THE organisers of this year’s Shake and Stir Festival in Southbourne have teamed up with Bournemouth environmental group SoBo Wastebusters in a bid to make it the cleanest and greenest event yet.

The hugely popular vintage music and dance weekend in Fisherman’s Walk and Southbourne Grove is returning on June 27 and 28.

And the expertise of the SoBo Wastebusters team is being called upon to ensure the needs of the environment are at the top of the agenda.

The initiatives will include festival goers being encouraged to bring their own reusable takeaway and drink containers and eating utensils, making the event plastic free, promoting recycling and waste reduction and visitors being asked to take their rubbish home with them.

The container initiative has been branded BYO SoBo (Bring Your Own).

One of the founders of the volunteer environment group, Rosie Edwards, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be working with the Shake and Stir team to make sure it’s a really clean and green community event that reduces the carbon footprint, as well as being a really fantastic weekend.

“We have been working for more than a year with businesses and groups in Southbourne on a whole host of environmentally friendly ideas and initiatives and this is really just a natural extension of that.

“We just want to point people in the right direction and come up with a sustainable model scheme that can be replicated elsewhere.”

Rosie added: “We are getting great support from residents and the Southbourne business community and I feel together we are beginning to make a real difference.”

Managing director of Stir! Events, Mandy Polkey said: “We are really pleased to be getting help and advice from SoBo Wastebusters.

“We are also working towards securing a carbon neutral certificate, and pulling together significant recycling and green traffic and transport plans.”