It is getting very near to officially being summer and for music lovers around the world that means the beginning of the summer festival season for concerts ranging from rock to jazz and folk to blues. I don’t get to attend music festivals as often as I used to but I still look at the festival lineups of numerous artists over 2 or 3 days and find myself thinking if only. One of the oldest and most famed rock festivals began on the Isle of Wight off of the southern coast of England in 1968 and although the original edition only lasted 3 summers it took its place in history as being the location of many famous performances at the end of the 1960′s.

Happily the ‘Isle of Wight Festival’ was resurrected back in 2002 and has been an annual occurrence ever since featuring some of the biggest names in rock and indie music playing for audiences in excess of 65,000 who make the journey to the island. Even better news it has quickly gathered steam as an environmentally conscious festival winning awards for its green credentials and the 2011 event this month is the biggest eco-festival yet at the location.

Beginning in 2004 the organizers looked to make the 3 day event as carbon neutral as possible resulting in awards in 2009 and 2010. This years event introduces new features and a ten-point program under the terms of their ecofest.  While being very conscious of reducing the impact of the event it has also become a gathering place for environmental education and conservation work. Although there are numerous music festivals in the UK each year the Isle of Wight Festival is the only one to earn the new British standard for responsible event management. A spokesman for the Eco Action Partnership who work as consultants with the festival said:

“We love getting awards and being recognised for the efforts to make the Isle of Wight Festival a leader in environmental and sustainable best practice but the thing we are really proud of is the surprising and significant success of our Let it Bee campaign.”

The main stage at the 2010 Isle of Wight Festival

The Let it Bee Campaign is unique to the island and raises awareness of the global demise of bee populations in recent years. The campaign has launched the ‘Field of Hope’ a large bee reserve on the island which has now recorded 100 different types of bees. The Field of Hope studies bee behaviour and pollination methods while looking at the impact of environment on the colonies.  While we tend to focus on carbon emissions and recycling the concerns about the impact of a continued decline in bee population is perhaps even more grave than we’d like to think.

In addition the festival has numerous green initiatives and exhibits including a wide-scale recycling program, a solar powered garden stage, information booths and a festival wide bike ride event to tour special locations near to the event itself. You can learn more about the festival, the bands appearing this year and the many eco-initiatives by visiting the official website.