Despite the disappointment that some fans may experience on hearing the news that Lily Allen has pulled out of the Isle of Wight festival, the upturn of it is that the organisers are planning on using the money on something a little more sustainable; the environment.

In the wake of Radiohead's Thom Yorke refusing to play Glastonbury down to its rather large carbon footprint, festival promoter John Giddings had promised to use the money that he would have spent on Allen, and instead spend it on making the festival more ecologically friendly. While the Isle of Wight is brining in its own Eco Island Policy, it is a perfect time for a big name festival to jump on the green band wagon.

So what is it about festivals? In general festivals are a mixture of environmental damage in a massive way and minimal to low ecological impact. In terms of what damage a festival weekend can cause, the excited music fans travelling across the country (and in some cases flying in from abroad) can leave a significant carbon footprint. Then there is the small issue of rubbish. The amount of beer drunk at a festival, in paper- not glass- cups can leave a sobering amount of litter, which is unsurprisingly, barely recycled. Yet on the other hand festival goers use literally no electricity or water during a festival weekend (unfortunately for the 'normal folk' who bump into them on their way home) therefore dragging their energy consumption down to a primitive low. The argument then, is how can festival organisers build on this to make their festivals green enough for artists like Radiohead?

Carling's Reading and Leeds festivals last year made a noble attempt at dealing with the rubbish issue. Every cup returned would earn you 10p, which would mean ten cups would earn you £1. Twenty cups £2 etc- basically you could buy a lot more beers if you collected a lot more cups. This inevitably lead to people picking up other peoples rubbish, taking it in to be recycled and enjoying an ice cold carling at the end of it.

Lamer Tree Festival, a smaller world music festival that has been around for years, has always had solar run showers, which although a great idea is possibly less effective in the recent 'summers' that we have experienced. Smaller festivals always tend to draw in a 'swampy' crowd anyway, so attempting to make them as ecological as possible will only go down well. It is slightly more difficult at one of the larger festivals because of the possibility of things going wrong. However, Mr Giddings efforts in the Isle of Wight will not go unnoticed by festival goers and bands alike.

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