The HebCelt Trust have been pioneering sustainability within the industry for a number of years. The team all feel very passionate about mitigating the impacts of the event so much, that these initiatives and the strong commitment demonstrated by the Trust to operating in a sustainable manner led to the event achieving a number of awards including:

  •  Outer Hebrides Tourism Community Award – Best Green & Sustainable Business 2023 
  •  Highly Commended by the Green Family Travel Awards 2023 
  •  'Outstanding’ award from A Greener Festival in 2013 and Highly Commended in 2017.

The following are areas we work with our audience to help us in this important journey.

Since the introduction of reusable cups in 2015, the team has made huge inroads to reduce landfill waste generated onsite. With your assistance we can continue this vital environmental journey.

Here is how:

SINGLE USE PLASTICS

We adopted a complete ban on single use plastic on the festival site in 2018. This means you will not be able to buy bottled water or juice. All drinks will be served in reusable plastic cups, cans or compostable cups and you will be able to buy branded festival water bottles on site which you can refill for free at our “hydration stations”. Free paper cups also provided at each station.

WASTE MANAGEMENT

We have several waste collection points set out around the festival arena. All are clearly labelled for the three waste streams. Caterers only serve with compostable catering supplies which means:

Organic waste: food, plates, cups, cutlery and paper (all of which are compostable). Tins and plastic bottles: any drinks cans and plastic drinks bottles brought onsite General: anything else that doesn't come into the other categories.

Don’t worry! The Green Team are on hand to help out. Thank you!

REUSABLE CUPS

When buying your drinks tokens, you’ll also need to buy a £1 cup token for each person you are likely to be buying a drink for. When you get to the bar you’ll get a cup for each cup token that you hold, along with your drinks. When you go back to the bar to buy another drink, you’ll get a fresh cup for each used cup that you hand over.

At the end of the night (or at any point during the event) you can take your reusable cup back to the token booth and get your deposit back. Or you can donate your deposit to our nominated charity - Macmillan Cancer Care.

Or why not take your cup home as a keepsake for attending HebCelt? Don’t worry, you’ve already paid for it.


One of the newest areas that the Trust have been pioneering is:

CLEANER ENERGY

One of our significant commitments is looking to new cleaner energy sources to power the festival. Developments in this area are slow and therefore we have been proud to partner with PlusZero to test the use of hydrogen to power various elements of the site. This has included deploying: 

  • Hydrogen generator
  • A number of hydrogen lighting towers powered from the generator
  • Battery pack style generators to power additional site facilities such as the remote box office and medical tent.
  • Testing a generator to provide power to a stage

It is key to reducing festivals' carbon footprint to be working with energy companies on the development of such technologies and allowing there to be the space to test in ‘live sites’. Without this kind of partnership the technology will not develop and improve. We therefore are committed to continue to test these technologies across various areas of the festival. 

View our Environmental Policy.