Call­ing for eco-inno­ca­tions for events in 2022

Eco-inno­va­tions are again being sought to reduce the car­bon foot­print and envi­ron­men­tal bur­den of events. New inno­va­tions will be pilot­ed at events in the North­ern Ostro­both­nia region in 2022.

Frozen Peo­ple fes­ti­val, organ­ised on Nal­likari sea ice in Feb­ru­ary, and Art Ii Bien­nal, organ­ised in Ii in June, are look­ing for envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly pop-up pow­er for extreme con­di­tions. Frozen Peo­ple needs elec­tric­i­ty on sea ice, where­as Art Ii Bien­nal needs it in rur­al areas.

“We are bring­ing elec­tri­fied art instal­la­tions on the sea ice. Aggre­gates are not the most eco-friend­ly appa­ra­tus­es. We would like to find an inven­tion with which emis­sion-free pop-up pow­er could be brought to oth­er win­ter events in the future as well”, says Heik­ki Myl­ly­lahti, the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Oulu Urban Cul­ture, the organ­is­er of the Frozen Peo­ple event.

At the Art Ii Bien­nal, media art­works are shown in barns and sheds around the geo­graph­i­cal­ly broad Ii munic­i­pal­i­ty, even out­side the pow­er grid.

“Dur­ing the Euro­pean Cul­ture Cap­i­tal year, light and media art events will be arranged in excep­tion­al envi­ron­ments and nature loca­tions in Ii. With the com­ing events in mind, we want to pilot solu­tions for bring­ing pow­er out­side built-up areas in a sus­tain­able way already next sum­mer”, says Jet­ta Hut­tunen, the Exec­u­tive Man­ag­er of Kult­tuuriKaup­pi­la Art Cen­ter, the organ­is­er of Art Ii Bien­nal.

Plas­tic waste and trans­port emis­sions are com­mon chal­lenges for events

The trav­el­ling of the audi­ence and per­form­ers to event loca­tions is the biggest cause of emis­sions in events. Low-emis­sion trans­port inno­va­tions are being sought for the trail run­ning event NUTS Karhunkier­ros, organ­ised in Kuusamo in May, and for the Haa­pavesi Folk Music Fes­ti­val, organ­ised in Haa­pavesi in June.

Plas­tic waste is also a major nui­sance for events. Sol­stice Fes­ti­val, organ­ised at Rukatun­turi fell in mid­sum­mer, is look­ing for a solu­tion with which plas­tic waste could be refined and reused as fes­ti­val mer­chan­dise next year.

Var­jo fes­ti­val, organ­ised in Oulu in August, wants to pre­vent microplas­tic par­ti­cles from cig­a­rette butts from end­ing up in the nature. Qstock, the biggest music fes­ti­val in North­ern Fin­land, is look­ing for sub­sti­tutes for plas­tic shot glass­es and tens of thou­sands of plas­tic cable ties need­ed in con­struct­ing the fes­ti­val site.

Finan­cial sup­port for inno­va­tors

The inno­va­tion pilots at the events will be car­ried out with sup­port from The Most Sus­tain­able Euro­pean Cap­i­tal of Cul­ture project. The project’s aim is that events in Oulu region will be as car­bon neu­tral as pos­si­ble by 2026 when Oulu is the Euro­pean Cap­i­tal of Cul­ture.

Inno­va­tors can receive up to EUR 10,000 fund­ing from the project to car­ry out the pilot­ing at the event. The call is nation­wide, which means that inno­va­tions can be sub­mit­ted from any­where in Fin­land.

The envi­ron­men­tal chal­lenges pro­posed by sev­en North­ern Ostro­both­nia events and the appli­ca­tion form for sub­mit­ting inno­va­tions for them can be found on the pro­jec­t’s web­site.