NorthSide promoter Down the Drain has announced that all food at the 2022 festival will be plant-based and 100% organic.

The Danish festival will take place between 2–4 June next year at its new home in Eskelund park, Aarhus.

Next year’s edition will mark a “sustainable quantum leap” for the festival, which has previously earned the A Greener Festival Award in 2014 and 2016.

“In 2014, we launched the first organic beer in collaboration with Tuborg,” lists says Brian Nielsen, festival director for NorthSide.

“In 2019, we removed disposable plastic mugs and the sale of bottled water, and in 2022, plant-based food will stand side by side with the transition to 100% green electricity.”

“WE WANT TO CONTINUE TO SURPRISE, CHALLENGE AND TAKE THE LEAD, AND SERVING PLANT-BASED FOOD IS A NATURAL NEXT STEP”

Nielsen continues: “We want to continue to surprise, challenge and take the lead, and serving plant-based food is a natural next step on our sustainability journey. It is the food of the future now.”

To provide all plant-based food, the festival collaborated with The Vegetarian Society of Denmark and Organic Denmark, who are behind The Plant-based Knowledge Centre.

Katrine Ejlerskov, center manager for Plant-Based Knowledge Centre, says NorthSide’s commitment sends an important signal.

“One of the most important things we can each do for the climate is to eat far more vegetables and correspondingly far fewer animal products; and if we then choose organic food at the same time, we help to ensure our clean groundwater, better animal welfare and richer biodiversity in and around the fields,” says Ejlerskov.

“NorthSide takes the lead and, with the initiative, once again takes concrete responsibility for the green transition – this time by making it clear that our eating habits are a crucial part of the solution for a more sustainable future.”

“NORTHSIDE TAKES THE LEAD AND, WITH THE INITIATIVE, ONCE AGAIN TAKES CONCRETE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE GREEN TRANSITION”

In the run-up to the festival, NorthSide will collaborate with its stallholders to develop food “that can inspire and challenge guests’ dining experiences”.

The festival says it has opted out of meat and fish in the meals and will use a maximum of 15% cheese, eggs or mayonnaise per portion.

Northside 2022 will be the first edition to take place at Eskelunden, a greenfield that is more than twice the size of the Ådalen site.

Since launching in 2010, the festival has grown from a one-day event with domestic artists into a major three-day international event that attracts some 40,000 visitors.

Down the Drain were forced to cancel the 2020 and 2021 editions of the festival due to coronavirus related restrictions.