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Shambala Festival wins the Clearwater Award 2023 at The International Folk Music Awards!

We’re incredibly proud and humbled to have been awarded The Clearwater Award at The International Folk Music Awards. This is a really big deal for us, as The Clearwater Award recognises festivals that prioritise environmental stewardship and demonstrate public leadership in sustainable event production, and there are so many amazing festivals and events around the world doing such inspiring work in this area, so this really does mean the world.

We’re honoured to be listed amongst such inspiring past recipients such as Planet Bluegrass, The Woodford Folk Festival, Pickathon, Hillside Festival, The Winnipeg Folk Festival, and The Clearwater Festival. 

We’d like to say a huge thank you to The Folk Alliance and The International Folk Music awards – and a huge thank you to our team and the wider Shambala crew for the herculean efforts they go to, to help minimise our impacts on the planet. We’re also very grateful to our awesome audience, for coming along for the journey and supporting our initiatives with enthusiasm and understanding – even when we’re banning bacon butties or swiping the cow’s milk from your cuppas. You bunch of loves.

Here’s what The International Folk Awards had to say about us..

Shambala Festival is a four-day contemporary performing arts festival in Northamptonshire, England. The festival is completely and utterly committed to being sustainable, circular, regenerative, net positive, earth and life respecting, and future thinking. They have reduced the festival’s carbon footprint by over 90%; achieved 100% renewable electricity; became meat, fish, and dairy-milk free; and eradicated single-use plastics. They’ve received many awards for their sustainability work, including the Innovation Award at the 2018 UK Festival Awards, the International A Greener Festival Award, the Outstanding Achievement Award at the Creative Green Awards in 2017, and more. The festival is Creative Green Certified and has committed to measuring and transparently reporting all of their impacts to provide an honest evaluation of their efforts. They work with independent third parties like Julie’s Bicycle to assess their performance and carbon footprint. Learn more about the festival and their work at shambalafestival.org.

Lush. x

(Outrageously dreamy Shambala sunset photo credit: Scott Salt)