Wanderer Festival

The Wanderer Festival – a new major music festival taking place on NSW’s Sapphire Coast in September 2022 – will have a strong focus on sustainability and community.

After a tough few years of bushfires and Covid-induced travel restrictions, a new major music festival will provide the NSW Sapphire Coast’s economy with a much-needed boost. And sustainability and community are high on the list of priorities.

The NSW’s Sapphire Coast will play host to a new major music festival which will have a strong focus on sustainability and community.

To be held in Pambula over 23–25 September, the Wanderer Festival will be the first of its size in the region, with over 70 local and international acts including The Dandy Warhols, Ziggy Alberts, Sarah Blasko, The Teskey Brothers and local Indigenous choir Djinama Yilaga among many others.

Sustainability initiatives at Wanderer Festival
The Wanderer Festival will have a strict no-waste policy and dedicated ‘Green Team’.

Environmental experience

Having created 44 festivals over the last three decades, event organisers Simon Daly and Mella Morgan are well-versed in the art of festival making, with popular events like the Falls Festival, Offshore Festival and The Lost Lands all on their books.

Both Simon and Mella come from a background of environmental activism which means sustainability, the environment and the community are high on their list of priorities when it comes to planning their popular events.

At the recent Lost Lands festival, they endorsed a successful ‘leave no trace’ policy which they said resulted in less than one percent of contaminated waste. It’s these sorts of initiatives which has earned them a swag of sustainability awards including the top gong in the Victorian Tourism Sustainability awards for three consecutive years and an induction into the Hall of Fame.

They also won the international Greener Festival awards over two festival sites and even picked up a coveted Banksia Award.

Eco-friendly initiatives at Wanderer Festival
No single-use plastic will be allowed at the festival.

Sustainable focus

The Wanderer Festival will have a strict no-waste policy and dedicated ‘Green Team’ who will work alongside the local Scouts group to ensure nothing goes to landfill. No single-use plastic will be allowed on site, all packaging must be either reusable or compostable, and only biodegradable products will be used for washing and cleaning over the three-day event.

The festival will be serviced by a bank of composting toilets* which will be moved permanently to the south coast from the Falls Festival site, and will be made available for other event organisers in the region to use. *(Due to issues moving the toilets up from the Vic site, most composting toilets wont be here until next year, so it will be a mix of composting and hired porta loos.)

Local sporting clubs will be able to raise funds through running an onsite barbecue across all three days of the event and camping sites will be located throughout the community, which will support local organisations and businesses.

The event will establish a partnership with Panboola: Pambula Wetlands and Heritage Project to help promote and support its important conservation work.

Wanderer Festival

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