Message from CEO

One of the most rewarding parts of my role as CEO of Festival City Adelaide is delivering initiatives that respond to the direct needs of our members in the festivals and events sector.

After many months of listening, data collection and collaboration, last week Festival City Adelaide was pleased to launch the Climate Action Roadmap developed and shaped through membership input. The Hon Susan Close, Deputy Premier and Minister for Environment and Water, generously shared in the celebration and supported the launch. Read More.

The Climate Action Roadmap is a commitment to a sector action plan and evaluation framework.

The climate emergency is no longer looming on the horizon or happening in some distant place. It is here now, bearing down upon us.

July 2023, not even one year ago, was officially the hottest month on Earth since temperature records began. This impacts every single one of us on this planet, the only home we have.

It’s impossible to separate the sustainability of the festivals and events sector from the health of the physical environments we operate in.

Sustainability is no longer a far-off consideration, but an urgent and immediate one.

Our long-term goal at Festival City Adelaide is to widen the conversation about South Australia’s festivals and events sector because the long-term viability of the sector is about the sustainability of an ecosystem that sets us apart from other Australian states.

The Climate Action Roadmap commits us to ongoing collaboration. Together we will generate industry initiatives and standards that pave the way for a regenerative and climate positive future.

As a peak body, Festival City Adelaide will create a supportive space in which our memberscan build confidence, capacity, collaboration and transparency in their response to the climate crisis.

We know that for South Australia to deliver the world’s best festival experience we need to consider the type of contribution a festival and event is making to raising awareness of the climate emergency or minimising its own footprint and encouraging audiences to do the same.

This project represents the first collaboration of its kind for festivals in Australia. Actions spanning five pillars are designed to help our sector step confidently into this space:

1. Strategy – all festivals create and commit to a Sustainability Action Plan.
2. Measurement and data – the festival sector uses data for evidence-based decision making.
3. Resources – the festival and event sector participates in cooperative models to leverage economies of scale.
4. Advocacy – the festival and event sector promotes its thought leadership and advocacy about sustainability, regeneration, and impacts on the environment
5. Common Action – the festival and event sector takes measurable joint action to support regeneration and reforestation initiatives.

The research for this project showed that most of our festivals have implemented environmental sustainability initiatives such as waste management, while also highlighting a lack of confidence in auditing and sustainability reporting or lack of access to cost effective green alternatives.

Our festival and events eagerly want to dive into this work – seeing the opportunity for the leadership role they can take – and if there is any key learning to come out of this project clearly, it is that our members don’t have to do this work alone.

We understand that the capacity and experience of every festival is different, and our aim is to provide meaningful support that sets good practice and standards, while facilitating collective and collaborative learning.

A collaborative approach is particularly critical in a small state like ours. We need to be able to collaborate around the things that matter, and few things matter as much as the sustainability of our environment.

The Climate Action Roadmap is generously funded by Green Industries SA through the LEAP grant scheme, which supports industry associations to work with industry on overarching strategies and support mechanisms to advance the circular economy in SA.