Sweden’s Way Out West may have been able to rest on its laurels as a major festival through its past acts alone.
Since its founding in 2007, the festival has hosted the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Florence + The Machine, Neil Young and The Cure. Oh, Prince also played the festival in 2011.
But when Way Out West really broke the mould was in 2012. With its meat-free initiative, which banned all meat food options within the event, it was one of the first major festivals to address the festival industry’s impact on climate change through meaningful action.
This would then go on to become somewhat of the norm. Festivals such as the UK-based Shambala boasts many sustainability practices, from vegetarian-only food options to powering the site through 100% renewable electricity. But at the time, what Way Out West introduced was something quite revolutionary.
Sustainability is now not only an afterthought, or at best a way to appease climate conscious attendees who spend their monthly wages on a ticket. Sustainability is an expectation.
Way Out West, which took place 7-9 August, welcomed the likes of Pet Shop Boys, Charli XCX, Chappelle Roan and many more to Stockholm. But potentially more impactful than bringing some of the world’s biggest artists to this pocket of Scandinavia is its ongoing dedication to sustainable practices and innovation.
Here, we learn more about that from Filip Hiltmann, Head of Marketing at Way Out West.
Festival Insights: How was this year’s festival?
“It was intense, but so good and rewarding. We broke our attendance record for the fourth consecutive year, and the Friday and the Saturday was the two most attended days in the history of the festival. So it was an intense, but good year for us.”
Festival Insights: 2012 was the year when you brought in lots of pro-active sustainable actions, but now you’re welcoming 78,000 people to a sold out event, and broke attendance records along the way. How do you keep a festival at your size sustainable?
“Our festival site is a big key on how to keep it sustainable. It’s in the middle of the city, so we have everything close by.
If you were doing a Glastonbury in a field, you have to bring in electricity and water. We already have that infrastructure, and that’s a big part of it. No festival visitors take the car to the site either. You have to travel on the tram or a bike, but being so central that’s not a problem. So obviously, the location is a big part of how to keep we keep it sustainable.
Adding to that, we always want to be in the forefront of adopting technological advances. Whenever there’s a new way to power a stage more sustainably, we want to try it.”
Festival Insights: How have your sustainability practices changed and evolved since 2012? And what are the new challenges there?
“2012 was a big year for us as we went fully vegetarian, which at the time was so rare. And it came with a big media fuss. We were really at the forefront of that, and after that we introduced new initiatives.
We introduced no single used plastics, but now we want to challenge the alcohol norms. Everybody likes a beer, but we’ve introduced alcohol-free bars. All these initiatives are to be as sustainable as possible. We evolve with time, so when there’s a new technological advancement we want to jump on it, both in terms of ecological and social sustainability.
They go hand in hand. It’s about giving visitors a choice, and this can be a good force in the world.”
Festival Insights: What are the challenges in kind of keeping your ethos moving forward?
“The things we couldn’t dream about doing 10 years ago is possible now. We can power stages in new ways. The general understanding of the public is growing, and now we wonder how we can influence other major festivals and events.
It’s not only about festivals inspiring festivals. How can we influence sports? How can we work with stadiums to make them sustainable? It’s really hard to keep things sustainable, but if you can learn from from other event organisers, regardless of what it is, then I think that’s a good thing.”
Festival Insights: You said this festival is very much an experiment. Are there things you wish you could have done differently?
“You can always get better, and we are not perfect in any way. We welcome criticism, and we want these conversations to be ongoing. There are so many things that we want to get better at, so our attitude is, let’s discuss together, find a solution and do it.
This is really important between event organisers. That we can share ideas and infrastructures and more to reach a solution that’s better for everyone in the end.
And where do these ideas come from? Sometimes, they come from our partners, and we work with a lot of NGOs who are always pushing us to do things which we love. But inevitably, in the end, it comes down to the festival management team.”
Festival Insights: When it comes to the festival-goers, do you think that’s changing?
“Yes and no. We commissioned a study with Gen Z respondents, and a majority said that they expect everything to be sustainable. If it wasn’t sustainable, then they wouldn’t like to go.
This [sustainability] is now an expectation for new crowds. And this is really cool. It means that if we’re not doing our sustainability work, then we won’t attract the younger generations. And that’s a problem all festivals are dealing with.”
Festival Insights: If someone wanted to start a new festival in 2026 while making it sustainable, what advice would you have for them? Is that possible in the current market?
“If an organiser finds these elements important, then you can find the right partners and get the right information from from other festivals. If you mostly care about having a successful edition in what is a risky business, then the question of sustainability might not be at the top of your head.
But it starts with the organiser and the management team and how you’re going to work sustainably. If you can map out what you think is important, then the matter of sustainability is not that hard to figure out in 2026.”
Way Out West will take place from 13-15 August 2026. Find out more information here.
