Tollwood and the environment

Since its very first festival in 1988, ecological thinking has determined the work and programming of the Tollwood Festival. What began with the demonstration of a small solar cell has grown over the years into an essential and extremely effective part of the festivals.

In the early 90’s, Tollwood initiated an important innovation that has since spread elsewhere: Contrary to requirements that at festivals and similar events food was only allowed to be served in one-way dishes, Tollwood’s cooks began serving foods on porcelain, for which the festival’s organizers had set up a special dishwashing system. A little later, the city of Munich also required the Oktoberfest to serve food in reusable dishes.

From the beginning, Tollwood has served foods and drinks that are as ecologically sound as possible. Since 2004, both summer and winter festivals have been certified according to the EU Eco-Regulation. This normally means: Each food vendor must provide at least one main dish composed entirely of organic foods. At Tollwood, however, most of the dishes offered consist entirely of guaranteed organic ingredients. In addition, for all dishes the basic foodstuffs such as meat and sausages, vegetables and fruits, dairy products, cereals and eggs come from certified organic farming. During the winter festival, Tollwood also provides a multi-course gourmet meal at its big en-suite event in one-hundred-percent organic quality.

The fight against electrosmog especially for mobile phones has been at the top of the Tollwood agenda for many years. Major discussions, postcard campaigns and educational lectures in this area have been followed by all the media and are a core part of each festival.

The project “Bio für Kinder” (“Organic for Children”) initiated at the beginning of 2006 together with the Department of Health and the Environment of the City of Munich has been one of Tollwood GmbH’s most successful campaigns. To date more than a dozen sponsors from Munich’s business community ensure that organic food is served at some 20 childcare institutions.

Since it has been offered, Tollwood gets green electricity from the Munich utility company to demonstrate the necessity of the fight against CO2 emissions and actively join that fight.