Aarni Tujula - Festival furniture

Environmental friendliness and circular economy are seen as rising trends in a festival culture. Yet a lot of work and effort are put into organising relatively brief events. Excessive decorations, furniture and ways to create a festival atmosphere are part of the experience. Our ecological festival furniture -project seeks to answer the challenge of creating more ecologically friendly festival furniture in an experimental way.

Ecological festival furniture -project was done for UUS festival (2021), the first carbon negative festival in Finland, together with artist-designer Anni Vilkko and cooperation partners Uus kulttuuri ry, Innoverstas and Metsä Fibre. The project included two sets of festival furniture, plastic UUS -benches and wooden PUUisto -furniture.

In the project we paid special attention to the life cycle and ecological matters of the festival furniture. All the materials of the festival furniture were by-products/side streams of sawmill- and brewing industry.

The final products were recycled after the actual festival and their lifecycle was planned to meet the ways of the circular economy. The PUUisto -furniture was also used at Jättömaa -festival 2021, and after which they were transformed into flower benches to the community garden Plantis. The UUS -benches were cut to seat mats that can be stored for events to
come.

Photo credits: Lauri Tujula