BOOMTOWN has revealed it is exploring the possibility of building a solar farm around the outside of the festival in a bid to cut fuel use.

This comes as the festival has shared updates on its commitment to reducing its environmental impact.

In 2019, Boomtown, one of the UK’s largest theatre and music festivals, signed a pledge to become completely circular by 2025.

That means it's committed to designing out anything that can’t be reused or repurposed each year and is implementing initiatives to completely eliminate waste.

Dan Graham, creative design manager for Boomtown, has said in a video shared by the festival: “There has always been an environmental impact to putting on a festival. I think the UK festival culture is magical and beautiful, there's no getting around that.

"But even with the travel to the festival alone, there is an impact and there's a price to be paid there. But it doesn't always have to be like it is now. That's why we're so determined to look towards a new future of festivals and look at how we can actually create this beautiful, amazing inspiring space without having an impact on the world.”

Boomtown has three key initiatives that aim to reduce environmental impacts; one is to look at the food eaten on the festival site, another to assess how everyone travels to the site and the third, is how the festival is powered.

READ MORE: Co-owner of Boomtown Fair 'heartbroken' by amount of rubbish left behind at South Downs National Park site

Dan continues: “We've been looking for years on how to reduce the amount of fuel that we're putting into generators. And a really exciting conversation has just started this year about how we can build a solar farm around the outside of the festival. So that's going to be a massive step for us in moving from diesel energy into solar energy and powering the festival off the sun.”

The design of the stage set also feeds into the Circular Pledge. Boomtown has always tried to maintain and keep sets for as long as possible.

New stages for 2022 were created using pieces of previous main stages that had been present for ten years.

The set of the new main stage Origin also included real plant life that is now being maintained on the festival site year-round.

A plant garden with an irrigation system keeps all the plants alive throughout the year, meaning they will be brought back bigger and better for years to come.

While the festival is running, certain areas of South Downs National Park are cordoned off to protect its Site of Special Scientific Interest and to allow nature to continue to thrive in and around the park.

Boomtown says it is committed to partnering with industry experts to look at water use, waste use, and reforestation.

“More recently, we have partnered up with a charity and they are now taking our set away and they're taking it apart," Dan added. "They're taking the timber to community garden projects and lots of different charities all over the country for it to be reused and turned into positive things for local communities.

"What they don't use, they're selling and that's actually funding a project for climbing trees and creating gardens in Africa as well. So we partnered up with them for the first time this year and what we're gonna be doing with them next year is even more exciting.

“Community can really change the world, festivals can really impact the world. They're great for our mental health. They are amazing celebrations where we all come together. So they're really, really important.

"We don't want to have to get rid of them. But we do have to face the fact that there is an impact. And that's why it's really important that we address those impacts and that we try to minimise them as much as physically possible so that we are becoming not only carbon neutral but carbon negative and everything that we do within festival culture is having a positive influence, not only on us but also on the world and the environment that we live in.”

Boomtown will return to the Matterley Estate for Chapter Two: The Twin Trail on August 9 to 13, 2023.