The world-renowned Glastonbury Festival, which has always strived to promote environmentally-friendly technologies, is using biodiesel-fuelled New Holland tractors to further increase the green credentials of the event.

In the weeks leading up to the festival, the organisers used two New Holland TSA115 tractors and two TLA90 tractors for the build up, all running on 100% biodiesel. The tractors will also be in operation during and after the festival to help with the clear up.

“We’ve always supported green action,” points out festival organiser and dairy farmer Michael Eavis

“Using biodiesel in the tractors this year shows we are making a special effort.”

When Michael Eavis started the festival he stipulated that ‘a large green area of the Festival should be set aside for demonstrations and displays of environmentally-friendly technologies and techniques’ as well as providing a forum for debating environmental, social and moral issues. By using bio-fuelled machinery, the team at Glastonbury are turning those words into positive action.

Working with fuel-supplier, Fleetsolve, Glastonbury has ensured that the supply of biodiesel is from certified sustainable sources in the UK.

Glastonbury may be the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world, but it is also a working dairy farm. Michael Eavis started the event in September 1970 and even though the festival has gone from strength to strength, the farm at Pilton near Glastonbury has remained an important part of his life.

The 400-acre unit operates as a normal dairy farm for ten months of the year, with some of the milk from the large dairy herd used to produce a local cheese. The tractors are used for a final grass cut about three weeks before the festival opens, to allow all the cabling and electrics to be laid.

Most New Holland machinery powered by engines equipped with mechanical fuel injection can run on 100% pure biodiesel (B100) to EN14214 standard, with the use of an adaptation kit and specific maintenance programme. This is also the case for certain electronically-governed common-rail engines.
 
By following New Holland technical guidelines, operators can use 100% pure biodiesel to fuel over 70 models in the blue brand’s range, both tractors and harvesters. Details of the models that can run on B100, as well as New Holland’s requirements and recommendations, are available at all New Holland dealerships.