Into The Great Wide Open takes on that challenge. Together with Lab Vlieland, the festival sees itself as a testing ground, a stage and a driver of sustainable change.
To take the step toward a circular and climate-positive festival, the Transition Fund was established in 2024. This fund is filled with the unclaimed Good Trip Surcharge and shows where the money goes: from removing emissions to financing new, sustainable innovations.
With this fund, Into The Great Wide Open – together with Lab Vlieland – accelerates the transition to a circular, climate-positive and regenerative festival and world. The Transition Fund makes it possible to structurally finance sustainable choices: from removing unavoidable and historical emissions to investing in innovative projects that reduce the festival's impact. In doing so, the fund not only acts as a catalyst within its own organization and supply chain, but also supports regenerative projects outside it that contribute to broader system change.
In this way, the Good Trip Surcharge not only ensures that more conscious travel is rewarded, but also that remaining funds are directly deployed for tangible, measurable steps toward a future-proof festival and world.
In 2025, the Transition Fund contributed concretely to three things:
1. Removing unavoidable emissions
The emissions from the festival in 2025 that could not yet be avoided (approximately 311 tons CO₂e) have been fully removed. This was done via GoodShipping 42 tons - fuel replacement for all boat crossings of people and goods - and via Scature / ONCRA certified regenerative nature projects in the Netherlands - 270 tons. These permanently store CO₂ and at the same time contribute to the restoration of soil and biodiversity.
2. Removing historical emissions
In addition to current emissions, ITGWO also tackles its emissions from the past. In 2025, the emissions from the 2011 edition (about 610 tons CO₂e) were removed via the regenerative Festival Forest project in Iceland. This marks another step in the removal of the total historical emissions since the first edition in 2009. In total, this amounted to about 6,000 tons, of which now - after 3 years of removal - about 4,715 tons remain.
3. Investing in sustainable transition projects
A portion of the fund was used for innovation within the festival and the supply chain. In 2025, this included zero-emission energy, clean transport and construction equipment, further development of Good Trip, more sustainable travel by artists, responsible hospitality sourcing, the Construction Site of the Future and research into more sustainable textiles.
What does this deliver?
Thanks to the Transition Fund, sustainable choices are accelerated, it remains clear what happens to the Good Trip Surcharges and ITGWO is working step by step toward a festival that not only causes less harm, but actively contributes to a regenerative future.
The key figures and projects are neatly summarized in the infographic of the Transition Fund Report 2025.
The Transition Fund does not stand alone. It is part of the Transition Framework, developed by Lab Vlieland and Climate Cleanup. This framework is relevant for anyone who wants to contribute to the journey from fossil to regenerative. Together, we show that a festival can bring not only culture and music, but can also be a serious driver of system change.
