Boom Festival

The Boom Festival is an international music and culture festival near Alcafozes, in the municipality of Idanha-a-Nova, Castelo Branco District, in Portugal. The concept of this biennale consists of the crossing of different electronic music genres, psychedelic trance, downtempo, techno & house music, arts in general, painting, sculpture, yoga, video art, cinema and theater. The festival is considered the largest event of its kind in Europe every two years and by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the most famous transformational festivals in the world. A family-friendly, inclusive festival, it is carefully designed with families with babies to people with special needs in mind. The festival has been internationally recognised for its sustainability efforts.
Overview.
Boom Festival began in 1997 as a psychedelic trance music festival. In the beginning it had a main stage and a lounge area with mellow, "chill-out music". Nowadays, the event which is organized every other year on the banks of Marechal Carmona Dam reservoir, has five stages: the Dance Temple is for psytrance and natural trance music; the Alchemy Circle is for many fresh experimental genres -- techno, psychedelic trance, House, and unique combinations of those; the Sacred Fire stage is for world music and live music performances; the Ambient Source is for chill-out music; and the Funky Beach stage is for electronic dance music dee jays and producers. Other attractions include sculptures, an art gallery, street theatre, and fire performances. Within the shaded Liminal Village are lectures, yoga classes, film screenings, group meditation, and discussions. The Healing Area has group workshops for healing techniques, a pool for water therapy, and a massage area.
Objective.
Boom's main focus is to integrate a sustainability ethos with arts and culture. By design, it does not provide corporate entertainment or sponsors. The key goal is to provide a transformational festival for people of different ethnic backgrounds, nationality and ages. In its own words, "Boom is not only a festival, it is a state of mind. Inspired by the principles of Oneness, Peace, Creativity, Sustainability, Transcendence, Alternative Culture, Active Participation, Evolution and Love, it is a space where people from all over the world can converge to experience an alternative reality." Differently to other similar festivals, Boom Festival is neither new age nor counterculture in scope although being opened to several different sensibilities and principles as far as they aren't incompatible with its main tenets. The festival is entirely funded by ticket sales. It does not use corporate sponsors, which eliminates marketing that is seen as visual pollution.
Self-sustainability.
In 2004, Boom began a series of environmentally self-sustainable projects, which includes: toilets that don't use chemical products, the treatment of residual waters using biotechnology, utilization of wind and solar energy, recycling and the free supply of cleaning kits to participants (including pocket ashtrays and rubbish bags). It has been assessed and awarded Outstanding in the Internationally recognised Greener Festival Award in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016. 
In 2011, it won, for the second year in a row, the title of YOUROPE Green 'N' Clean Festival of the Year in the Festival Awards Europe. As a result, the United Nations invited the organizing team to use the popularity of music as a means for raising public environmental awareness in a program called United Nations Music & Environmental Initiative (M&E).