Sustainability & waste
Kromrivier Farm is a natural site and a working farm. This is how we minimise the festival's footprint on it — and what we ask of everyone who attends, trades or builds with us.
Care for people and place
Earthdance is built on care — for the people who gather and for the place that holds them. Kromrivier Farm gives the festival its river, its mountains, its open ground and its quiet. We are guests there.
Minimising our footprint is not an add-on to the event's ethos; it is part of it. The same values that shape the dancefloor — respect, participation, doing things properly — apply to how we handle what we bring in and what we leave behind.
This policy sets out what the event provides, and what we expect from attendees and vendors in return. None of it is complicated. Most of it comes down to: sort your waste, skip the throwaway stuff, and treat the farm like somewhere you want to come back to. Because we do.
Three streams, sorted at source
Waste on site is separated into three streams:
- Recycling — cans, plastics, paper and other recyclable materials
- Compostables — food waste and compostable serviceware
- Landfill — only what genuinely cannot go in the first two
Marked bins and signage for all three streams will be provided across the site. Everyone — attendees and vendors alike — is expected to sort their own waste correctly at the point of throwing it away. A stream is only as clean as what goes into it: one bag of mixed rubbish can send a whole load of recycling to landfill.
Bin locations and the site waste map will be shared in pre-event info and marked clearly on site.
Bring things you'll use twice
No single-use plastic straws are permitted on site — not at the bar, not at food stalls, not in your cooler box.
Beyond that hard rule, we ask everyone to cut single-use plastics generally:
- bring a reusable water bottle and cup
- skip cling wrap, sachets and once-off packaging where you can
- choose cans over plastic bottles where possible (glass is not allowed on site at all)
Drinking-water refill information will be shared in pre-event info and marked on site — but bring the bottle regardless.
A higher bar for traders — highest for food
Vendors generate a large share of an event's waste, so they carry a larger share of the responsibility. All vendors at Earthdance are required to:
- use sustainable packaging practices wherever possible
- avoid unnecessary single-use items
- serve no single-use plastic straws
- separate waste correctly at source, into the event's three streams
- follow all site waste handling instructions provided before and during the event
Food and beverage vendors carry the highest bar. They are required to separate compostable waste from all other streams, and should arrive prepared for that: it affects your serviceware choices, your prep waste and your back-of-stall setup. If your packaging can't be recycled or composted, plan to replace it before September.
Waste removal is included in every 2026 vendor package — the event handles what leaves the site, vendors handle sorting it correctly on site. See the Vendors page for packages and details.
Leave no trace
Pack out what you pack in
If you carried it in full, you can carry it out empty. That includes broken camp gear and tents — abandoned kit is waste too.
No glass
Glass is not allowed on site. Decant before you arrive.
Respect the water
The river and dam are living water sources on a working farm. No soap, shampoo or dishwashing in them — and nothing thrown in.
No private fires
Fire restrictions are absolute: no fires of any kind at your camp. The central sacred fire at the Mellow Meadow is the one place for flames.
Minimise noise & light
Keep sound systems and bright lights out of the camping areas. The farm's night sky and quiet corners are part of what you came for.
Sort as you go
Use the three bin streams properly all weekend — not just in the Sunday pack-down scramble.
Working within the farm's own care for the land
Kromrivier's landscape — its soil, vegetation and water — is under the long-term care of the landowners, and the event works within their land-management practices.
- Stay on established paths and open ground; don't cut through or camp in vegetation.
- Don't dig, cut or take anything growing on the farm.
- Drive and park only where directed — vehicles damage soil and roots fast.
- Infrastructure, stages and camps are laid out to avoid sensitive areas; respect the layout even when a shortcut looks tempting.
We hold this line together
Vendors and attendees are expected to comply with this policy. It is part of what you agree to by trading at or attending the event.
Repeated or serious disregard for it — dumping mixed waste, breaking fire restrictions, damaging the site — may affect participation in future Earthdance events, and vendors may be asked to correct practices on site.
But the honest version of enforcement is this: the site is cared for by the people on it. If you see something wrong, fix it or flag it. Crew will be doing the same.
Questions about the policy: info@earthdancecapetown.co.za.