# briefing
Drew Wong
Drew Wong
True to their original low-impact vision , the organisers employed a variety of minimal waste strategies in the design of the whole festival , eliminating as much plastic as they could – plastic known to be lethal to marine life , especially tao , or turtles !
Bamboo , a sustainable and biodegradable material , featured significantly throughout the event , used in everything from drinks to merchandising . All drinks were served in cups made of bamboo . A deposit for each cup was required , incentivising the purchaser to reuse or at least bring back the cup for reuse and proper disposal . Reusable food trays were also made of bamboo with a banana leaf base , and official festival T-shirts by Rip Curl were made from bamboo rayon . Even eating utensils were made of wood , instead of the usual disposable plastic .
Drinking water was provided free of charge and stainless steel canteens were on sale to help party-goers stay hydrated at the festival and beyond . At other music festivals , these water canteens are usually banned as a security ( or profit ?) hazard .
The availability of ashtrays all over the venues was particularly impressive . At other music festivals , from Glastonbury to Ultra , party goers throw their cigarette butts on the ground for the cleaning crews to deal with . But the organisers of the Tao Festival , mindful of the fact that cigarette butts pollute huge quantities of sea water and take decades to decompose , had provided ashtrays and litter bins throughout the venues . It was the cleanest beach party I ’ ve been to , cleaner even than your average beach club !
The acts and festival overall were absolutely wonderful . The Thai bands were awesome and very danceable despite the language barrier . Arrested Development played an amazingly tight set to a near capacity crowd ! Pillow Talk Mikey Tello and Alex Barck closed out a rain hit festival
with some sick mixes ! It was probably one of the best festivals I ’ ve been to , and one of the major reasons I could freely enjoyed the music was the considerably lower environmental impact , and that ’ s something we all have to consider now more than ever !
By now , you must be wondering if this is about a music festival or about waste management … Well , as it turns out these two things aren ’ t mutually exclusive . The Tao Festival proves that thoughtful planning and conscientious scubadiving-party-goers are a winning combination – this event easily rivals some of the other , more famous festivals around the world .
Scuba diving really does serve to wake people up to the beauty of Nature and encourage us to take better care of it ; that ’ s something to celebrate , and the Tao Festival is a great way to do it ! SDAA
Drew Wong
8 SDAA