In 2018 Yours & Owls Festival asked their patrons to ‘Party with a Purpose’, with the festival doing their bit for the planet by introducing and implementing environmental initiatives to offset the negative impact of single-use plastics and landfill.
These initiatives included trialling re-usable cups and water bottles, composting food waste, plates and cutlery, achieving an 85% recycling rate by minimising waste going to landfill. The team also ran a tree planting and bush regeneration day to assist in offsetting carbon emission, engaging and inspiring the local community to get involved in volunteering for the betterment of their surrounding environment.
From little things big things grow, and this year Yours & Owls is stepping it up a notch and doubling down on their festival household to try and reduce landfill waste to 10% or less and recycle 90% of the festival waste.
This will include compost bins, reusable cups supplied by Globelet and water bottles (if you forget your own water bottle you can buy a reusable Yours & Owls bottle as a souvenir or use the bubblers), solar powered shipping container bars powered by Infinity Energy, Plastic Free Wollongong volunteers – providing info on ways we can all reduce single use plastic in our day to day lives, and activations, installations and education around sustainable living at The Local.
To get you in the mood for some sustainable partying, the Yours & Owls gang are kicking off the festivities with the launch of #partywithapurpose at North Gong Pub on Sunday August 4, where they’ll also be celebrating the official partnership of Y&O, Plastic Free Wollongong & #partywithapurpose, and the efforts they plan to achieve together across Wollongong moving forward! Reduce your carbon footprint and ride your bike or walk to the event!
North Gong Pub
Sunday 4 August 2019
Big White / Babey / Paradise Club / Fierce Mild / Tuffence Meringue
This is a free event so get in quick! You can RSVP here
Ocean Space Collective who emerged through a desire to inspire and excite individuals through the blending of Art X Science. As a collective they aim to develop a collaborative community for creatives and academics passionate about the conservation of our beautiful blue planet. Ocean Space Collective will be providing practical examples of how ocean and household plastics can be made into jewelry and how to cut down on our plastic wastage in our homes.
Plastic Free Wollongong and Fair Food Forager will be roaming throughout North Gong providing education and information on ways we can all get involved with the sustainable living movement in the Gong.
2 artists from the Useless Wooden Toys upcycle initiative involving art and skateboarding have teamed up with Kraken Kreative and Plastic Free Wollongong to create artworks for t-shirts.
Purchase a Yours & Owls Festival ticket at the #partywithapurpose launch and $20 will be donated to Plastic Free Wollongong plus you’ll get a free Useless Wooden Toys t-shirt (until they’re gone!).
With the success of last year’s tree planting and bush regeneration day, Yours and Owls, Open Life Designs, Plastic Free Wollongong and Wollongong Bush Care will be hosting another community day on Thursday August 22 at Puckey’s Reserve. Puckey’s Estate is next to the Yours and Owls festival site at Stuart Park, and supports a diversity of bushland communities, three of which are declared Endangered Ecological Communities.
The health of the bushland is currently threatened by the invasion of weeds such as Bitou bush. The Yours and Owls event aims to maintain areas of previously cleared Bitou by revisiting such areas and conducting hand weeding to ensure Bitou Bush does not re-establish. The day will also involve planting native species such as Spinifex, Native Spinach, Pigface, Banksias and Coastal Tea Trees.
You can sign up for the Tree Planting day here
Applications close Friday July 26