Assembly Festival is proud to be a green festival organiser, putting sustainability at the heart of our operational decisions. We work closely with partners and community members to implement practices that create sustainable events.
As part of the Green Arts Initiative, Assembly contributes to the development of a greener arts sector in Scotland.
We do our best to mitigate the impact of the Festival by taking industry advice on maintaining the well-being of the green spaces and reducing our impact on the climate.
Sustainable Materials & Habits
At our Festival hub of George Square Gardens, we ensure that vegetation is protected for our stay and that the lawn and soil are restored quickly and effectively at the end of the Festival. Our food and drink outlets continue to operate with compostable cutlery and packaging, recycling and minimising food wastage wherever possible.
This endeavour to minimise waste runs through our entire production; we reuse and store most equipment and material, we donate our used plumbing pipes to local farms, our foamex goes to a cosplay designer who sells to charity, and we recycle all our waste wood with moveon.org.uk too. This Edinburgh-based community interest company recycles timber to make furniture or sells it to builders and the general public.
All plastic used in our bars is fully recyclable, and plastic straws are no longer available.
Wherever possible, we operate a reduce, reuse, recycle policy for all materials during our build and use electric cargo bikes to transport materials between our performance spaces.
E-Ticketing
In 2021 Assembly Festival joined other Fringe venues in fully embracing -ticketing technology. After a successful pilot in 2019 and trials at our year-round venue, Assembly Roxy; e-tickets proved to be an essential response to the pandemic. We helped drive the change that saw e-tickets become the default choice at the Edinburgh Fringe. You still have the choice of a paper ticket for those who like a memento of your experience; visit one of our box offices in person, and the team will be happy to help.
Cashless
We are also fully cashless across food stalls, bars and box offices, with physical payment options available at our box office in George Square for those who require this access. We have partnered with Square this year to ensure seamless digital payments across all points of sales.
Local Partnerships & Suppliers
Most importantly, we understand the importance of locally sourcing and minimising transport miles. As a Scottish business, our supply chain is sourced primarily from Edinburgh and the Lothians region first, to reduce transport miles of materials and our carbon footprint.
What you can do...
- Go and see shows - discover our full programme
- Make digital payments at our box offices, food and bar outlets
- Check if materials are recyclable and dispose of them appropriately
- Edinburgh is a compact city so use public transport, walk or wheel between venues and soak in that Fringe energy - start to planning your trip now