Fairport is to get '˜drastic on plastic' at this year's festival

Fairport's Cropredy Convention has joined the war on single-use plastic.
Dave Pegg in the Keep the Horton General campaign tee shirt at Fairport's Cropredy festival NNL-160815-144353001Dave Pegg in the Keep the Horton General campaign tee shirt at Fairport's Cropredy festival NNL-160815-144353001
Dave Pegg in the Keep the Horton General campaign tee shirt at Fairport's Cropredy festival NNL-160815-144353001

The event is one of 60 members of the Association of Independent Festivals, which is aiming to eliminate single-use plastics at its events by 2021 through its Drastic on Plastic initiative.

The first collective step is to ban straws at participating festivals this year.

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At this year’s Cropredy Convention, any festival goers buying a pint, half, glass of wine or soft drink at the Wadworth Bar, will have it served in a bio-degradable container.

All food backstage served to artists and crew will be in non-plastic, degradable containers.

They will also be given refillable, stainless steel water bottles.

Festival director Gareth Williams said: “Some of the festivals are taking small steps but we are going the whole hog.

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“This all stems from the series David Attenborough did, Blue Planet II which brought this issue to the fore.

“We will do everything we can do.”

He added they were still working out what materials to use and looking at samples, but planned to eliminate petroleum-based plastics.

“We have also ordered 3,000 biodegradable poop bags for dogs from muttsbutts.com,” he said.

The move comes as plans to ban cotton buds and plastic straws in England next year were announced by the government.

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This year’s Fairport Cropredy Convention is expected to be one of the most iconic yet with Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson headlining the opening night show.

Also performing over the weekend will be folkrockers Oysterband, newcomers Midnight Skyracer, Kate Rusby, The Levellers, Richard Digance, Afro Celt Sound System, Al Stewart and Fairport Convention.

The festival will be held from Thursday to Saturday, August 9 to 11, on its usual ‘field’ in Cropredy.

For ticket details, go to www.fairportconvention.com/tickets.