The Electric Picnic festival in Stradbally, Co Laois, will measure emissions, double or treble last year’s recycling rates and is organising car pooling in a bid to cut its carbon emissions.

Dave Phillips of the Cultivate Centre told the Irish Times that this year will be easy for the festival as it is only measuring emissions, while reducing them in subsequent years will be the real challenge.

He said: “An Irish company called Emission Zero will be measuring the carbon output from the generators that power the lights and the mics and everything on site.

“It’s a case of crawling before running. After this year, we will be really looking at how to reduce emissions next year and go even further the year after that.”

Banners reading The Climate is Changing. Will you? will be dotted around the site, but this is not the only festival with an environmental outlook.

The Irish Green Gathering in Co Wexford – which with 5,000 visitors is smaller than the 38,000-strong Electric Picnic – claims to be this year’s “greener, cleaner, low-budget, non-profit, family festival”.

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