Where food, music, and sustainability meet: 5 festivals worth checking out

Food, music, and sustainability used to feel like three separate worlds.

Now they are starting to share the same stage, literally.

If you care about what you eat, what you listen to, and how your choices affect the planet, festivals can be a really interesting testing ground.

You are basically dropping into a tiny pop up city with its own food system, energy grid, and culture for a few days.

Here are five festivals where those three things come together in a way that is worth your time, your money, and your appetite.

1) Shambala festival

If you have ever wished a music festival felt more like a values experiment than a trashy weekend, Shambala is your place.

Tucked into the Northamptonshire countryside in the UK, Shambala has done the sustainability thing for real, not just as branding.

They have reduced their carbon footprint by over 90 percent, run on 100 percent renewable electricity, and wiped out single use plastics across the site.

Then there is the food; Shambala has gone fully meat and fish free, and even ditched dairy milk at their events, which means the default is vegetarian and largely plant based from breakfast to late night snacks.

From a psychology angle, that is powerful.

You do not have to debate whether to “be good” in the food court.

The environment nudges you toward lower impact choices automatically.

Music wise, it is a mix of live bands, DJs, spoken word, circus, talks, and random weirdness.

It feels less like chasing headliners and more like wandering through a creative playground.

2) We Love Green

Paris does a lot of things well, and We Love Green is what happens when the city’s love of culture meets climate awareness.

The festival takes over the Bois de Vincennes, one of Paris’ big green spaces, and brings in a lineup that has included artists like SZA, Kaytranada, and Charli XCX, alongside newer acts and electronic names.

We Love Green has committed to a fully vegetarian food court, with more than 50 stands serving local and seasonal dishes that are predominantly vegan or easily veganizable.

Vendors are required to use biodegradable or reusable packaging, and the festival has been framed as a “laboratory” for greener event practices in France.

The vibe here is very “future of city life.”

You are listening to forward thinking pop or electronic sets, grabbing plant based street food, and then stumbling into a talk, a comedy set, or a panel about climate, migration, or digital culture.

I like this kind of setup because it mirrors the choices we face back home.

Do you just stand at the main stage, or do you wander off to learn something that might shift how you live the other 362 days of the year?

3) DGTL festival

If you are into electronic music and minimal aesthetics, DGTL in Amsterdam is like a living Pinterest board with a conscience.

It is held at NDSM Wharf, a former shipyard that now hosts art spaces, clubs, and creative projects.

The stages look like giant sci fi art installations, and the sound systems are ridiculous in the best way.

On the sustainability side, DGTL has aimed to become one of the most circular festivals on the planet.

They have an entire framework for keeping materials in use, cutting waste, and powering the site with renewable energy, including experiments with hydrogen generators.

Since 2022, all the dishes served at DGTL are vegan.

They talk openly about the environmental impact of livestock and shifted their entire food court to plant based meals, paired with reusable tableware and no single use plastics.

As someone who went vegan for both ethical and climate reasons, this is where my inner nerd gets excited.

Festivals like DGTL show what happens if you change the default menu instead of just adding a token veggie burger.

I have mentioned this before, but our brains follow the path of least resistance.

When the “easy option” is a good one, behavior change stops feeling like a fight and starts feeling like… lunch.

4) Lightning in a Bottle

Heading back to my home state for a second.

Lightning in a Bottle (often shortened to LIB) is set in California and blends music, art, yoga, workshops, and a strong “leave it better than you found it” ethos.

Think somewhere between a festival and a temporary intentional community.

Food wise, LIB leans into organic, locally sourced vendors, with plenty of vegan and gluten free options.

They highlight conscious food choices right alongside the music schedule, which matters.

It is one thing to say sustainability is a value. It is another to make sure that value shows up at the food trucks at 1 a.m.

Their sustainability program includes strong waste reduction measures, free water refill stations, and a serious push for reusable containers and mindful camping.

The festival has picked up awards for its green efforts and is often cited as a leader in the US festival scene for environmental practices.

From a self development angle, LIB is interesting because it is designed to be more reflective than your average three day bender.

You can go from a bass heavy set to a workshop on nervous system regulation, to a plant based dinner, to a late night acoustic jam around a campfire.

If you are curious about how your environment affects your habits in real time, a few days at LIB is a pretty intense little lab.

5) Vegan Camp Out

This one is the most on the nose for VegOut readers, in the best possible way.

Vegan Camp Out in the UK calls itself the world’s largest vegan camping festival, and it is exactly what it sounds like.

Four days of camping, talks, workshops, live music, DJs, yoga, family activities, and a mind blowing amount of vegan food.

Lineups have included everyone from musicians like Kate Nash and Sam Ryder to activists, doctors, chefs, and comedians from across the vegan space.

The food offering is where things get wild.

Expect one of the largest selections of plant based food at any UK festival, with everything from classic comfort food to global street food and plenty of gluten free options.

Psychologically, events like this are interesting because identity and community reinforce each other.

You are surrounded by thousands of people who share your core values around animals, climate, and food.

That makes it easier to experiment, to ask questions, and to leave with ideas you actually want to bring home.

Even if you are not fully vegan yet, a weekend at Vegan Camp Out can be a powerful reset button on what you think is “normal” to eat and how you think a festival can run.

How to choose the right festival for you

If you are trying to pick one, how do you decide?

A few questions I like to ask myself:

• Do I want something that feels like a classic music festival with a green twist, or a values driven gathering that happens to have music?
• Am I more excited by big headliners or by discovering new artists while stumbling between talks and food stalls?
• Do I want fully plant based food by default, or am I OK with a mix as long as there are strong vegan options?

Whichever you choose, treat it as more than a weekend escape.

Notice how the environment shapes your choices; pay attention to how it feels to eat plant based all weekend, or to refill a bottle instead of buying plastic, or to dance to artists who share your values.

Those small experiments add up.

They are how we quietly rewrite what “normal” looks like, for ourselves and everyone dancing next to us.