How green was my festival: Exploring challenges and opportunities associated with staging green events

Organisers of events are increasingly looking to highlight their green credentials. This is occurring against the background of an increasingly sophisticated market that is suspicious of claims that cannot be substantiated. This conceptual paper explores some of the issues encompassing the management and staging of a green event. It examines the importance of engaging a range of key stakeholders and considers various ways in which events are greening their operations. This paper then considers some of the challenges involved in incorporating green messages into an event theme. It concludes with an analysis of future research needs associated with green events.