Can Festival Glitter Really Be Sustainable? Inside Our Aperol Summer at BST Hyde Park

Eight days at BST Hyde Park. One very orange Aperol brief. Thousands of festival goers, summer sunshine and plenty of glitter!

On the surface, our job was simple: create fast, colourful festival face art for guests visiting Aperol at American Express presents BST Hyde Park.

Behind the scenes, there was another challenge altogether.

Before a single pot of glitter could make it through the festival gates, we needed to prove that what we were using met BST’s sustainability requirements. And it turned out that calling something biodegradable was not nearly enough.

What followed sent us much further into the science of glitter than we had ever expected, eventually leading us to replace our entire festival glitter palette.

The question for us as artists was rather more immediate: would the approved plant-based glitter actually look good?

So, What Does Biodegradable Glitter Actually Mean?

Before BST, our understanding of biodegradable glitter was fairly simple.

We had worked with different types of glitter and knew that plant-based and biodegradable products could behave differently from conventional cosmetic glitter. What we had not appreciated was just how much can sit behind the word biodegradable, or the different levels of testing that can be used to support that claim.

We initially supplied the product information we had.

BST came back asking for more.

They wanted considerably more detailed evidence about how the glitter performed under different environmental conditions, backed by recognised testing and certification.

Suddenly, choosing an “eco glitter” was not simply a matter of reading the description on the packaging. We needed to be able to substantiate exactly what the product was and how it behaved.

It was a surprise, but also a very useful education.

Calling in the Bio-Glitter Experts

This was the point when we went back to our glitter manufacturer in Germany.

Thankfully, they knew exactly what BST was asking for and were incredibly supportive. They helped us work through the requirements and supplied the technical documentation and independent testing we needed.

For the Aperol dates, we changed our entire glitter palette to Cosmetic Bioglitter® SPARKLE V3, the particular grade of plant-based cosmetic glitter that went through the approval process.

The supporting documentation included independent Eurofins testing to OECD 301F, under which the product was classified as readily biodegradable, alongside technical information, safety documentation and further certification.

Then came the email we had been waiting for.

BST had signed off the sustainability documentation.

The glitter was approved and we were good to go.

But passing the sustainability test was only half the job. Now it had to pass the Glitter-Arty test.

Could we still create the colour, texture and serious sparkle we wanted using an entirely different glitter palette?

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Why We Do Not Like Loose Glitter Anyway

Long before BST’s sustainability requirements landed in our inbox, we had already changed the way we approach glitter artistry at events, particularly through our Glitter Bar setups.

The reason was initially very practical: it gets everywhere.

Loose glitter falls across the working area, ends up on floors and furniture, gets caught by the slightest breeze at outdoor events and a surprising amount simply goes to waste.

Then there are the guests.

We work at plenty of events where people have made a serious effort to get dressed up. The last thing somebody wearing a beautiful outfit wants is a cloud of glitter floating down onto it.

So over time we developed a different way of working.

We create our own glitter combinations in a base, giving our artists much greater control over exactly where the product goes. It allows us to work glitter into the artwork itself and dramatically reduces fallout.

We have become rather good at making what are essentially our own little glitter cocktails, mixing different colours, sizes and finishes to create the effect we want.

For BST, however, all of those combinations had to be reinvented using the approved plant-based palette.

The Big Question: Would It Actually Sparkle?

This was our biggest creative concern.

A product can tick every box on a sustainability document, but we are there to create artwork. The finished designs still need to look fantastic.

And Aperol was certainly not asking for subtle beige.

The creative direction was bright, summery and disco-inspired, with plenty of that unmistakable Aperol orange. We were working outdoors in Hyde Park, often in broad daylight. There was nowhere for disappointing glitter to hide.

So we started experimenting.

We changed our combinations, adapted the way we incorporated the glitter into the artwork and found new ways of getting the effects we wanted from the plant-based palette.

And then the sun came out.

The glitter looked fantastic.

It caught the daylight beautifully, stayed in place once applied and gave us the sparkle we wanted. It was slightly slower to work with than some of our usual glitter products, so we adjusted our application and designs to compensate.

The photographs from Aperol probably tell that part of the story better than we can.

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It Still Has to Work When the Festival Gets Busy

There is another reality to all of this.

Something can perform beautifully during testing and still be completely impractical once you are standing in Hyde Park with a queue of festival-goers waiting to be painted.

At busy events, our artists typically paint around 15 to 18 guests per hour, adapting the detail of the artwork according to demand. When things get particularly busy, designs need to become faster again to keep people moving.

That means every product we introduce has to work creatively and operationally.

For Aperol, we could not simply take longer because the new glitter required a different technique. We needed to adapt the artwork itself.

We developed ways of incorporating the approved glitter into quick festival designs without losing the colour and sparkle that made people want to be painted in the first place.

The sustainability requirement did not remove glitter artistry from the experience.

It changed how we created it.

What BST Taught Us About Sustainable Festival Glitter

The biggest lesson from the experience was probably flexibility.

Large festivals are becoming increasingly particular about the materials suppliers bring onto their sites. For creative event suppliers, those requirements can reach much further than a product specification sheet.

They can change the materials in our kits, the way we apply them and even the designs we create.

Our job is to be able to adapt.

At BST, that meant replacing our normal glitter palette, working closely with the manufacturer to provide the required evidence, then developing our artistry around the products that had been approved.

The experience has also influenced our wider approach to sustainability at Glitter-Arty.

Words such as biodegradable, plant-based and eco can cover very different products and standards. When sustainability forms part of an event brief, establishing exactly what the organiser requires early on gives suppliers time to source suitable materials, obtain the documentation and, crucially, find out how those materials actually perform in the real world.

Sustainability Goes Much Further Than Glitter

Our experience at BST also reinforced something that applies far beyond glitter artistry.

More sustainable events are built from lots of individual decisions across the supply chain, from the materials used by entertainment suppliers to catering, waste and procurement.

It is a subject also being explored by Conveenie and Feed The Village, whose work looks at how different parts of the event supply chain can contribute to more considered event planning.

And that is what made our little glitter adventure at BST rather interesting.

When people think about the environmental impact of a major festival, the glitter being applied around somebody’s eyes probably is not the first thing that springs to mind.

But multiply those seemingly tiny decisions across the enormous network of people, products and suppliers involved in producing a large live event and they begin to matter.

For us, what started as a request for additional sustainability paperwork ended with us knowing considerably more about the materials we work with and discovering new ways to use them.

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By the end of our Aperol dates, we had not simply found a glitter that BST would approve. We had found new ways of working with it.

And perhaps that is the more interesting side of sustainability in live events.

Requirements change. Materials change. Festivals change.

The creative job is finding a way to adapt without losing the magic guests actually came for.

Planning Face Art or Glitter Artistry for an Event?

If you are looking for face art or glitter artistry for a festival, brand event or corporate event, we can develop the artwork, materials and setup around your brief.

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