Food & Drink

The food on our (plastic-free, compostable) plates has far reaching impacts and is such a key element for greening lifestyles and by extension – also events as transformative spaces for human behaviour change.

Here’s the work we’ve been doing to eat as if the future exists (for the past 2 decades)…

We Are Meat & Fish Free

For environmental reasons, we’ve been meat and fish free since 2016 –  to spark the conversation about how our diet shapes the world around us – 80% of deforestation is for agricultural land, and of that land – almost three-quarters is used for livestock farming and growing livestock feed! You can read much more about this here. 

As a result, our food emissions at Shambala are 6% of total emissions, compared with 21% average for UK festivals, and… we also have one of the most exciting, delicious, diverse and healthy menus on the festival circuit!

Food Standards

For many years we have been taking significant steps to understand our food supply chain, to move toward organic and regenerative sourcing. Our community of food stalls willingly work with us to adhere to our strict food policies.

All on-site food traders are required to:

• Use only plant-based milks for hot drinks – see our Gone Off Milk Report here.
• Serve majority UK or European fruit & veg, and only Fairtrade bananas.
• Use organic eggs.
• Only serve Fairtrade (or equivalent) tea, coffee, hot chocolate and drinks.
• Agree to not serve any Coca-Cola or Nestle products on site.
• Only use non-toxic, biodegradable cleaning products.

Food Impact Labelling

We have been experimenting with food labelling since 2018, to create an evidence based and shared awareness around food impacts. Our quest is to move toward ‘one planet plates’ – low impact and ‘fair/equitable’ meals based on 0.5kg CO2e per meal, a global measure set by WWF research. And we’re nearly there!

Our food traders use Klimato, a food carbon calculator, to assess and display environmental labelling for their dishes – look out for this onsite. This also enables us to work out our total food emissions footprint.

Inspirational Traders

We recognise cafes that achieve the highest standards with our annual ‘Inspirational Trader’ awards. These are folks who are ultra-energy-efficient in their cooking, or doing inspirational things on land and farms they own or work with. See the 2025 winners here.

Raising the Bar: Our Ethical Drinks Offering

In partnership with our friends at Refresh West, our bars are run with strongly held principles ahead of profit margins. We’ve inspired each other, grown together and share the same values around quality, sustainability and sourcing. We were pioneers of the reusable bar cup scheme – which has now been adopted by hundreds of events and venues across the country.

We serve you an amazing array of local, ethical and delicious independent drinks, and stick two fingers up to crappy, corporate flat lager!

• We work with independent breweries 
• 9 out of the 12 beer and cider suppliers are based within 70 miles 
• 62% of the beer on site (and 80% of the sustainable wine) is vegan

In 2026 we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to establish relationships with radical spirit makers, kombucha suppliers, and ground-breaking cocktail makers. Watch this space for some really exciting updates to come shortly!

We have also had zero single use plastics across all our bars for several years.

WHAT’S ON THE BAR, AT SHAMBALA 2026?

Here’s a flavour of just some of the tasty tipples you can expect from us, this summer:

EVRYTHNG SPIRITS

Our badass new spirits provider – a Welsh not-for-profit company who give away 100% of their distributable profits to organisations tackling the climate and nature crises. Which means every G&T, rum punch or vodka soda you order funds The Kettering Nature Group (working to improve biodiversity around Kettering), Roots & Shoots (a South London educational & environmental charity) & Avon Needs trees (a charity creating new permanent woodlands along the Bristol-Avon River catchment). You can even vote for how the profits are distributed – do that here!

May as well make it a double then…!

BAU COCKTAILS

Say hello to our brand-new cocktail supplier. Bau Drinks was founded by brothers Joe and Ben, whose journey began at their liquid nitrogen bar – Brozen Bar, in Bristol. They’re proper scientists, who distil their own bespoke spirits, liqueurs, bitters and citrus solutions, embracing seasonality and locally sourced ingredients.

They’ll be serving up a delicious range of treats, from banging Bloody Marys to frozen margaritas and boozy slushies.  

FREEDOM BREWERY:

Independent beer pioneers, who create clean, crisp pints without compromise, made from 100% British ingredients. They’re Positive Planet and Indie Beer certified and use natural spring water from their own borehole – with a reed bed filtration system cleaning the brewing water before it’s released back into nature. All their beers are Vegan society certified.

Pop into one of our bars for a crisp pint of their Premium Lager, Organic Helles, Horizon IPA and (new for this year) a summery Freedom Peach Lager.

WESTONS CIDER

Proper cider from proper cider makers. This lot have been perfecting their craft since 1880 and are still independent and family-owned. They source their apples from their own orchards, and local growers within 50miles of their Herefordshire mill.

Their orchards are managed without chemical fertilisers or pesticides, helping to support wildlife and biodiversity. Cider made with respect for the land, the local community and future generations. Yes please.

THE WONKY COCK

Our main on site pub has a huge range of craft beers, ciders and cask ales – too many to list here – from wicked small breweries, including:

• Crafty Blends Cider – a female, queer-owned cider brand made the traditional way in Herefordshire

• Kings Cliffe Brewery ales, which just scooped up some awards at the Northampton County Beer Festival 2025 

• Braybrooke Beer Co’s delicious Keller lager, brewed just 4.5 miles from site

• Toast Brewery’s incredible beer made from surplus bread

ALCOHOL-FREE BEERS

Whether you’re having a sober one, or just pacing yourself, grab yourself a crisp pint of:

Clear Head – Bristol Beer Factory’s legendary 0.5% ABV Alcohol-free IPA, is available at all our main bars. A portion of sales supports Talk Club, a men’s mental health charity.

Arbor New Horizons – an alcohol-free and gluten-free pale ale, from the legendary Arbor Ales in Bristol.  

OTHER BOOZE-FREE TREATS:

Sentia’s alcohol-free spirits – crafted using a proprietary GABAergic botanical blend, plants and compounds. Feel calm, sociable and connected, without the crash of alcohol.

Nania’s Wildbrew – Barrel-fermented kombucha, made authentically; completely RAW, unfiltered, unpasteurised and alive inside. This year, they’ve brewed a special Hibiscus & Fresh Mint kombucha especially for Shambala – and it’s on tap!

Mocktails – You don’t need to miss out on the fancy stuff, just because you’re keeping things 0%. Head to the big cocktail bar on The Common for a range of delicious, refreshing mocktails. 

Karmaceuticals 0% cocktail bar – Formulated by herbalists and cocktail enthusiasts, this range of tinctures and cocktails are made with wild herbs and botanicals from independent UK growers and producers. Fly high, without the hangover.