While its lineup boasts some of the most exciting acts, from genre-defying headliners to boundary-pushing newcomers, it’s the festival’s unwavering commitment to sustainability that sets it apart in an increasingly saturated festival landscape.
In a previous feature, Music Is To Blame explored another area where We Love Green is leading by example: elevating female and non-binary artists in its line-up. You can read that article here.
At a time when the music industry is grappling with its environmental footprint, from the carbon cost of touring to the waste left behind at large-scale events, We Love Green offers a compelling alternative. It’s a prototype for how cultural events can exist in sync with the planet—a blueprint, or rather a “greenprint”, for what the future of live entertainment could look like.
Founded in 2011, We Love Green has consistently redefined what a modern music festival can be—not just a stage for performance, but a platform for ecological engagement. In 2025, it's pushing boundaries again, transforming what it means to gather, dance, and celebrate without leaving the planet behind.
A Festival Built Around The Environment, Not The Other Way Around
“We try to reinvent ourselves each year,” reads a mission statement from the festival’s sustainability team. This reinvention is visible everywhere on site—from the solar panel fields powering the stages to the dry, composting toilets dotting the grounds. In 2025, We Love Green is once again running on 100% renewable energy, with power sourced from solar panels, sustainable hydrogen, and B100 biodiesel (produced from recycled cooking oil).
The diesel generators that once quietly powered stages are gone, replaced by a grid of solar panels and innovative biofuels. At night, the lights still shine bright—but so does the message: that art, joy, and ecological responsibility are not mutually exclusive.
The logistics are just as carefully considered. Transport represents up to 80% of a festival's carbon footprint and We Love Green knows it. That’s why the organizers offer free shuttle buses, incentives for carpooling, and a heavily promoted public transport campaign. Even artists are encouraged to travel sustainably. And for those visiting from abroad? Eurostar and coach services feature the event as a prime destination for low-carbon travel to Paris.
In many ways, the festival feels like a city of the future, built for a weekend. And that’s the point: We Love Green is as much an experiment as it is a party.
Designing Out Waste
Zero-waste isn’t just an aspiration at We Love Green. In 2024, the festival achieved a 78% waste revalorisation rate, and in 2025, that number is set to rise.
Composting stations are omnipresent while plastic is non-existent. Attendees drink from reusable cups and eat off compostable tableware. Every detail, down to the ink used in printed materials (yes, it’s plant-based), contributes to the festival’s circular logic.
And rather than hiding the “backstage” of these efforts, We Love Green places it front and center. Waste sorting stations are staffed by volunteers who explain what goes where. Behind-the-scenes energy and material data is displayed openly. It’s a pedagogical festival: one that teaches while it parties!
Climate Talks With A Festival Wristband
Of course, it wouldn’t be a festival without music. But what makes We Love Green special is its refusal to consider entertainment without education. Just steps from the main stage is the festival’s ‘Think Tank’, a space that hosts scientists, artists, and activists for panels and discussions on the climate crisis, biodiversity, and rethinking systems from the ground up. It means that you can catch a set from a global superstar, then sit under a tent and listen to a conversation about degrowth and regenerative farming.
These panels run in parallel with live performances—inviting attendees to oscillate between art and activism, and to see both as part of the same cultural conversation.
This blend of culture and conscience is rare. And in 2025, it’s more of a need.
The Festival’s Green Menu
Sustainability at We Love Green extends to what’s on your plate.
The festival offers a 100% seasonal and locally sourced food court, with 60% of meals vegetarian or vegan. Chefs are selected not just for taste, but for their ethical and ecological commitments.
Meat, if present, must be traceable and low-impact. Food waste is minimised, tracked, and composted.
Setting The Standard In France, And Beyond
We Love Green isn’t alone. Across Europe, festivals are waking up to the climate emergency.
We Love Green is now part of a wider ecosystem of eco-conscious festivals across Europe. It’s an active member of the Future-Fit Festivals (3F) initiative, created by the European association YOUROPE, which promotes greener logistics, sustainable touring, and climate communication.
Amsterdam’s DGTL Festival is now zero-waste. The UK’s Lido Festival made headlines earlier this year by running an entire day on battery power.
But in France, We Love Green remains a pioneer. Its visibility, its influence, and its willingness to fail, learn, and try again make it not just a festival—but a model. One that challenges the idea that going green means scaling down. Here, ambition grows alongside the trees.
Dancing Toward a Different World
There’s something moving about watching a crowd of thousands lose themselves in music while standing on ground powered by sun and wind. The experience feels electric—not in spite of its sustainability, but because of it. In a world that often feels locked into doomscrolling and despair, We Love Green offers a rare sense of hope. Not in a naïve way, but in a tangible, tested, this-is-how-we-could-do-it way.
In a time when the music industry is reckoning with its environmental impact, We Love Green doesn’t just offer an escape, it offers a vision. A reminder that the future of music isn’t just about who’s on stage, but how that stage is built, powered, and shared.
And that ripple effect—the one that starts with music but ends with mindset—is what makes We Love Green more than just a weekend in the park.
It’s a vision. A blueprint. A greenprint!
We Love Green 2025 runs June 6–8 at the Bois de Vincennes, Paris.
For more on the festival’s environmental commitments, visit welovegreen.fr/green
Coming from the UK? Coaches and Eurostar are low-carbon routes to the heart of the action.
Lydia Sedda
Image: We Love Green 2025 Official Lineup Poster
