Festival furniture 2021

Anni Vilkko & Aarni Tujula

Together With:

Uus Festivaali, Uus Kulttuuri ry, Metsä Fibre Lappeenranta sawmill, and Innoverstas

Environmental friendliness and circular economy are seen as rising trends in a festival culture. Yet a lot of work and effort are put into organizing relatively brief events. Excessive decorations, furniture and ways to create a festival atmosphere are part of the experience. Our ecological festival furniture -project seeks to answer the challenge of creating more ecologically friendly festival furniture in an experimental way.

Ecological festival furniture -project was done for UUS festival (2021), the first carbon negative festival in Finland, together with designer Anni Vilkko and cooperation partners Uus kulttuuri ry, Innoverstas and Metsä Fibre Lappeenranta sawmill. The project included two sets of festival furniture, plastic UUS -benches and wooden PUUisto -furniture. In the project we paid special attention to the life cycle and ecological matters of the festival furniture. All the materials of the festival furniture were by-products or side streams of Metsä Fibre’s Lappeenranta sawmill and a local brewing industry.

The final products were recycled after the Uus festival and their lifecycle was planned to meet the ways of circular economy. The PUUisto -furniture was used also at Jättömaa -festival (2021) and finally placed at the community garden Plantis. The UUS -benches were cut to seat mats for events to come.

Yle -Finnish national broadcasting company interviewed us regarding building a carbon negative festival. Read it here.