Australia's largest outdoor festival will be offering visitors an "environmentally conscious" chance to camp in the great outdoors this summer … in a cardboard tent.

For the first time, the Woodford Folk Festival has included KarTents — a tent made entirely of cardboard — as one of the accommodation options for the annual event on Queensland's Sunshine Coast that attracts more than 130,000 visitors, artists and musicians between Boxing Day and New Year's Day.

At that time of year, weather conditions in south-east Queensland can be fraught.

Dutch company KarTent is behind the invention, which has been used at more than 600 events worldwide and 10 festivals in Australia.

KarTent chief executive Jan Portheine said the cardboard tents had been tested in Australian conditions.

"They are made of the thicker cardboard normally found in packaging," he said, adding that the contraption was also water and fire resistant.

"The outer layers are strong and resist rain for some time.

"Nine days is our guarantee but the record is three-and-a-half months in rain."

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The tents are fastened to the ground with staples and two pegs.

Mr Portheine said the two-peg factor helped to make the tents more wind resistant.

"We had a festival last year in Australia at Wollongong and there were strong winds and there wasn't a problem," he said.

"There were normal tents scattered around the campsite while there were people waving and sitting around a KarTent."

He said the tent was also cooler because it stayed "nice and dark in the morning".

Jan Portheine is keen to provide a more environmentally friendly alternative to camping. ( Facebook: Jan Portheine )

One in four tents dumped after festivals

Mr Portheine stumbled across the idea for cardboard tents three years ago while studying architecture at the Technical University of Delft.

For his graduation project, the young entrepreneur used cardboard as a construction material while working on a beach house for the government.

Then he came across a picture showing how tents were being dumped and left behind at festivals, with other research suggesting one in four tents were dumped.

"That's sort of how it all started. We wanted to offer a recyclable alternative for the same price as a normal tent in a supermarket," Mr Portheine said.

He said the problem was tent manufacturers were offering "cheaper and poorer quality plastic tents all over the globe".

"That's why this problem is in an unstoppable phase.

"It is so easy to get a cheap tent now. Why would you bother to take it home?"

The Woodford Folk Festival attracts up to 130,000 people each year. ( Supplied: Woodford Folk Festival )

Alternative to 'throw away' culture

Mr Portheine said he had contacted Woodford organisers about using his tents after a friend mentioned the festival.

Woodford Folk Festival general manager Amanda Jackes said the decision was made to incorporate KarTent because it was an " innovative and ethical company" and was an alternative for "environmentally conscious Woodfordians".

"We noticed they provided a real solution to the 'throw away' tent culture emerging in some festivals here and overseas," she said.

"Although Woodford Folk Festival doesn't have this problem, to be able to offer our patrons an economical and environmentally friendly alternative to cheap, low-quality plastic tents that are often used just once or twice is great."

Ms Jackes said less than three months out from the event, festival goers were curious.

"We have had up to 800 people on the website at one point, however no bookings as yet."

A few tents did not survive the downpour of rain at a South Gippsland music festival. ( ABC Gippsland: Amber Irving-Guthrie )

A glitch in the wet

But the company's success rate in Australia has not been all smooth sailing after a glitch at Unify, a heavy music festival in South Gippsland in January.

Torrential rain transformed the festival site into a sea of mud, and a number of the cardboard shelters did not survive the deluge.

However, KarTent spokesman Lee Webber said 330 people had slept in the cardboard tents and most of the shelters survived the downpour.

The affected tent dwellers were given new tents to keep them dry.

Facebook: KarTent ( Facebook: KarTent )

Nuts and bolts of a flat pack tent

The tents come in "a flat pack on a pallet", but would be built on site for occupiers and then recycled after the festival.

The tent door is sent for paper recycling, the shell of the tent is put through a cutting machine to make boxes, and the company's website explains they could be reused to make "toilet paper, books, shoe boxes or other romantic things".

The tent also comes with a box of crayons for its occupiers to create their own individual decorations.

Mr Portheine said the company was working on have cardboard tents that "you can fit in a backpack" within five years.