We're dedicated to environmental responsibility and are working on auditing our impact to meet zero waste.
We work above best practice in the waste space and are proud to say that at our last festival in 2024, 85% of our waste was diverted from landfill.
At the Wānaka Festival of Colour, we are dedicated to reducing our environmental impact and working towards a zero-waste event. Through our partnership with Wastebusters, we ensure that waste is minimised, resources are reused, and recycling is maximised across all festival venues.
Key Waste Minimisation Initiatives:
✅ SUC Free Wānaka – We proudly support the Single-Use Cup Free Wānaka initiative. Please bring your own reusable cup to help us reduce waste. Our festival café and bar will use only reusable cups and serveware.
✅ Reusable Serveware – All food and drink at our main venues are served using reusable crockery and glassware, reducing single-use waste.
✅ Comprehensive Recycling & Composting – Waste stations are set up at The Crystal Palace and Lake Wānaka Centre to separate glass, paper, cardboard, and food scraps, ensuring they are properly processed. Waste is collected from all venues and responsibly sorted. Our caterers, Federal Diner, feed food waste to their pigs and create compost for their gardens.
✅ Waste Audits & Reduction Targets – Where possible, we conduct waste audits to track our impact and aim to reduce single-use coffee cups by 50% at the 2026 festival. We hope to have audit measures in place for 2025.
✅Digital Programmes – We are minimising printed materials and encouraging festival-goers to use our digital programme to reduce paper waste.
✅ Eco-Friendly Signage & Merch – Our signage is designed for reuse, and we encourage vendors to use minimal packaging and sustainable materials.
✅ Waste-Free Event Operations– Our backstage waste hub, volunteer waste sorters, festival staff and dedicated waste management team help us divert waste from landfill.
✅ Carbon Footprint Awareness – We acknowledge that flying and driving our artists, speakers and crew has an impact. As part of our ongoing sustainability efforts, we plan to audit our greenhouse gas emissions to identify areas where we can reduce our carbon footprint and improve efficiencies in future festivals.
✅Love Wānaka - Where possible, our Festival Team engages in local community educational workshops, tree plantings and initiatives to learn how we can reduce our impact. The photos adjacent are from a industry tree planting day with Te Kakano in 2023. Photo credits: Jordan Siobhan @Valley Content.
How You Can Help:
🌏Bring your own reusable cup and water bottle
🌏Carpool, bike, or use public transport
🌏Follow waste station signage at the festival.
🌏Use your eTickets to scan in rather than printing tickets.
Let's create a sustainable, waste-conscious festival that respects our beautiful place. Thank you for doing your part!
#FESTIVALOFCOLOUR
#ASPIRING CONVERSATIONS
The Festival of Colour and Aspiring Conversations offers fantastic opportunities for arts and ideas lovers, enthusiasts and students to support our festival performances and speaker programming, assist the artists and speakers, engage with the public and be the face of the Festival!
And don’t forget…. you get to see some of New Zealand’s best cultural performances – for free!
Click here for our volunteer agreement and health & safety brief to register as a volunteer.
Each festival we require an exceptional team of volunteers to assist our team with a variety of roles.
Do I need any prior experience?
You do not require any prior experience but we do request that you sign up for a minimum of three front of house sessions or the equivalent time on other festival jobs.
Example of volunteer duties:
Artist transport
Assisting with door sales
Hospitality and service areas
Office support and admin support
Programme distribution
Programme launch
Setting & resetting of venues for performances and sessions
Ticketing
Venue ushering and front of house support
What will I get in return for volunteering my time?
A festival T-shirt, an invitation to the volunteer thank you function and an opportunity to see some fantastic cultural performances.
Is there an age restriction?
No, we’d love to work with volunteers of all ages.
How long will I be needed for?
Roles vary in length but we try our best to keep shifts to around 5 hours max.
Can I watch the performance during the shift?
Absolutely…as long as you’re still ‘on the job’ we encourage everyone to watch and enjoy the performances.
Who can I contact with further questions?
Please contact us on
laura@festivalofcolour.co.nz
Register now to volunteer for Festival 2025. We'd love for you to join us!
