We held the greenest Wadstock ever this year

Renowned as as Oxford's premier one-day student music festival, Wadstock always features the freshest bands, solo acts, DJs and comedy performers. This year, Wadham's very own student festival was still the best for food, drink and entertainment, but also our greenest yet!

Director of Sustainability, Frances Lloyd, worked with our student Entz and Environment & Ethics reps to reduce waste, increase recycling, and minimise the impact on the environment of this 12-hour event. The Wadham Green Team used old fabric to make signs for bins and the waste stations around College, to make the labelling as clear as possible. We aimed to reduce cross contamination and ensure that as much could be recycled as possible. No red meat was served, but there was a wealth of alternative options. In line with our goal of removing all single-use plastic from Wadham, the cups were all reusable. When they had finished with them, partygoers were asked to stack cups in old carpet tubes donated for that purpose in preparation for the clear up the next day.

A total of 72.75 Kg of waste, 35.28 Kg of which could be recycled, was generated at Wadstock 2026. The food waste came to 14.39 Kg; and 23.08 Kg of general waste went to landfill from this 12-hour event.

We will strive to reduce this at future events. However, these figures are encouraging when compared with the waste generated at Queerfest 2025, which was a 6-hour event. Following Queerfest, there was a total of 119.32 Kg of waste, 33.15 Kg of which could be recycled. The food waste came to 25.6 Kg; and 60.57 Kg of general waste went to landfill.

Thank you to our students, staff, suppliers, and everyone involved in helping us to make this wonderful student festival as environmentally friendly as possible. We will continue our efforts to reduce the waste we generate and hope that next year, Wadstock 2027 will be the greenest yet.