Bellarine Catchment Network and Queenscliff Music Festival Volunteers: 2020 Winner – Environmental Volunteering
Bellarine Catchment Network and Queenscliff Music Festival Volunteers is the winner in the Premier's Sustainability Awards 2020 – Environmental Volunteering category. QMF's War on Waste
The Bellarine Catchment Network (BCN) has a long-term relationship with the Queenscliff Music Festival (QMF) and its community of volunteers. BCN is a not-for-profit group that includes more than 30 community groups who supported the QMF volunteers to develop and plan a range of sustainability initiatives. The 2019 festival saw an 86% increase in the number of community volunteers. The festival went ‘fully reusable’ for all vendors and the 24,000 attendees, resulting in only 178kg of waste sent to landfill over the three-day festival.
The use of the ‘Be a Local Hero’ campaign imagery and messaging provided a connection to the impact of waste on wildlife and the sensitive environment surrounding the festival site; assisting in driving patron engagement to keep the site waste free. Over 500 families took part in sustainability activities, including seed propagation, litter and fishing games, beachcombing and Ramsar wetland awareness.
To manage food waste, QMF partnered with Feed Me Bellarine, a volunteer community driven food sharing program. Across the event, approximately 500kg of surplus food was rescued and delivered to people in need.
