Whoop & Hollar values ecological, economic, and social sustainability. Our organization strives to promote respect and appreciation for our environment through its operations during the festival and throughout the year, through festival programming and workshops, and through sustainable management of the festival site.

 

We encourage our festival community to LEAVE NO TRACE, meaning to be courteous stewards of the land and return the festival site to the way it was before arriving at the event—while creating little impact.

 

In July 2018, we welcomed Ian Wassink to our team as the festival’s first-ever Sustainability Coordinator. Under Ian's lead, Whoop & Hollar has been able to further reduce its ecological footprint in ways that include successfully eliminating bottled water sales at the 2018 festival.

 

Going forward, drinking water stations with compostable cups will be located around the festival site, along with a 100% compostable food packaging and waste program at the food vendor stations. Our volunteer crew of 50+ folkies has minimal waste output with a new reusable plate-washing program.

 

We welcome you to bring your refillable water bottle to the event. However, compostable cups will be located at all drinking water stations (as mentioned above) and refillable water bottles will be sold at Sawmill Catering's food booth.

 

As part of the sustainability initiatives, Ian has coordinated a group bicycle ride to site in the past (pre-COVID). We now have a bicycle rack for any cyclists who want to ride to site on their own.

 

The festival encourages carpooling to site and will also be running a free, round-trip shuttle from Portage la Prairie three times on Saturday (leaving Herman Prior Activity Centre at 12:00 pm (returning 3:30 pm), 4:00 pm (returning 7:30 pm), and 8:00 pm (returning midnight)).

 

Other sustainable features of the festival site include a virgin cottonwood forest, a prairie pollinator garden, among a variety of other natural areas for all living things.