Posted by Yara Coelho on Aug 12, 2014 in Articles, Countries, Eco-tourism, Nature, Portugal |

Eco-housing, sustainability and deep ecology – Boom festival 2014

The Boom festival which takes place in Idanha a Nova – Portugal – is probably the world’s largest ecological festival in the world!

For the ones who already heard about the Boom festival, you might be aware of the ecological awareness and pioneer Eco-projects present in this cultural and artistic festival. No wonder they have won many Eco awards related to their active ecology projects.

– Outstanding Greener Festival Award 2012, 2010 and 2008. – European Festival Award 2010 – Green’n’Clean Festival of the Year. – European Festival Award 2012 – Shortlisted as one of the three greenest festivals of the year. – Green Inspiration Award 2012. – Member of the United Nations Music & Environment Stakeholder Initiative.

This year of 2014, the Boom gathered around 40.000 people from all over the world, , who traveled to Portugal to experience 7 days of Ecology, culture, workshops on sustainability/Ecology, natural health and all sorts of art. During those 7 days, this farm became a mini Eco-village.

THE WATER AT THE BOOM FESTIVAL

All water used at the Boom festival, either from the kitchens or showers is later returned to nature in it’s purest forms thanks to a radically innovative water treatment, which granted them the prestigious “Green inspirations award” in 2012!

This water treatment is based on Bio-remediation and evapo-transpiration. What does that mean? It means that all grey waters will pass by a living filter before they’re returned to nature. The waters pass by several garden beds, like the one of the photo above, where it’s allowed to evaporate, while the roots of the plants take care of the cleansing. No chemicals are used and the water has been tested and proved to be 100% suitable for irrigation.

COMPOST TOILETS

What started in 2006 as an innovation with 20 compost toilet units, is now in 2014 a total success with 284 units. A unique project for a festival and one of the best ways to promote awareness of the need to save resources and reuse waste.

Whoever has been to festivals knows how stinky and dirty toilets can get and the amount of chemicals used to deal with the waste and to keep it all relatively clean. Well, the Boom toilets were 100% odor free, sparkling clean and 100% chemical free! All the wasted collected will later on be used as fertilizer for the gardens.

Our modern flushing toilets waste millions of liters of clean water, a precious resource that is so scarce in so many parts of the planet. At the Boom festival, water is precious.

THE BOOM USES EFFICIENT ENERGY

The Boom is in constant search to use clean, ecological and reusable off the grid energies!

In 2008, the Boom festival collected 45.000 lts of used vegetable oil which powered the generators, which saved 117.000kg of CO2 to be released in the atmosphere. The Boom vehicles are also powered by used vegetable oils.

The use of public forms of transportation, such as the Boom buses are highly recomended and in 2014, 165 Boom buses saved 800tons of CO2!

BIO-CONSTRUCTION

The Boom festival has been exploring different ways of re-using natural materials and exploring both modern and ancient forms of construction. The use of local materials and ancient tribal housing, gives the Boom festival a radical new approach to housing.

The use of straw-bale, mud, clay, adobe, bamboo, stone are present in some of the most beautiful Boom buildings, such as the Liminal Village, where most of the workshops took place in 2014.

The diversity and creativity of different constructions saw no limits at the Boom festival 2014!

Tribal and ancient knowledge put in practice with tipis, Yurts and Domes.

RE-USING MATERIALS

THE LUSH GARDENS and ECO-ART AT THE BOOM

I won’t explore much of the Eco-art in this article, because that’s the main theme for the next post, but the Boom artists know how to use and re-use all sorts of materials to decorate and express an idea or a message with the rest of the world using local materials only.

This year the vegetable and herb gardens were beautiful and so colorful thanks to the “plant rescue operation” where more than 3.000 plants from a local nursery, which was closing were spread around Boomland.

As the Boom newspaper states: ” The abundance of food in the gardens represents the never ending patience and love of mother earth”.

The Boom 2014 is now over, but 2016 will be waiting for all the alternative folks who think out of the box and believe in a better world! Will I return to the Boom? Maybe, let’s see what the future brings!