UK International Radio Drama Festival
PRESS RELEASE 2019
UK Radio Drama Festival Goes Green
The UK International Radio Drama Festival is the first major international radio drama festival to go paperless. Each year, we print, transport and recycle some 75000 sheets of paper, providing participants in the festival with access to English language translations of the works in other languages and written scripts in English of the works in that language to support participants whose first language is different. Those translations and texts are a vital part of the festival, ensuring that everyone is able to enjoy the plays they are hearing to the full.
This year, our festival is breaking new ground and going paperless. With the generous support of festival entrants, we are providing participants with e -readers, pre-loaded with the scripts. The e-readers will remain the property of the festival to protect authors’ rights and to ensure that casual drop-in audience members and fully committed jurors alike have quick and easy access to the translations.
Announcing the move, Jonathan Banatvala, the Festival’s Artistic Director said: “A paperless festival has been an ambition since we first started five years ago. It’s a very different approach to that used by most festivals but – just as we were the first to provide access to the festival plays online and to introduce an audience award – we are also very proud to be making this innovation. It’s clearly important that an international festival does everything it can to keep its carbon footprint low.”