Girls Football Festival (Vienna, Austria) | fairplay-VIDC

Come together and break down prejudices at the Girls Football Festival in Vienna!

Junior girls’ teams from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Austria meet in Vienna to celebrate football, respect and diversity for three days. The Girls Football Festival (GFF) is committed to girls and women in sport, international exchange, opposing nationalism, and advocating for respect and equality. In addition to the host club, First Vienna FC 1894, and ASV Draßburg from Burgenland, ZFK Sloga Prijedor, ZFK Spartak Banja Luka (both BiH), ZFK Ilarion Podgorica (MNE) and Red Star Belgrade (SRB) will participate in the 5^th edition of the festival.

The programme includes joint training sessions, interactive workshops, a guided treasure hunt through Vienna, side events in Vienna and, of course, a big final tournament. All football sessions will take place at the First Vienna FC 1894 training campus at Spielmanngasse 8, 1200 Vienna.

Focus 2022 on: Sustainability

Venue: First Vienna Football Campus, Spielmanngasse 8, 1200 Vienna

Date: 24^th – 26^th June 2022

Sustainability was a concern for the main organisers, fairplay VIDC, during the preparation process. Unfortunately, we started too late, so we ended up focusing on waste reduction and separation, social sustainability in the venue area, and food allocation.

Over 20 individuals are involved in organising the Girls Football Festival each year, assisting in preparation and primarily during the event weekend itself as team managers, first aid responders, referees, food providers, venue personnel, and check-in assistants. A week before the event we held a briefing session with them. In addition to going through the programme and clarifying any questions, we provided them with sustainability guidelines and ways to make the GFF a more sustainable event.

An information sheet for the GFF participants at both venues (reception & sports pitch) was prepared in three languages: German, English and BKS.

Mainly the reception venue and the sport venue needed preparation. Two assistants started two hours before the event, which proved quite demanding. It was a very windy day in Vienna, causing the inscriptions and waste bags we prepared to be constantly dispersed by the wind. We had to replace them constantly, which confused the participants.

We had a significant amount of leftover food after lunch and dinner, which we had not anticipated. Therefore, we had to find a place to donate the food on very short notice to avoid wastage. We reached out to the “Wiener Tafel”, who were happy to receive the 40 pizzas.

We started too late to make a significant change. In the end, we were satisfied with the small steps we took, but if we had started planning earlier, we could have involved the Vienna waste management department (MA 48), rented proper garbage cans, and avoided stressful situations.

Aside from realising the importance of early planning for more sustainable events, we identified two areas that require improvement

• Transportation: we didn’t find a solution for transporting heavy items other than by car (see photo)
• Plastic bottles: it was a hot day, and there were long queues in front of the few water taps. The canisters we prepared were not sufficient. In the end, we had to purchase 50 plastic bottles as a quick solution.