Bristol Light Festival is presented by Bristol City Centre Business Improvement District (BID) supported by Redcliffe & Temple BID, Broadmead BID and Cabot Circus. The festival is also supported by Bristol’s City Centre & High Streets Recovery and Renewal programme, which is funded by Bristol City Council and the West of England’s Combined Authority’s Love our High Streets project, with the aim of supporting the recovery of Bristol’s priority high streets. The festival is curated by Creative Director Katherine Jewkes.

We recognise that the events industry has a direct impact on the local, regional and global environment. As a BID, we are dedicated to providing a high-quality event while minimising the environmental impact of the festival.

Bristol Light Festival aims to reduce the environmental impact of the festival by encouraging and enabling people to travel sustainably and by reducing energy use and waste.

For this year’s festival we have taken the ‘Vision 2025 pledge’ which means we have committed to significantly reducing the event’s climate impact by 2025.

To achieve this pledge, our Environmental Policy outlines three areas of focus, Energy, Transport and Travel and Waste.

download the bristol light festival sustainability policy

Energy

  • Bristol Light Festival is a low energy event. The only energy requirements are for the light installations themselves with all installations powered by the grid and no generators or temporary power sources used for the event.
  • All installations use LED lights to reduce energy use and are switched off throughout the day and overnight.
  • We have a commitment to present all our work using sustainable measures – either powered from the grid or using rechargeable batteries.

Transport and Travel

  • Bristol Light Festival is located across a walkable area of the city centre designed to enable visitors to walk between each installation. Due to the location the festival is easily accessible on foot, bike and public transport.
  • The festival is located at the centre of Bristol’s bus network with all installations within 10 minutes’ walk of a city centre bus stop.
  • Our partnership with First Bus offers a discount to anyone using the bus to visit the festival. For more information click here.
  • The majority of installations are within 15 minutes’ walk of Temple Meads Train Station. Trains from Severn Beach, stopping at Lawrence Weston, Clifton and Stapleton Road now run twice an hour.
  • Finally, we have commissioned a professional research piece to help us understand how people travelled to the festival. We will use this information to inform our 2024 Sustainability Policy and Travel Plan as well sharing with partners and stakeholders to give a more comprehensive understanding of the way patrons use public transport and travel to and from the city when events are taking place.

Waste

  • To limit the use of new resources and increased purchase of materials and equipment, all installations as part of Bristol Light Festival are ones which have previously toured and which have been in operation in other locations, therefore enhancing the life span and re-use of the artwork and creations.
  • Where possible materials used within the event are repurposed and re-used to extend the life of the product and to ensure a reusable sustainable creative piece.
  • External mobile food and drink traders are not featured at Bristol Light Festival, this is to encourage visitors to eat and drink in the city’s bars and restaurants but also to help reduce waste building up from food and drink receptacles and packaging.
  • It is expected that where hospitality outlets provide takeaway drinks, visitors are encouraged to bring a reusable cup.
  • There are several water refill stations around the city and our bars and restaurants will happily fill up water bottles for people if requested.
  • The festival information kiosk, located on College Green, has been made using upcycled materials and off cuts to create an installation which will be used for years to come and aims to encourage recycling and sustainable practices.
  • Visitors are encouraged to access the map of the installations online, but printed maps will be available, which are printed on recycled paper.

Thank you for taking the time to read our Environmental Policy, we are progressing our work in this field in line with our ‘Vision: 2025 pledge’ which pledges that all future events commit to significantly reducing our climate impact by 2025.

For more information on Vision 2025, please see here: www.vision2025.org.uk

For any other queries or suggestions regarding our environmental policy please contact  tom@redcliffeandtemplebid.co.uk