Case Studies

Big Green Coach offers bespoke Boardmasters carbon neutral travel network for 11th year

Big Green Coach is the largest and most sustainable events travel company in the UK and has worked closely with Boardmasters for the last 11 years. This partnership has been hugely successful and has ensured the festival has become more accessible and more sustainable every year.

Boardmasters is located in beautiful Cornwall, overlooking the magnificent Watergate Bay. The award-winning event gives festival goers from all over the UK one of the best festival experiences in the country. The festival caters for over 50,000 people and tickets sell out every year. The audience is diverse with different transport needs and the public transport options are limited with often long and expensive train or car journeys being the only option.

Boardmasters partnered with Big Green Coach to find an affordable, sustainable and hassle-free alternative. In 2013 there were 5 departure locations offered to festival goers. In 2024 there will be coaches departing from 84 locations around the UK. This partnership between two innovative and forward-thinking brands has seen the festival become more affordable and more accessible for people living all around the country. All coaches travel direct to the festival site and make life easy for those needing to transport all their camping gear.

Big Green Coach offers services to customers with all ticket types, including multiple arrival days for weekend ticket holders with a Monday departure.

In 2024 there will be further additions to the day return service network for the increased numbers attending with day tickets. A choice of 14 pick-up points ensures Cornwall is well served – it’s always been important for the festival to reward its loyal local following with the same public transport accessibility as those travelling from further afield. In 2024, the longest distance service will travel from Newcastle and bring fans of headliner, Sam Fender. The festival asked Big Green Coach to ensure these fans could access the event easily and affordably. This new dedicated service covers Newcastle, Dalton Park and Middlesbrough.

Boardmasters and Big Green Coach have a common key focus on customers. The festival allocates a dedicated coach park within the site, so customers can be dropped off and picked up safely and only a short walk from their campsite. Big Green Coach creates an on-site coach station with loading gates, a customer service office and state of the art PA system. This is staffed by experienced operations managers and some fabulous volunteers to make the experience enjoyable and hassle free for everyone. These staff are available on all days of operation and can also be found at many of the key departure points around the UK to ensure a first-class customer focussed operation.

Big Green Coach has been the only carbon neutral travel company in the events industry for a number of years. 2024 will be their biggest year to date. With over 5,000 Boardmasters festival goers travelling by coach in 2023, it is expected many more will do the same in 2024. With over 200 vehicles operating over the week of the festival, Big Green Coach will take over 50 miles of traffic congestion off the roads of Cornwall and, as a result, hugely reduce carbon emissions. A fleet of modern coaches using technology to reduce emissions and clever scheduling from the operations team, further ensure emissions are kept as low as possible.

On top of this, all coach services to and from Boardmasters will be carbon neutral. Big Green Coach works closely with charities and organisations, such as Ecolibrium, to measure and offset all emissions.

Big Green Coach provides a full logistics service to take the hassle of transport provision away from event owners and allow them to focus on delivering all the other aspects of producing their event. The operations team has vast experience in operating large scale transport operations, such as the services linking the UK with Boardmasters. Big Green Coach supports the event in their transport planning. Site visits, local authority and SAG meetings are paramount, as are developing a Health and Safety plan and completing risk assessments. Over the last 15 years the Big Green Coach team have become established as the experts in transport solutions for the events industry and it is partnerships, such as this with Boardmasters, that continue to innovate and lead the way.

Paul Johnson, Business Development Lead at Big Green Coach explained:

“Forward planning is a key ingredient to a successful transport operation. By working closely with the event in early planning stages, Big Green Coach provides a smooth and hassle-free service with both the organisers and the customers.

“We love to listen to our audience. Should there be fresh feedback on new pickup locations, as we have demonstrated with Boardmasters, we react fast and offer new routes. Demographics from previous years enable Big Green Coach to select the most appropriate cities and towns while our customer service team speaks with festival goers on a daily basis.”

Big Green Coach Ltd, a pioneer in sustainable transport with 15 years of industry expertise, specialises in providing official transport services for large scale partners such as East West Rail (EWR) and Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, as well as for major UK tours with some of the biggest artists in the world and most major UK festivals. The vehicles Big Green Coach uses to deliver these services range from 8 to 100 seats. Big Green Coach prides itself on affordable, personalised service and professional drivers, delivering reliable and sustainable staff and consumer transportation solutions.

The carbon neutral transport company has confirmed 674.5 tonnes of carbon will be balanced for 2023 with UK charity Ecolibrium, via a five figure donation to Ecolibrium’s Trees+ programme. Since joining forces with Ecolibrium in 2021 Big Green Coach has balanced over 1500 tonnes of carbon.

For further information on Big Green Coach corporate travel please contact [email protected]