trade materials. Mum and I were so impressed by the high-quality products and really wanted to support these talented women, we bought each other these beautiful friendship bracelets (see the picture below), made from old saris. Global Seesaw and their sister charity, Beyond The Streets, share truly inspiring stories from truly inspiring women.

We couldn’t leave the festival without seeing one last place, Shang-ri-la. Enviro-Mental was the theme this year, made from the ‘scraps’ of last year’s festival the area is an insight into a wasteful world. A tower of clothes showed the effects of fast fashion and overconsumption and inside we found Traid, a charity determined to stop clothing waste. They were making slogan bags from second-hand t-shirts and I couldn’t wait to get stuck in. Of course, I chose a white tee and printed the message ‘Stop The Waste’, it was great to learn a new way of reusing old clothes. Traid will be holding an event at their store in Brixton on 20th July and The White T-Shirt Co is donating pieces from our collection. It will be a fantastic event to visit and we will post more on our Facebook, so be sure to like our page and keep up to date.

Photo source: Traid.org

Glastonbury 2017 was absolultely wonderful! The festival will be taking a break next summer but returning in 2019, with, I’m sure, bigger and better ways to support a green future.

Photos by Robyn Wynn

Nicky is wearing a relaxed fit, scoop neck t-shirt in navy (M) and Robyn is wearing a fitted, scoop neck t-shirt in white (S) from The White T-Shirt Co.

Robyn is also wearing a slogan t-shirt from Slave To Fashion Instagram.