The almost 60,000 festival-goers welcomed for four days were not enough to blow up the kitty. At Trans Musicales, the environmental contribution set up for the first time did not meet with immense success. According to the organizers, just over 14,100 euros had been collected on Tuesday evening. A substantial amount but which remains very far from the final objective of 60,000 euros. Note that 10,000 of these 14,000 euros were paid by the organizer. Donations from individuals and professionals were therefore marginal. “It really is an experiment. We won’t have any regrets about the amount, we’ll do it again next year, ”promises Xavier Paillat, sustainable and solidarity development manager at the Trans Musicales association.
This sum corresponds to “the conversion into euros of the 750 tonnes of CO2 emitted by the transport of artists and the public on average over an edition”, explained the organizers. By involving festival-goers, the Trans hoped to offset the carbon footprint, particularly linked to the arrival of French but above all international artists. “The idea was to say that we are well aware that any human action, any event has an ecological cost”, stresses Xavier Paillat. A quarter of the artists “come from far away”, notably from the United States, Africa or the Middle East.
Cashless to raise the kitty?
The festival still hopes to be able to raise some funds, in particular through the reimbursement of cashless. This virtual wallet which all festival-goers have is not always empty at the end of the five days. When requesting reimbursement, festival-goers can always donate part of it for the environmental contribution. The entire amount will be donated to organizations working to reduce carbon emissions.
This is not the first environmental action implemented by the talent-spotting festival. Eco-responsible catering, sometimes vegetarian, the ban on disposable plastic or the establishment of shuttles have already been introduced.