Member Article

Leeds Met graduate entrepreneurs partner with Festival Republic

Two Leeds entrepreneurs have started a new company and partnered with Festival Republic in a new sustainability venture, all in less than a year after graduating from Leeds Met.

FestiKit re-sells good quality tents, chairs and beds in an aim to reduce the environmental impact of festival waste by recycling.

The equipment, to be repackaged as kits, and according to the firm, will be sold at a “sufficiently lower cost” than recommended retail prices.

It will ensure that festival-goers will not have to bring camping equipment to the site and also re-use the tonnes of waste left over after other festivals which would otherwise be incinerated.

Emily Hirst and Stacie Pittam from North Yorkshire graduated in July last year.

Emily said: “We’ve both always said we wanted to have our own company, and being festival goers ourselves, the idea for FestKit came from getting the chance to work at V Festival in 2013.

“My brother also used my brand new tent for Leeds fest last year and left it there after the festival had finished and didnt think anything of it.

“I was so mad that he wasn’t bothered at all about it, but thats where our idea stemmed from and that’s exactly the market we want to reach.

“The sustainability element of the idea is obviously really important and we hope that we can make some sort of change in people’s attitudes towards leaving stuff behind at the festival site.

“Our unique selling point is that we have everything on site for people to collect, so they don’t have to carry everything for miles from the car park to the campsite.

“We think that’s going to be the biggest appeal to our target market and something that will set us apart from any competition.

“We couldn’t believe it when Festival Republic approached us saying that they were really interested in our idea.

“We are so excited to be working with them at Leeds Festival this year and hope that we can prove ourselves to build a good rapport with them and hopefully make it a long term relationship.

Melvin Benn CEO of Festival Republic spoke to Bdaily about Festikit and said: “A particular problem that we have at all festivals, not just Leeds Festival, is that actually the manufacture of tents is so inexpensive now that people leave them behind.”

“The problem with that is that they’re really not recyclable, it’s surprising how many different materials are in a tent, and when you have a £25 tent it would probably cost £50 to recycle all the materials.”

“I don’t blame the young people for that. If you break down economically the cost of tent, a £30 for a 2 person tent will equate to £1.50 a night if you’re say at Leeds Festival for 5 nights from Wednesday until Monday morning.

“Its nothing, it’s half a pint of beer. So people look at the state of the tent at the end of the festival, and just think, no I’ll leave it.

“There’s a joy in that young mentality, but the reality is that young people are less responsible, so we as adults need to take the responsibility.

“As people in this business we should be developing ways of making it easier on them, and creating sustainable products.

“What we should be doing is making sure that what they are using isn’t damaging the environment, and what Festikit are doing is providing a solution to that problem.

“That’s what I love about it, that’s what I think is fantastic about it. They’ve identified the problem, not only as a business opportunity, but my feeling about them is that they have a strong ethical base to their thought process.

“Everybody is capable of pretty much anything they want to do, and the girls at Festikit, it doesn’t matter to me is someone is 15 or 50. If they’ve got that passion and desire to want to go and do something like this, then I want to help them.”

“Festikit are just about the only ones on the market that are a viable option for Festival Republic, I would definitely consider a long term partnership with them.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .