Sustainable Music City
Tallinn has been a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network since 2022. Tallinn hosts a large number of diverse music events that welcome many of the people of the city and tourists. On a wider scale, we value events that are environmentally friendly. Large-scale music events can be an example to event organisers in other fields. The broader goal of Tallinn’s cultural organisation is to achieve compliance with sustainability principles by 2025.
The UNESCO Music City Tallinn in cooperation with the Tallinn Music Week (TMW) and the Viljandi Folk Music Festival has created the Tallinn music sector sustainability guide Roheraider for event organisers. Roheraider contains recommendations on how to organise environmentally sustainable events. It includes practical examples. Roheraider helps organisers more easily tie in organisational principles with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. From spring 2024, it’s recommended that the city’s music project organisers follow the Roheraider when organising events.
Roheraider is divided into eight sections, starting from self-analysis, covering major environmental factors in event organising and ending with communication. Each subchapter showcases possible actions at both the minimum level as well as from an advanced perspective. The actions include specific examples from organisers from Tallinn, elsewhere in Estonia and abroad.
In addition, each subchapter includes references to additional sources, detailed recommendations or additional tools for your event. If the specific field is regulated by regulations or laws of the city of Tallinn or on state level, they will be included.
When organising a sustainable music event, remember the following:
When applying for a grant from the city of Tallinn, the organiser of the cultural project must provide an overview of the sustainable principles followed when organising the event. For this, a checklist for organising environmentally sustainable events has to be submitted in the application round for music projects.
The UNESCO Music City Tallinn in cooperation with the Tallinn Music Week (TMW) and the Viljandi Folk Music Festival has created the Tallinn music sector sustainability guide Roheraider for event organisers. Roheraider contains recommendations on how to organise environmentally sustainable events. It includes practical examples. Roheraider helps organisers more easily tie in organisational principles with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. From spring 2024, it’s recommended that the city’s music project organisers follow the Roheraider when organising events.
Roheraider is divided into eight sections, starting from self-analysis, covering major environmental factors in event organising and ending with communication. Each subchapter showcases possible actions at both the minimum level as well as from an advanced perspective. The actions include specific examples from organisers from Tallinn, elsewhere in Estonia and abroad.
In addition, each subchapter includes references to additional sources, detailed recommendations or additional tools for your event. If the specific field is regulated by regulations or laws of the city of Tallinn or on state level, they will be included.
When organising a sustainable music event, remember the following:
- use multiple-use food dishes and utensils;
- collection of waste by type is the norm; food made from local, seasonal and organic ingredients is preferred, redistribution of leftover food is the norm and producers and caterers who make environmentally sustainable choices are preferred;
- moving on foot, by bicycle or public transport as much as possible and communication of environmentally sustainable transport information is the norm;
- event organisers are more aware of the energy solutions used at the events;
- the organisers have clear environmental principles and they communicate this clearly with their team members, partners and visitors.
When applying for a grant from the city of Tallinn, the organiser of the cultural project must provide an overview of the sustainable principles followed when organising the event. For this, a checklist for organising environmentally sustainable events has to be submitted in the application round for music projects.