This edition, nothing made of single-use plastic crosses the gate. Not a straw. Not a PET bottle. Not a foam tray. Pulse of Gaia 2026 is the first edition of this festival to enforce a zero-plastic gate policy across all five nights — a commitment made alongside Re:wild, one of the world's foremost conservation organisations, and Iren, the Reggio Emilia municipal utility that manages the arena's water and waste infrastructure. The decision is structural, not decorative. The gate closes to plastic, so the planet can keep breathing.
The cup.
Every drink purchased at every bar inside the arena comes in a Pulse of Gaia branded cup. At the point of sale, you pay a €2 deposit. Return the cup to any collection point across the site and you get the €2 back on the spot. Keep it as a souvenir — it carries the Pulse of Gaia mark, and the logo is printed on, not stuck on. We estimate approximately 120,000 cups in active circulation across the five nights. Each cup is manufactured from compostable PLA; returned cups are washed on site by Iren's operations team and put back into service within the same evening. Your deposit is a vote. Return it, and someone else casts the same vote an hour later.
"Bring it back. Or keep it."
The water.
Eight water refill stations are distributed across the arena, each mapped on the site map. Every station is free, every night, until the last body leaves the arena. Bring a bottle from home — sealed bottles up to 500 ml pass through the gate without question, and we actively encourage you to arrive with an empty one ready for refill. No PET water bottles are sold inside the perimeter at any point. The official Pulse of Gaia branded water bottle, co-produced with Iren, is available at the merch stand for €8 — it is entirely optional. What is not optional: clean, free water at all hours of the night.
The food.
All twenty kitchens in the food district serve exclusively in compostable plates and cutlery. No plastic forks. No polystyrene trays. Wood and PLA across the board — every vendor, every night. Sorted waste bins are placed every 30 metres through the food district and the main concert areas, labelled and enforced: organic, recyclable, residual. At the close of the fifth night, Re:wild field teams conduct a full waste audit of the arena — weighing what came in, what was sorted, what left. The results will be published on this channel in August, unedited.
The numbers.
Projected impact across the five nights:
- 100% of food packaging compostable
- 0 PET bottles sold inside the gate
- ~120,000 cups in deposit circulation
- Estimated 3,200 kg of plastic not produced vs. a comparable conventional festival
This is what a festival without plastic looks like. Not a pilot programme. Not a gesture. A baseline — one we intend to hold and raise with every subsequent edition.
Where the money goes.
A portion of every ticket sold funds Re:wild's active conservation work — rewilding corridors, protecting keystone habitats, restoring what extraction has taken. The zero-plastic gate policy is one of three Act III commitments that together form the Pulse of Gaia sustainability pact. Read the full pact at sustain.html. The third act begins there.