Clean Culture:
How HebCelt is keeping it green
HebCelt (Fèis Cheilteach Innse Gall) has been at the heart of Scottish music, culture and the heritage of the Outer Hebrides since 1996.
HebCelt passionately protects the Celtic traditions and culture of the island of Lewis, and the land itself.
Pictured: Drone view of the HebCelt site in Stornoway, Lewis
Image courtesy of HebCelt
Powered by the volunteer Green Team and PlusZero Harris-based clean energy, HebCelt are ensuring climate consciousness is embedded within their legacy as deeply as its Gaelic roots.
Running an event of this scale inevitably contributes a carbon footprint.
HebCelt have made it their mission to reduce the impact on the environment, protecting the islands and the planet - they’ve tackled this with a community empowerment approach, embracing their sense of local ownership and effort, which has catapulted the festival into the world-class event it is today.
Pictured: The volunteer Green Team on the ground at HebCelt 2023.
Image courtesy of HebCelt
“I am Christina Stewart, one of the leaders of the Green Team at HebCelt. I have been volunteering at the festival since 2015. During the festival I, along with the other team leader, make sure that the volunteers on our team assist the bars and food vendors with any rubbish they have and ensure there are bins for the different types of rubbish on the site.
We try each year to have less rubbish, eg. those who are selling food and drink are not permitted to sell plastic bottles.
We work with a charity in Stornoway which collects all the carboard from the site. There are people coming from all over the world to work with our team. Some of whom return year after year because they believe in the green ethos of the festival.
When visitors at the festival speak to us about how clean the site is and how good we are at separating the rubbish, I feel proud to be part of it.”
- Christina Stewart, a Green Team Leader
Pictured: The PlusZero Hydrogen Generators powering the main festival stage
Image courtesy of HebCelt
“There is already a great sense of pride and ownership within the local community regarding the festival, but for us to be able to power a significant element of this event using locally produced, renewable energy is hugely inspirational in relation to where we see ourselves developing our environmental and socio-economic goals for the future.”
- Gayle Findlay, HebCelt Chair
90kWh
electric power produced
15%
more electric power produced from 2022
100 litres
of diesel avoided, meaning
270kg
of CO2 emissions saved
Top
10
in Europe’s most sustainable events
*This is despite a technical problem preventing the generator from powering performances for the whole three days, so electricity produced powered the start of the festival.
Pictured: Drone view of the HebCelt site in Stornoway, Lewis
Image courtesy of HebCelt
This creates one of the most unique festival locations, which must be protected in the face of these challenges.
HebCelt believes the islands are, and can be, a vibrant economical sustainable area of Scotland, where culture and arts can play a role in mitigating impacts as far as possible of climate change on the islands, detailed in their Environmental policy.
Climate change will bring more frequent storm events, variable and extreme weather and sea level rises.
These impact health, economy, tourism, food production, infrastructure, connectivity and livelihoods. HebCelt takes place on the Outer Hebrides archipelago, located on the far north-western coast of Scotland.
HebCelt’s Green List
Reusable beer cups
Clear recycling streams on site
Dedicated volunteer team who oversees recycling and waste
No single-use plastic sold on site
Compostable foodware
Encourage sustainable travel and public transport
Recycled plastic wristbands with bamboo closures
Significant reduction in single-use plastics in delivery of the festival
Banned inflatable balloons from site
Provide on-island transport for artists to reduce number of vehicles travelling
Pictured: Festival-goers enjoying Skerryvore at HebCelt 2023
Image courtesy of HebCelt