What the ground gets back

Start with the toilets, because they are the part nobody expects. There are 538 dry compost toilets across Boomland and no flushing ones. Boom has been developing them since 2006, and they work without water, chemicals or sawdust: the tank under the seat is prepared with carbon, temperatures inside reach up to 50 °C, and heat and time see off most pathogens. The material is then analysed in a laboratory before it is used to make soil for the land.

The arithmetic is easy to check. A conventional flush uses between 6 and 15 litres of drinking water, and this is a temporary town of tens of thousands of people for a week in the middle of a Portuguese summer.

Then the water. There are 57 free drinking water points across the site, each fitted with a flowmeter, supplied from the public grid and monitored before, during and after the festival. In 2020 and 2021 the organisers built a wastewater treatment station with 7 million litres of storage, which lets them treat almost all the water the festival uses; the treated grey water goes back onto the land for irrigation and replanting. A shower schedule keeps pressure off the water system.

Then the waste. For 2025 the festival reports turning 43 tonnes of food scraps, with biodegradable dishware and cutlery, into compost and energy, and an eco-team of more than 200 people sorting plastic, paper, glass and metal on site for Valnor, the public waste and recycling company.

Then the trees, which is where the year-round half of the work shows. Boom counts more than 1,500 trees and thousands of shrubs planted between 2010 and 2025. For 2023 to 2025 alone it lists 207 trees and 343 shrubs and aromatic plants, around 34 tonnes of compost reused, more than 3,200 planted units and 86 endemic species introduced. Water from the showers and the treatment basin keeps them alive.

The recognition is real, and worth separating out. A Greener Future runs two different things. One is certification, which is graded rather than won: its public directory lists Boom at Outstanding, the top grade, for 2025, 2023 and 2018. The other is the International AGF Awards, which are competitive, with one winner per category: at the February 2026 ceremony the Water and Sanitation award went to Boom.

One caveat, and it is ours rather than theirs. Nearly every figure here is the festival measuring its own performance on its own site. That is not a reason to disbelieve it: the award jury is independent, and the numbers are far more specific than such reports usually are. It is a reason to read them where they are made, which is why each page is linked below.