Congratulations to Glastonbury on promoting sustainability alongside performing arts
The Fairtrade Foundation congratulates the Glastonbury Festival (Wednesday, 23 June to Sunday 27 June) at Worthy Farm as it celebrates its fortieth anniversary this year, and commends the festival organisers on their success at placing the sustainability agenda central to the midsummer celebration.
‘Hats off to Glastonbury for being a forerunner, promoting green issues throughout its long history and then blazing a trail for festivals around the UK by requiring all food stalls to sell Fairtrade products since 2004’, says Veronica Pasteur, Head of Campaigns at the Fairtrade Foundation. This year the procurement requirement for stall-holders is that all coffee, hot chocolate, sugar and most tea will be Fairtrade. Many of the stalls will be selling a wider range of Fairtrade products including fruit, chocolate, juices and Fairtrade cotton t-shirts.
The Fairtrade Foundation is also linking up with the Soil Association, Greenpeace, NCASS (the Nationwide Caterers Association) and the Glastonbury Festival to assess and judge the 5th annual Green Trader Awards. Veronica Pasteur will, for the fourth year, lead a team of volunteers who will scour the site, interviewing hundreds of traders during the Festival. They will ask questions about everything from how traders and their staff got to the Festival, to what their stall is made of, how much of their stock is Fairtrade, organic or recycled and any other ethical criteria they used to maintain a more positive impact on the environment. Last year 400 stalls were visited and many were commended for the way they were promoting Fairtrade. Of the six Glastonbury Green Traders Awards presented, Tat for Tibet won The Fairtrade Award. As well as a prize, each of the winners receives an award banner for their stall which provides lots of fun photo opportunities.
‘It is great the way Glastonbury exposes people to sustainability messages including Fairtrade.’ Veronica Pasteur continues. ‘The festival may only be for a few days, but we hope that many people will pick up the Fairtrade bug and take it back home for life. Farmers and workers in the developing world really need the support of the sort of energetic, active audience that Glastonbury attracts’.
Residents of the nearby town of Shepton Mallet which has an active Fairtrade campaign will help run a Fairtrade stall on the Greenpeace Field. And Greenpeace and the Fairtrade Foundation will hold a Strictly Fairtrade Tea Dance on Sunday after the ‘mass wedding’, another annual Glastonbury feature where couples pledge themselves to each other for a year and a day. The Strictly Fairtrade Tea Dance will mimic the tone of the earlier Strictly Fairtrade Tea Dance which took place in Trafalgar Square, London, during Fairtrade Fortnight in March where dancers held an impromptu bouncy flash mob-style tea dance, dancing to music like the Kaiser Chiefs’ ‘I Predict a Riot’. The Kaiser Chiefs have voiced their support for Fairtrade in the past. Free cups of Fairtrade tea will be given out at the dance and there will be spot prizes for dancers including a hamper of Fairtrade products.
Veronica Pasteur will also be speaking about Fairtrade at the Speakers Forum at 6.30 on Saturday 26 June.
For more information contact Eileen Maybin at the Fairtrade Foundation on 0207 440 8597 / 07770 957 451.
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Notes to Editors:
1. Last year’s winners of the six new Glastonbury Green Traders Awards were:
Hurly Burly - Gold Award for food
Honeybuns - Silver Award for food
Two Skies - Gold Award for non food
Juicy Lucy - Silver Award for non food
Tat for Tibet - The Fairtrade Award
Helsett Farm - The Organic Soil Association Award
2. The FAIRTRADE Mark is a certification mark and a registered trademark of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) of which the Fairtrade Foundation is the UK member. The Fairtrade Foundation is an independent certification body which licenses the use of the FAIRTRADE Mark on products which meet international Fairtrade standards. This independent consumer label is now recognised by 72% of UK consumers and appears on products as a guarantee that disadvantaged producers are getting a better deal. Today, more than 7.5 million people – farmers, workers and their families – across 58 developing countries benefit from the international Fairtrade system.
3. Over 4,500 products have been licensed to carry the FAIRTRADE Mark including coffee, tea, herbal teas, chocolate, cocoa, sugar, bananas, grapes, pineapples, mangoes, avocados, apples, pears, plums, grapefruit, lemons, oranges, satsumas, clementines, mandarins, lychees, coconuts, dried fruit, juices, smoothies, biscuits, cakes & snacks, honey, jams & preserves, chutney & sauces, rice, quinoa, herbs & spices, seeds, nuts & nut oil, wines, beers, rum, confectionary, muesli, cereal bars, yoghurt, ice-cream, flowers, sports balls, sugar body scrub and cotton products including clothing, homeware, cloth toys, cotton wool and olive oil.
4. 7 in 10 households purchase Fairtrade goods,, helping Fairtrade sales reach an estimated £800m in 2009, up from £712m in 2008. There are over 460 producer organisations selling to the UK with 872 certified producer groups in the global Fairtrade system, representing more than 1.5 million farmers and workers.