Sustainable Francofolies!

On the weekend of 11 and 12 June 2022, Esch/Alzette held its traditional Francofolies music festival as part of the European Capital of Culture. On this occasion, Esch2022 took part in the Info-Village with a stand where it presented ELO, its guide to sustainability and responsibility, and highlight the measures taken on the site and throughout the festival.

Another participant in the Info-Village was Pickitup, a partner of ELO and the project 1001 Tonnen, who raised awareness among festival-goers about littering. For three days, more than 15 tons of waste were collected onsite. We thank the teams of the City of Esch/Alzette who continuously cleaned the site, but littering remained a problem despite numerous waste sorting areas and the free distribution of more than 5,000 pocket ashtrays.

Speaking of cigarette butts, the company Purifungi teamed up with the Francofolies to collect cigarette butts and decompose their polluting elements using mushrooms. This entirely natural system makes it possible to transform cigarette butts into a new depolluted material.

As regards sustainable solutions implemented at the festival, the Francofolies put non-chemical dry toilets at the disposal of festival-goers. These locally produced toilets make it possible to cut water consumption and avoid the use of chemicals. The collected waste is used as a natural fertilizer. This effective system is also used at other Esch2022 events. The festival furthermore used signage produced by the CIGL of Esch/Alzette. The absence of logo and date on the panels allows them to be reused at other events. Much work also took place behind the scenes, most notably during construction. A charter of best practices was signed by the technical teams to ensure that everybody involved was attentive to reducing the production of waste.

Finally, on the small stage of the Francofolies, deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences were able to experience the Immersive Live system, which enhances the perception of music through vibrations. We also used this opportunity to present the technology to festival-goers and raise awareness about the issues experienced by deaf and heard-of-hearing people. Find out more about the actions carried out during the Francofolies online on the ELO website.