For the second year, Riverbend Festival partnered with Wallop Water to provide free water fill up stations for festival goers. Wallop Water placed three refill stations throughout the festival where attendees were able to fill up their water bottles and/or cups with ice cold water, as opposed to purchasing bottled water.
Over the course of the three-day event, 4,136 gallons of water were consumed, equaling a record-setting number of 31,310 single use plastic bottles saved from reaching oceans, rivers and landfills.
“Prior to the 2022 festival, we surveyed the community to see what services and experiences they wanted to see at Riverbend," said Samantha Wright, director of sales for Friends of the Festival. "An overwhelming amount of people asked for free refillable water since the festival takes place during the summer and temperatures are always high. Seeing these results, we made it a priority to give those what they asked for and the outcome is greater than we could have ever expected.”
With these numbers, Riverbend set a new record with Wallop Water, surpassing the 4,048 gallons of water consumed at the Australian Tennis Open, a 14-day event.
This year’s numbers also more than doubled the consumption in 2022. At Riverbend 2022, 1,991 gallons of water were consumed between two refill stations, totaling in 15,072 bottles saved from landfills and waterways.
A 2023 attendee commented, “Thank you for the refill stations! My family definitely enjoyed our fair share of free, cold water.”