Responsible Tourism
The Mull of Kintyre Music Festival has always worked the event around the local community and businesses. When planning the festival in 1992 and during our expansion in 2005 we felt it was important that all the concerts and fringe events be based around the town centre. The ethos behind this was to make sure that all the accommodation providers, restaurants, cafes, bars and shops would all benefit from the influx of visitors to the area. This has resulted in us only working with local businesses where possible when running the event.
We have taken into consideration all of the points in your checklist, and we have answered each one in turn. We feel have kept our Carbon Footprint to a minimum and we only hire in the bands and production where required. Where possible we work with local bands and technicians but, for certain concerts like the ones in the Victoria Hall, Campbeltown we are required to hire in the production as it is not available in house or from Kintyre business.
We have trained our own licensed stewarding staff so that we do not need to hire in staff from outside the local area and we have a dedicated team of helpers who pick up litter and clean each venue at the end of concert or activity.
Issues to Consider when thinking about reducing your carbon footprint:
1) Take action to reduce food waste and ensure that none goes down the drain. If you buy items in bulk for your Event or Festival, why not work with your supplier to see how you can reduce packaging waste? Think about how you handle general waste at your Event or Festival and put together a Waste Management Plan to address this
The Music Festival does not sell food directly in any of the 7 indoor events. We have one outdoor event on the Saturday afternoon and we work closely with the two food suppliers who run catering vans. Both of them are encourage customers to supply their own reusable cups for hot and cold drinks. For 2024 we will work with them to encourage them to use biodegradable packaging for their food sales
2) Reduce the number of plastic drinks bottles sold at your Event or Festival where possible and provide appropriate recycling opportunities. Scottish Water are installing top-up stations across the country as part of their, Your Water Your Life, campaign. You can also sign up to be a water refill site on the Refill App and get some promotion for your business. Please see more information at this link: Your Water Your Life – Scottish Water
All the bars run by the music festival will supply a service where customers can use reusable cups and the use of the water supplied on site. As all out ticketed concerts are held indoors there is no need for top up stations and refills will be provided and advertised at each venue.
3) Eliminate at least one type of single use plastic at your Event or Festival. Straws are one of the top ten plastic debris items found in the oceans (www.strawlessocean.org). Over 50% of plastic waste is plastic packaging and much of this is single use (www.wedocs.unep.org).
We will not sell straws at any of our events to eliminate the single use of straws at our festival.
4) Regular litter picks: Put together a plan for ensuring regular clean ups during the Event or Festival and encourage the attendees to get involved. Consider providing separate bins for different types of waste.
We have a team of helpers who pick up waste during and after our Saturday open air event and at the 3 partly seated events in the Victoria Hall. Our helpers take away the bottles in separate bins and deposit the bottles at bottle banks. We do not sell bottles to our customers, so this makes a huge difference to the amount of glass that goes into the general waste bins.
5) Plan to use eco-cleaners that are totally phosphate and chlorine free to avoid polluting our water courses
Our only outdoor event is held at a local distillery car park so there are no issues that we are aware of with pollution of local water courses
6) Display information in toilets about what can be flushed: “Only flush the 3 Ps – pee, poo and paper!”
We will display this information in toilets at all our venues. Certain venue already display this which is very helpful.
7)Make sure you, your staff and your customers (as required) know to dispose of kitchen fats, oils and greases in an appropriate way, never down the sink or drain.
We do not serve food at any of our indoor concerts so there is no food waste. We have spoken with the two caterers at our open air event and both of them take the necessary precautions RE dispose of kitchen fats, oils and greases.
8) Provide your customers with information and tools to find out more about Scotland’s wildlife and share their sightings.
As most of the event is held in the centre of Campbeltown there is very little wildlife visible at the event but our Sat tours of the harbour with Mull of Kintyre Sea Adventures offer a great opportunity for our visitors to share their sightings. We will work closely with the team from Mull of Kintyre Sea Adventures to put this in pace for 2023.
9) Support a wildlife organisation by becoming a member, sponsoring an animal, or volunteering.
We are in ongoing discussions with Mull of Kintyre Sea Adventures to firm up links with the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust and the festival
10) Provide your customers with information on historic and cultural places and experiences in your area.
We have held 2 Heritage & Culture Trail walks for the past 15 music festivals and we intend to continue those on the Tue and the Wed of each event. Each walk takes around 90 minutes, these walks are run in conjunction with the Argyll & Bute Council CARS and THI projects in Campbeltown.
11) Provide staff training by supporting familiarisation to related attractions and experiences in your local area, which will allow them to speak to your visitors knowledgeably and passionately.
We are working with Explore Kintyre & Gigha and Campbeltown Grammar School to see if we can help provide training for ‘local ambassadors’ to help visitors with directions and information on the area.
12) Provide your customers with information on activities and adventures in your area, whether that is water sports, walking or cycling
Working with the local DMO Explore Kintyre & Gigha we will be supply visitors with information on local attractions, places to stay and eat etc. The MOK Fest is a paid-up member of Explore Kintyre & Gigha and we are part of their Kintyre 66 project and promotion for Kintyre & Gigha so we will have maps and brochures at all our events to give away free.
13) Provide and promote Scottish sourced food and drink. Less food miles equals less Green House Gas.
The Music Festival is held in the centre of Campbeltown. One of the reasons for starting the event was to help local businesses and the local economy. As a result, we work closely with all the local food providers, restaurants, hotels and cafes to make sure that all our food and drink is from local suppliers where possible. The only event where we have catering suppliers is our open-air event on the Sat, For this we have only two caterers and both come from with the Campbeltown and Kintyre area. No catering is brought in from outside Kintyre lowering our food and drink Carbon Footprint to less than 100 miles in total for the whole event.
14) Make sure, as far as possible, that the food you serve at the Event or Festival comes from local and/or sustainably managed stocks.
All suppliers of food are served by local hotels, cafes, restaurants and caterers.
15) Clean a beach or water course: If your Event or Festival is going to take place on an island or near to the coastline, you might consider organising a clean-up with the help of your employees, volunteers and the local community.
We hold two events/activities on the harbour on Sat morning and early afternoon, our team of helpers and marshals make sure that any litter is cleaned up during the and immediately after the event.