With the splash! festival we want to create special moments and bring people together, while at the same time taking responsibility. Our vision is to create experiences that change the world in a positive and sustainable way. 

In creating live experiences, we work in a resource-intensive field that impacts the environment and people. Music and culture, on the other hand, are vital - they empower us and can be a voice for an entire movement. Keeping our ecological footprint as small as possible while promoting social aspects of sustainability is a central concern of the splash! team.  

We are constantly working to critically examine our processes and procedures and improve them in terms of environmental and social responsibility. Whenever possible, we opt for the more sustainable alternative in our event planning. We interpret systemic and financial limitations as challenges that can serve as drivers for innovation. The splash! should be a role model, impulse generator and creative place for this - for example through our FAIRopolis Area directly on the camping grounds. There, since 2019, we have created a place where we raise awareness for various sustainability topics and give NGOs and initiatives a platform. 

Our values of openness, passion, respect and responsibility should not only be lived within our team, but also at our festivals. The splash! Festival is supposed be a colorful and diverse place, that leaves traces first and foremost in the form of beautiful memories and not through mountains of garbage, polluted water or destroyed forest and meadow areas. You are the most important part of our festival, so we need your support and help. On this page you will find tips on what you can do to make our festival more sustainable. 

THE GREEN EURO 

When you buy your festival ticket you will see it - the "Green Euro". It is already integrated in the price of your ticket: 1 Euro of it is earmarked for sustainability measures. The splash! team doubles this Euro again. Half of the resulting budget will go to the development of green infrastructures on the festival grounds. The second half is donated to an NGO or initiative that the splash! team chooses each year. How we spent the money will be made transparent here after the festival. 

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY 

Sustainability is a holistic issue that concerns not only ecological topics, but also social aspects. We keep both in mind, because everything is connected. 

Gender equality and diversity 

We live and breathe diversity and celebrate it in all its facets. We believe in the different strengths that a diverse team brings together. Individual lifestyles and cultural diversity are in the DNA of the hip hop scene and therefore also of splash! Festival. Only together and by treating each other with respect we can realize our vision of an open, discrimination-free space. 

Together with our employees, we create a working atmosphere in which we act independently of personal attributes such as age, sexuality, gender identification, origin, appearance and religion. That is why non-discriminatory language is important to us. All employees use an internal guideline for this purpose.  

At our events, we work continuously to break down barriers that often occur at festivals and other live events. The availability of gender-neutral toilets since 2022 is just one small, but in our eyes important example.   

We are also working on a more diverse and gender-responsive program on stage. That's why we are in exchange with the Keychange Initiative, which fights for more gender diversity in the music industry.  

Keychange is doing important work to make the music industry more equitable and to ensure that stages are represented by diverse voices and perspectives. We believe this is vital to a better music industry and a better society overall. 

We recognize that there is much work to be done to make the music industry a truly inclusive place, and we are ready to do our part. We look forward to seeing and hearing more diversity on our stage in the years to come, and we invite all festival visitors to help us achieve that goal. 

Find out more about Keychange here. 

Awareness 

We are committed to making all festival visitors feel welcome and safe. Please respect the privacy, lifestyle and opinions of others. Any kind of discrimination has no place at our festival. 

• We want all visitors to feel safe and comfortable at splash! If this is not the case for you, if you need to talk to someone or if you need a safe getaway, our awareness team will be there for you. Information about the safer spaces and the concept can be found here or via our social media channels and of course on site. 

• At splash! we will implement the awareness concept "Where is Panama?". If you say this code sentence to our staff or an awareness team member, you will immediately be taken to a safer space. Important note: You don't have to use this phrase to get help, you can also ask any colleague at splash! directly for the Awareness Team or a Safer Space.  

Accessibility 

splash! is for everyone! For many years, we have been implementing an on-site accessibility concept in cooperation with KulTh e.V. / Barrierefreies Festival. This includes audience stands, special access routes and toilets for people with walking disabilities as well as a barrier-free camping offer. More information will be available soon. 

Cooperation with NGOs and initiatives 

Cooperations with various NGOs have been an integral part of the concept of splash! Festival for many years.  

• In our FAIRopolis area we focus on infotainment & environmental education: Here, numerous NGOs and initiatives present themselves. You can find out more about this area on our website very soon.

• Through guest list contributions and residual amounts, we have been able to support numerous initiatives and NGOs with donations in recent years. In 2023, we were able to donate 9.500 € to regional and national initiatives. 

Strengthening the region  

The splash! belongs to Ferropolis. To strengthen the region and to keep logistical distances short, we use mostly regional products and suppliers. 

ECOLOGICAL RESPONSIBILITY 

Waste & Recyclables 

• General rule: reusable before disposable in front of and behind the stage. 

• We avoid single-use plastic and ask our brand partners to refrain from using promotional items that cause additional waste.  

• Strict waste separation applies on our festival field as well as behind the scenes.  

• We are working on establishing a mindful handling of waste on the campsite: Through Trash Walks, the Green Camp and our garbage deposit.   

• In order not to waste paper unnecessarily, we have a digital ticketing system. 

• Our recyclable material flows are tracked at the festival so that they can be better traced afterwards.  

Nutrition 

• For our crew and our artists we have Meatfree Friday at all festivals - and we kindly invite our visitors to do the same. 

• At least one vegetarian dish can be purchased at all food stalls, and a wide range of vegan options are also available. 

• All of our food products are as regional and seasonal as possible and bear the Fairtrade seal. 

• We minimize food waste through cooperations with Foodsharing and Die Tafel Wittenberg. 

• In the upcoming year, we are working on offering more free drinking water stations. 

Energy

• Our festival-venue Ferropolis already generates electricity from its own photovoltaic system. 

• Ferropolis' further energy needs are partly covered by certified green electricity. We are working on optimizing our power distribution in 2024 in order to eliminate diesel generators even more in the future.  

Logistics & Resources  

• Efficient logistics save resources. This also applies to our shuttles.  

• We are testing the use of electricity-powered wheel loaders in a pilot project. 

• Our crew comes to Ferropolis via carpooling and ridesharing. 

• We use advertising material like banners for several years to be conscious with printed material.  

• Our festival merchandise and crew shirts are made from certified raw material (Continental Certification, Eco-Text Standard). The crew shirts come from local production in Halle (Saale). We refrain from single packaging of crew shirts and merch items in plastic 

• Step by step we replace mobile chemical toilets with mobile dry toilets. 

• A mindful use of resources and the use of products with Fairtrade/Bio/Blauer Engel seal wherever possible are a matter of course for us. 

• Respect your fellow human beings and treat each other and our nature fairly, so that all people can have fun at splash! and we can all enjoy our festival location for a long time to come. 

• Watch out for each other! If you notice that another person has been the victim of assaultive behavior, do not hesitate to approach our awareness team or security and ask for help.  

• Travel by train or bus. 

• If you are traveling by car, carpool - it's better for the environment, saves money and is more fun. 

• Buy camping equipment that you plan to use for a long time and take all of your equipment home with you. 

• Use the trash bags provided and take your trash to the drop-off stations at the end of the festival. 

• Respect our lake and the creatures in it: don't use shampoo or shower gel when bathing in the lake, and don't put on sunscreen until after swimming.  

• Wild peeing harms the soil, plants and animals - please use the fixed and portable toilets on site. 

• Try out our dry composting toilets. 

• Take part in Meatfree Friday or abstain from meat during the festival weekend. 

• In general, only buy as much food and beverages for the campsite as you can consume. Keep in mind that there are many delicious food and beverage options both on the festival grounds and at the campground.  

• Save water and keep shower time short. 

• Refrain from using disposable tableware.  

• Get to know great NGOs and initiatives in our FAIRopolis Area at exciting workshops, talks or live podcasts. Find out how you can get involved easily and directly.

We are aware that we will always be on the way when it comes to the topic of sustainability, as it is all about continuous improvement. Therefore, we also want to share transparently which topics we would like to work on more in the future. The end of the pandemic was a new start for us, which we are currently using to create a carbon footprint for our festival. On this basis, we can derive even more concrete goals and measures for the coming years and better understand our levers for more sustainability. 

Furthermore, we would like to work more intensively on the following topics in the future: 

• Expanding waste separation on the entire site, increasing recycling rates and making material flows even more visible.  

• Completely abandon diesel-powered generators 

• Reduction of car travel and expansion of alternative travel options 

• Enable train travel to the festival site 

• Expansion of the Green Camp  

• Barrier-free Accessibility of our websites 

• Code of Conduct for service providers  

• Responsible marketing (brand partnerships) 

• Social ticketing 

• Diversification of the line-up