First CO2-neutral festival in Austria: Paradise Garden Festival powered 100% by renewable energy

Austria's first CO2-neutral music festival enters its second round from August 4 to 6 in front of Prugg Castle in Bruck an der Leitha and continues to expand its sustainability concept.

Big news at Austria's most sustainable music festival: this year, the Paradies Garten electronic music festival will be the first major event of its kind to supply the festival's entire core area with 100% renewable energy from locally generated wind and solar power. With this pioneering measure, the festival is underlining its efforts to promote sustainability and environmental protection in the local festival and event industry. The power supply for the entire three days will be provided directly via the local power grid in cooperation with Energiepark Bruck an der Leitha. This environmentally friendly decision has an impressive impact: a whopping 12,500 kg of CO2 emissions and the consumption of 5,000 liters of diesel fuel will be avoided.

Since its foundation last year, Paradies Garten has made it its mission to keep the ecological footprint as small as possible and would like to actively support the sustainable organization of major events in Austria with the ongoing publication of CO2 balances.

Austria's greenest music festival

The award of the "CO2-neutral seal" confirms the event's goal of becoming the greenest music festival in Austria.

Our greatest success in terms of reducing our CO2 footprint is our close cooperation with ÖBB as a Green Mobility Partner, with whom we are once again offering free night trains from Bruck an der Leitha to Vienna this year, explains organizer and co-founder Felix Mayr-Melnhof. According to recent studies, 80% of CO2 emissions from major events are caused by the public's journey to the event. Because almost two thirds of our visitors used the train to travel to and from the event last year, we were able to reduce this proportion by more than half, i.e. to around 30%, which is a fantastic result for our carbon footprint, adds Mayr-Melnhof.

Michael Hannesschläger, Managing Director of Energiepark Bruck/Leitha, emphasizes:

We produce clean, green and CO2-free electricity very close by. On the one hand with one of our wind farms around the corner from the festival site and on the other with our Sonnenfeld agri-photovoltaic plant - both are just a few kilometers away from the festival site as the crow flies. As an energy park, we are very happy to support a festival like Paradies Garten that is so sustainable and CO2-neutral. After all, sustainability and regionality are extremely important to us too!

The commitment to sustainability is part of a larger initiative by the organizers to improve the festival's eco-friendly practices. Last year, this was already demonstrated by the ban on single-use plastic throughout the festival site, the introduction of reusable cups and a well thought out waste management plan. This year, the organizers want to go one step further and, above all, tackle the problem of energy supply at the festival site in a sustainable way.

We have been working towards the goal of using only green electricity since we set out a year ago to become Austria's most sustainable music festival and we are delighted to be able to achieve this for the first time this year. Phasing out fossil fuels and replacing them with renewable energy at the festival site is just one of the many steps we have taken and will undoubtedly pave the way for reducing the environmental impact of many other major festivals, says the organizer.

Paradies Garten is also the first cashless festival in Austria with an open payment system. Together with Mastercard in cooperation with Global Payments, Paradies Garten is already relying on cashless payment, as it did last year, and is dispensing not only with all cash, but also with cashless wristbands. Visitors to the festival can therefore pay conveniently at all bars and snack stands using their ATM or credit card as well as their smartphone - in other words, "open-loop" cashless. With Mastercard and Global Payments as partners, the makers of Paradies Garten are relying on a wealth of expertise and many years of experience in the implementation of cashless large-scale events: Mastercard has already equipped events such as the Hahnenkamm Race in Kitzbühel with a cashless area and entire soccer stadiums with "open-loop" cashless on a permanent basis, proving that cashless payment appeals to a wide audience.

All details and ticket information can be found here.