As you might expect from a festival that’s more than a little bit obsessive about keeping things green, we expect our food traders to adhere to seriously high sustainability credentials.
Meeting our general trader requirements is an achievement in itself, so when some traders go the extra mile and do even more than we ask to keep things planet-friendly, they deserve to be celebrated Shambala style – which is where our Inspirational Trader award comes in.
Our trusty Sustainability Team were on the ground at the festival, scoring our traders on a variety of criteria, across areas like sustainable and ethical food procurement, energy efficiency, travel miles (for both food and staff) and waste reduction as well as taking into account those who go the extra mile, on or off the festival site with social, charitable and environmental welfare initiatives.
So, onto our winners!
THE CHAI SHOP ORGANIC
The Chai Shop Organic deserve a massive round of applause and a big sloppy kiss – they scored the highest points across the board as well as blowing us away with their unwavering commitment to organic produce, their 100% solar powered lighting, and (wait for it!) for their bike-powered chickpea mincer. Yes, really. To show our appreciation, we’re giving them a 50% discount on their pitch fee next year. Well done, you total heroes! Jo & Ilan started The Chai Shop Organic from a humble tipi, high in the mountains of Southern Spain. They’ve now been serving up delicious vegetarian fare to hungry festival goers for an incredible twenty years! Happy birthday, team!
WANDERING WORD PIZZA
Our runner up this year is Shambala favourite, Wandering Word Pizza, who will receive a 10% discount of next year’s pitch. As well as ticking all our sustainability boxes, these guys switched as much of their produce as was humanly possible to organic, went to the effort of making their own vegan cheese, and raised some much needed money for refugees in Calais. The folks at the Wandering Word Pizza also do incredible work teaching cookery skills to our Shambala kids, through fun filled puppet shows and pizza making workshops.
NOSH COMMUNITY CAFE
NOSH, our beloved local community café was also a joint runner up, with high scores across the board, on top of their their commitment to raising money for local good causes and local producers. NOSH is operated by a group of local volunteers who use all proceeds from their stall at Shambala to support social and charitable activities in Northamptonshire. This year, much of NOSH café’s vegetable produce was grown by the Great Oxenden Youth Group in their poly tunnel and greenhouse, especially for Shambala.
HUGE well done to all three winners, for well and truly setting the standard. Across the whole site, it was amazing to see just how many of our traders support charities, from food waste, to FRANK water, to sustainable farming in Ghana.
Thank you to all our amazing traders for your hard work keeping thousands of Shambalans fed and watered – serious partying needs serious fuel and you guys never fail to deliver. Big love!