Sailing into the festive Aarhus summer season with REUSEABLE

With beautiful weather and the masts of the tall ships as a colorful backdrop, there was much to enjoy in and around the Aarhus harbor during 24-27 June as this year’s Tall Ships Races event took place in the city. And to facilitate the use of reusable cups at this event, four extra REUSEABLE automated return machines were placed in the main festival areas at the harbor.

The Tall Ships Races is an international, world-renowned sailing event featuring traditional full-rigged ships (large sailing ships with at least three masts, all of which are rigged with square sails) and other large sailing ships that visit ports in Europe every year. For this year’s event the host cities include Aarhus (24-27 June), Harlingen (3-6 July), Antwerp (11-14 July), Stavanger (22-25 July), and Aalborg (30 July- 2 August).

In addition to the many ships anchored in the Aarhus port, the four-day event featured free admission to a wide range of concerts, theater performances and activities in and around the harbor area.

Sustainability initiatives are a key component of the Tall Ships Races for each of the host ports, with official events prioritizing locally sourced food, compostable serving ware, and strict waste-recycling protocols. In Aarhus, additional capacity was added to the city’s existing city-wide system for reusable takeaway packaging – REUSEABLE. Over 15,000 reusable cups were returned at the automated machines in the festival area during the event.

May-September: Peak festival season in Aarhus

The weekend’s festivities at the Aarhus harbor were one of many festivals in the city where the REUSEABLE platform has been utilized with additional return capacity. The busy festival season in Aarhus got started in earnest in May with the SPOT festival, where approximately 55,000 REUSEABLE cups and eight additional return machines were used during the two-day event.

“We were once again pleased to use REUSEABLE during SPOT. Our guests are good at returning the reusable cups they’ve used themselves, which helps keep the area neat and clean, as well as easing the workload of the teams collecting waste during the festival,” says Mille Raaby Jensen, PR, Communication & Marketing manager for SPOT.

Aarhus festivals supported by REUSEABLE so far this year:

·      Betaand Kaleido (Aarhus Volume)

·      Aarhus Congress Center

·      Musikhuset

·      Musikhusparken

·      Universitetsbyen

·      Pride

·      Øgadernesfestival

·      Skøjtebanen

·      SPOT

‍

“We consider events an excellent platform for integrating existing, well-functioning solutions. This creates value for both the event itself and for the public. In practical terms,the use of REUSEABLE cups significantly reduces waste at the event site, as attendees readily embrace the familiar deposit-return cup system,” says Charlotte Kirk Elkjær, Head of Events, City of Aarhus.

‍

Next up: Aarhus Festuge

Soon the pinnacle of Aarhus’ festival season will take shape from the 28^th of August to the 6^th of September with the arrival of one of Scandinavia's largest cultural events: Aarhus Festuge. This festival transforms the city of Aarhus into a massive celebration filled with live music, theater, art installations, and food stalls across various outdoor squares and stages.

As with last year’s Festuge, the REUSEABLE system for reusable cups will be utilized at the festival. Last year 160,000 drinks served in reusable cups were sold during the 10-day festival, and the cups were returned by consumers at the 20 additional machines placed at various locations in the city where Festuge events were taking place.  

‍