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What’s the impact of Sidmouth’s festivals? Questions: from the Sidmouth Air Show to East Devon’s festivals

  • by JW

Learning from other festivals “to be more sustainable and reduce environmental impacts”.

ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP – Reducing consumption, reducing waste, measuring and taking active steps to reduce carbon footprint. As well as working towards net zero targets and taking active steps to curate and improve the natural environment.” [East Devon Coast & Country Sustainable Tourism Plan]

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The front page of this week’s Herald declares that ‘the Airshow is the key to the Regatta’. Inside it covers this month’s town council meeting when Sidmouth councillors discussed the future of the Sidmouth Air Show – and when they accepted “the Sidmouth Regatta Review report and the recommendations which could see Sidmouth Airshow, part of the Regatta weekend, take place in 2025”.

Here are those recommendations in full:

Sidmouth Regatta Review

Members considered the Sidmouth Regatta Review report and the recommendations within.

RESOLVED: That: 1) taking into consideration the value of Sidmouth Regatta to the town and its popularity among residents, the annual Air Show continues to be the central event of the Sidmouth Regatta Weekend for the next 5 years, with a commitment to continued ongoing sustainability and improvement, subject to holding a review of future and ongoing air shows in 2028.

2) the Town Council to work with the event organising team and others to reduce the carbon impact of visitor numbers.

3) additional Revenue and Sponsorship for the event to be explored, together with further rejuvenation of the land and sea elements of the Regatta.

4) the Town Council to maximise the opportunities presented by the large number of visitors attracted to the event. 

5) Council officers, particularly the Project and Services Delivery Officer be thanked for their thorough report.

Questions do remain, however.

Environmental impact

Cllr Kevin Walker, who attended the town council session, asks what steps would be taken to mitigate the environmental impact:

After a vigorous discussion with a range of views expressed, all respectfully listened too, a proposal to continue with the Air Show for five years, with a review in 2028 was passed by a majority vote. (for exact wording see minutes).

Unfortunately, it became a ‘Red Arrows – for or against’ debate with, predictably, the former in the majority. It was not made clear what contingency was in place for those years when the Red Arrows are not available nor exactly what steps would be taken to mitigate the environmental impact.

Personally, I had, probably rather naively, hoped that a vision of an event more compatible with the Town Council’s sustainable tourism aspirations would emerge that included an Air Show element less dependant on the ‘Reds’ evident popularity and with an overall reduced carbon footprint, both from the aircraft taking part and from the development of more sustainable travel options.

There was no opportunity to discuss the value, or otherwise, of Carbon offset options, nor how such ideas could be practically applied on the ground in Sidmouth itself rather than in places where the impact is far harder to monitor.

Sidmouth Regatta Review report

Cllr Kevin Walker also asks how the report accepted by fellow councillors was researched and questions the evidence – as presented in the Sidmouth Regatta Review report on page 25 of the agenda to the town council meeting:

My line will be that the ‘research’ used to justify the claims and conclusions are deeply flawed, and some more rigorous (independent if possible) impact research needs to be undertaken which is applicable to all festivals. For me our STC support for the Folk Festival (£32k – 9 days) and the Jazz&Blues (£11k – 4 days) is out of all proportion to the Air Show event which I think is about £40k (?) for a few hours. However, I am not sure how much of this was offset by income from donations etc.

My grandchildren would not talk to me again if I voted against it BUT I do think the influx of cars is unsustainable and any carbon offset needs to be within Sidmouth. Also, it feels like the previous cautious position which was fought hard for is being white(green?)washed out and an uncritical one-sided position adopted.

Impact on residents

A correspondent to the VGS asks about the impact of festivals felt by residents:

Organisers looking at what is good for them and the environment without looking at what is good for the local residents who aren’t interested in that particular festival. Many locals leave Sidmouth during Folk Week to avoid the noise and disruption but not all people have that ability if they wanted to; some people have to work and yet have their sleep patterns disrupted by excessive noise.

Noise from festivals is not a problem to us on High Street but noise and clogged roads are a big problem to those beyond. Things do sometimes go on too long and are sometimes inconsiderate about when they make noise. Festival Organisers need to be open to adjusting to residents, especially as there are increasing numbers of celebrations around town.

The impact on the Sid Valley

Over the years, the VGS has published pieces posing similar questions – the latest being a couple of days before the town council meeting, asking: What’s the impact of Sidmouth’s festivals?

Looking at the ‘impact’ on the Sid Valley, perhaps the event with the lowest footprint (pun intended) would be the recent Sidmouth Walking Festival. And as for last week’s big event, there has always been a strong connection between the Sidmouth Science Festival and the climate, with a real awareness of how we impact our environment throughout the week.

The biggest of them all is doing what it can to reduce its footprint, with a report on the Environmental Impact from The Sidmouth Folk Festival – and demonstrably ‘green photos’ taken from its website:

With an eye to the future, The Sidmouth Folk Festival aims to reduce the environmental impact of the festival where ever possible. We have signed up to A Greener Future to support our journey, and help measure our impact.

Questions remain, however, as to how the environmental impact of the Regatta and the Air Show can be measured – and once carried out, what can be done to mitigate these impacts?

In terms of ‘environmental impact’, the Red Arrows and carbon emissions have been under scrutiny for some time now. Three years ago, the Sidmouth Plastic Warriors put together a questionnaire on the future of the Sidmouth Air Show. And two years ago, Sidmouth Town Council created its own survey on the future of the Sidmouth Air Show and its impact.

Perhaps we can look to the people used by the Folk Fest:

‘A Greener Future’ is a ‘not-for-profit company helping organisations, events, festivals and venues around the world to be more sustainable and reduce environmental impacts’

The impact on East Devon

Looking at the subject of ‘festivals’ in general, as reported in the recent VGS article and by the Herald, East Devon is set to become the home of green festivals:

East Devon is set to become the home of green festivals. This follows the successful implementation of a blueprint by Exmouth Festival to reduce its carbon footprint. The initiative was spearheaded by Exmouth Festival organisers, Exmouth Town Council, who aimed to understand the scale of their previous festival emissions and how to reduce them. They collaborated with South West Energy and Environment Group to create a bespoke calculator tool. This tool, unique to festivals, enables the calculation of carbon footprint, identification of categories where reductions can be made, and monitoring of changes going forward.

This month’s network meeting of the Arts and Culture East Devon group at the Manor Pavilion will host a session on ‘Decarbonising Exmouth Festival’, with Jess Magill (Arts Manager) and Zoey Cooper (Climate and Ecological Emergency Resilience Officer) from Exmouth Town Council.  

Significantly, Exmouth Festival 2024 was an eco-friendly event – with a substantial report on sustainability at this year’s Festival – all of which Sidmouth could perhaps learn from.

Finally, however, Sidmouth is party to the Coast & Country Sustainable Tourism Plan put together by East Devon’s main tourist centres – which offers several directions to go.

ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP:

Reducing consumption, reducing waste, measuring and taking active steps to reduce carbon footprint. As well as working towards net zero targets and taking active steps to curate and improve the natural environment.”

Some of which Sidmouth could perhaps make efforts to deliver.