Lucidity Festival is striving on many levels to uphold the ideals of sustainability and low impact. In the Art Department, one way to reduce impact is to be mindful of materials sourcing, and whenever possible use materials that can be repurposed and up-cycled.

“We’re looking at real paradigm shift, says Art Director Luke Holden. We start the creative process differently: rather than come up with an idea and then find the materials to create the idea, we look first at the materials we have to work with and create from that”

One example of up-cycling is the use of discarded billboard posters. They can serve as excellent weatherproofing material, and the Lucidity Art department is using them to create shelter for sound equipment, lighting, and other materials that need to stay dry in case of rainy weather.

The challenge is to create something esthetically pleasing with what it at hand. “We’re not trying to hide the original use of the material, we’re proud of showing our ethics through our work,” says Luke Holden.

Lucidity is also looking at what happens to all this material once it gets used for the festival. How can the materials be re-purposed again, transformed into furniture or other pieces that can be used for other festivals?

The Lucidity Art department hopes to increase each year the percentage of up-cycled materials used. “We’re very serious about this, says Luke. We want to be able to measure our progress, and eventually completely rely on up-cycled, re-purposed materials to build all the structures for the festival.”

In order to achieve this goal, the Lucidity festival has partnered up with non-profits specializing in reusable and recyclable materials, such as the Recycling Development Zone.

“We want to call to attention the inherent contradiction between espousing sustainability and creating a temporary infrastructure of a large scale, notes the Art Director. We’re looking beyond our relationship with waste and food and are fully dedicated to making this a “Leave it Better” event.”