Music Festivals as Venues for Peer Environmental Education

The United Kingdom has set a goal of reducing the country's overall carbon emissions by 80% by the year 2050. Industries across the U.K. have initiated plans to combat carbon emissions, including the music industry and music festivals, which significantly contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. To meet this goal, young Brits must be educated about their personal emissions and how to reduce them. Therefore, the researchers of this study investigated the effectiveness of peer education engagement to teach music festival-goers about their personal carbon and other greenhouse emissions. This study also explored attendees' awareness and attitudes regarding carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions.

Music festivals in the United Kingdom are attended by nearly 3.9 million people per year and emit approximately 540,000 tons of greenhouse gases annually. Therefore, this type of venue, one in which the event itself plays a contributing role in the country's overall emissions count, was specific and significant to the study. The project titled “Face Your Elephant” aims to understand music festival attendees' attitudes and behaviors in regard to greenhouse gas emissions overall, and established exhibits at music festivals in the U.K. At these exhibits, trained peer educators to engage in open, inclusive, and non-judgmental conversations about personal and national carbon emissions and practices. Over the course of the 10-year study (between 2001-2015), peer educators engaged with 10,200 music festival attendees at 15 different festivals within the United Kingdom. While the peer educator group participated in festivals during the summer season (June-August), the research and communications training for the educators lasted the duration of the calendar year. The peer educator group was comprised of members from the U.K.-based national youth charity “The Woodcraft Folk” and grew to include students from various institutions. Peer educators were trained on weekends in social interaction and in specific research elements as an aid to their conversations with festival attendees. The festivals ranged in size in overall attendance from 500 to 150,000 attendees, and the peer educators staffed the exhibit at each festival every day from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

This study collected several different types of data. Of the 10,200 attendees at 10 festivals that the peer educators engaged with, the authors surveyed 2,308 people (23%) after they had visited the peer educator exhibit. Additionally, 240 festival attendees completed an individual carbon calculator tool to measure personal emissions attitudes and awareness among attendees. Researchers also surveyed 32 members of the peer educator team before and after the festival events, as well as before and after training events. Researchers conducted these surveys to understand whether educators felt well-prepared educators and how the booth could be adjusted over time to better engage with attendees. In addition, they gathered data on the cohesiveness and satisfaction within the peer educator group amongst themselves, as this was identified to be part of the success of the program itself. Generator and electricity output data from the festival as a whole was also collected and reported minute-by-minute through online monitors and data loggers. Additional methods of data collection included photo/video recordings, and comment cards submitted by festival attendees. The authors analyzed the data using statistics and for recurring themes for both the festival attendee groups and for the peer educator group.

The study found that the peer education strategy utilized in this research was effective in educating festival-goers about personal carbon- and greenhouse gas-emitting practices. The research demonstrated that festival attendees generally were aware of climate change but that attitudes toward climate change varied. Researchers concluded that this pointed to the need for further discussion between educators and attendees within the exhibit about attitudes surrounding carbon emissions, rather than focusing on awareness of the issue.

Of the 1,361 attendees surveyed at one festival, 33% reported increased interest in careers or future education in the fields of science and engineering after having attended the exhibit. This points to the further effectiveness of this peer education group in influencing science-related career choices. The majority of festival attendees surveyed did not hold a degree in a science-related subject, and researchers concluded that the lack of science background among attendees may have allowed for deeper education. This result supports the idea that science education can be effective in venues not typically considered to be rooted in science.

The peer educators felt that their ability to engage with the audience improved over the course of the project and that they were effective in conveying their message. The findings indicated that members of the peer educator group more deeply understood how behaviors and attitudes of the festival-goers toward carbon emissions were developed and created as a result of their participation in this effort.

This study has several limitations. The authors did not provide extensive detail on how certain types of data were collected or analyzed. Researchers reported difficulty in securing long-term funding for this type of project which may have prevented fuller implementation of the study. Researchers also expressed that it was challenging to collaborate with the numerous parties to facilitate this study. Lastly, researchers noted the logistical difficultly of measuring the lasting impression of the interactions between festival-goer and peer educator over time.

The researchers recommend creating peer environmental education programming at non-science venues focusing on changing attitudes toward climate change, not solely on increasing awareness. The study also recommends that peer educators should avoid imposing an underlying negative tone in the targeted attitude-changing programming as it could lead to lack of empathy and compassion. Instead, the study suggests integrating positivity throughout programming and conversations with the audience. The authors emphasize the importance of proper training and checking in with peer educators. In addition, the authors recommend using generators at festivals to accommodate power from alternative energy and discussing those generator changes with festival attendees. Lastly, researchers note the importance in educating both adults and children through these efforts and place emphasis on face-to-face conversations.