Pohoda festival Slovakia uses the SunBox

For more than 23 years, the organisers of the multi-day Pohoda festival in Slovakia take care of the festival ground and the surrounding area. Every year, the organisers take another step towards a greener festival. This year, this was achieved by choosing solar lighting for the terrain, charging stations for electric cars, and by using Bredenoord’s SunBox. Starting this year, Bredenoord delivers this complete package in collaboration with Event Electric from Austria.

23rd edition

From the 11^th until the 13^th of July, approximately 30.000 (international) visitors attended the Pohoda festival in Trencin. This festival, which is the biggest in Slovakia, took place at a former military airport, located between breathtaking mountain ranges. Hospitality, comfort, and respect for the location are of great importance to Pohoda. This shows in its versatile program. In addition to a diverse musical program, the festival also offers theatre, film, and visual art. With the comfort of home, no queues for food or toilets, no hordes of people. Instead, plenty of space and comfort is offered.

Suzanne Verschueren, International PR Manager of Pohoda, explains: “Taking care of the location makes perfect sense to us, and we expect the same courtesy of our visitors. We set up a waste sorting system consisting of seven different bins. A bin for organic waste, HDPE bottle caps, cans, paper, cigarettes, residual waste, and a separate bin for plastic bottles. At each sorting point, there are plenty of volunteers available to help people out with the sorting process.”

Increasingly green and sustainable energy

Verschueren: “Every year we aim to improve our energy supply. We have access to the grid, but that won’t reach all places that require energy. During the previous edition, we set up new connection points, so that the grid could function as the main energy source at multiple points. We also had the SunBox, which powered various art galleries”.

In total, the Slovak sun fully powered three art galleries. Day and night the lights and AC were on, running completely on green energy, since the backup genset remained unused. Liters of diesel were spared this way. An additional benefit from this was that the festival visitors would not be bothered by the noise of gensets.

The SunBox is a mobile hybrid energy solution. The installation at Pohoda consisted of a 23 kWp roof with solar panels, a battery storage system of 70 kWh, and a 35 kVa genset as backup.

Last year we employed the Mobile Solar Plant at Pohoda, and this year we chose the SunBox. It’s good to see how festivals are increasingly choosing sustainable solutions and inspiring their visitors with them.

New techniques that inspire

Due to the size of the festival, it’s not yet possible to fully cover all energy demand with green energy. There is still a need for gensets. “That’s why we’re glad to work with a party, such as Bredenoord, which is very proactive in offering innovations and greener solutions,” Verschueren continues.

Every year the Pohoda festival takes steps to become greener. These steps they take with confidence, because of Bredenoord’s assistance. Bredenoord does everything in its power to ensure all new techniques work properly. “During the construction period, they were present to check everything, and tell us about the techniques. This was both interesting and helpful, so that we could easily answer questions from visitors who showed interest. By using these kinds of innovative techniques, we inspire our visitors. A wonderful side effect,” says Verschueren.