The average European festival generates 220 grams of waste per attendee per day. At 103,000 attendees across five nights, that's a hundred-tonne mountain of trash before we even count anything. We didn't want to be that festival, so for the first edition of RCF Arena Summer we set a hard target: under 50 grams of unrecycled waste per attendee per day. That number sounds modest. To get there, we had to redesign almost everything.
The bottle problem
Plastic bottles are the worst single offender at every outdoor festival on Earth. Our first decision was the simplest: none on site. No plastic bottles for sale anywhere on the festival grounds. No plastic bottles at the pre-party. None at the afterparty. The bars and food stalls serve drinks in deposit-return cups — €2 deposit, returned at any cup-return station, fully washable, designed to last 100 cycles. The cups are produced 90 km from the venue, by a Bologna-based co-op.
For water, we have 32 refill stations distributed across the festival site, the boulevard, and the campsite. Bring an empty bottle. Drink for free. The water is the same water that the city of Reggio Emilia drinks — which, coming from the Apennine hills, is among the best municipal water in Europe.
The cashless decision
The festival is fully RFID — every wristband is loaded with credit at the gate, then taps to pay at every kitchen, bar, merch tent and locker. The decision was driven by sustainability, not convenience. Each cash transaction at a typical festival generates roughly 4 grams of paper waste (receipt, change-handling, etc.). At 5 transactions per attendee per day, on 103,000 attendees, that's 2 tonnes of paper saved per night. Across five nights: 10 tonnes.
It also has security and operational benefits. But the brief was the waste.
The wristband
The wristband itself is biodegradable. The fabric is woven hemp, the RFID chip is embedded in a recycled-PET shell, and the closure is a cardboard slider. We've worked with a Verona supplier on this for two years; the design composts in 18 months and the RFID chip is harvested for recycling at the post-festival sort.
The backstage
The backstage area is powered by a solar microgrid installed permanently at the venue in 2023 — 1.2 MW of capacity, enough to run the lighting, monitors, dressing-room HVAC, catering kitchens and crew internet without drawing on the grid for the duration of the show. The main stage PA still runs from grid power (the load is too high for solar), but the grid power itself is contracted from Iren, the Reggio Emilia utility company, which sources 100% from renewables for our event.
The food
Twenty kitchens curated with Reggio Emilia chefs — and locally sourced where possible. Pasta from Pastificio Reggiano, 12 km away. Cheese from the Caseificio Sociale di Coviolo, 8 km. Lambrusco from Cantine Riunite Civ, 14 km. Vegetables from the cooperative farm at the Reggio orto, 6 km. The full supply chain on site is mapped on the festival app — every ingredient traceable to its farm or co-op.
Food waste goes to the Caritas Reggio redistribution program for unused stock and to local biogas digesters for plate scrapings. Composting partners are Iren Ambiente, who also handle the post-event sort.
The travel
Travel is the largest single contributor to a festival's carbon footprint, and we don't pretend to have solved it. What we have done: free shuttles from Reggio Emilia AV on every show day for Weekend Pass holders, discounted Frecciarossa tickets via a Trenitalia partnership, secure bike parking for 1,500 bikes, and a 100% electric scooter scheme through Helbiz within Reggio. We're not telling you not to drive. We're trying to make the alternatives easier than driving.
"Sustainability at scale is mostly boring infrastructure. It's not the part of the festival anyone tweets about. But it's the part that decides whether this festival can exist for ten years instead of three."
That's our sustainability lead, in a meeting last November.
The targets
- <50g unrecycled waste per attendee per day
- 0 plastic bottles on site
- 100% renewable backstage power
- ≥85% local food sourcing (within 50 km)
- ≥40% attendees arriving by train, bus or bike
- 0 tonnes of single-use signage (all signage is reusable across editions)
We'll publish a full audit two months after the festival, with what we hit and what we missed. See you in July.