The mere mention of a music festival conjures up images of mud-strewn fields complete with delightful portaloos and a whole load of clearing up for the organisers to rid the outdoors of the tangled mountain of rubbish once the last tour bus has left the town.

However, the environmental impact of festivals goes far deeper than just a bit of litter-picking to clean the place up.

The big name bands that play at the major festivals arrive with large entourages, often with tour buses that require constant electrical power and a huge light and sound stage show that delights crowds but guzzles energy. Even the basics such as a water supply has to be shipped in by several thousand tankers, adding a carbon footprint to the event, as well as the plastic bottles themselves, not all of which will make it to a recycling plant.

So what alternative do music-lovers have?

The big festivals such as Glastonbury have recognised more can be done to try and minimise the impact on the environment and have introduced several measures. To arrive at the event there are now car share schemes across the country to reduce the number of vehicles on the road, along with coaches which offer travel to the show included in the ticket price. Recycling is now becoming commonplace at festivals and one firm, Network Recycling, provides separate recycling bins for revellers to split their rubbish up rather than simply binning it.

However, the real leaders in the world of eco-friendly rock are the smaller events which are using a whole range of pioneering methods to put on a spectacular event without sacrificing their green credentials.

One such show is Sunrise Celebration, an event hosted in Somerset, which has been around for five years now. Its generators are not powered in the usual way, but instead use waste vegetable oil along with solar and wind energy, which together are easily able to satisfy demand. However, whilst festival-goers might not notice the difference, those behind the scenes have had to adjust their usual modus operandi as the unusually-sourced power cannot cope with energy-greedy sources. Catering stands were told they must use low-energy lighting and a popular pizza restaurant has been replaced with a more efficient wood-burning pizza oven.

There are many other shows such as Larmer Tree and Kendal Calling which have introduced innovative measures such as wooden cutlery and a cinema powered by cyclists.

With big name artists now being drawn to the eco-events it seems there is no excuse to not give it a go.