Recycle tokens

Lots of garbage!

Unfortunately, festivals aren't the best known for their cleanliness. And Defqon.1 was no exception to the rule. After a few hours of hustle and bustle, the garbage quickly ended up on the ground, and we soon found ourselves stamping our feet on empty cups or soiled cardboard.

Trash had even become so popular that the "trash moment" was born. You know that famous moment during "power hour" when every festival-goer is invited to pick up a piece of garbage from the ground and throw it into the air when the moment comes, then take cover when it falls back down?

And it's not true, because Defqon.1 is a festival well known for recycling. Witness the 2023 main stage made of garbage cans and enjolivers, the sets that are regularly reused from one event to the next, or the presence of artists on site who showcase their talent for reusing materials and present some of the most eccentric metal-based objects around.

What are eco tokens for?

In order to deal a little more effectively with the amount of waste produced during the event, recycling tokens (eco tokens) have been introduced. Contrary to what I've heard, they're not there to lower the price of consumption, but the recycle tokens represent a deposit.

How they work is relatively simple to understand. When you order a drink, the price displayed on the board corresponds to the price of the contents. Let's take a drink, for example, which is displayed at 1 token. When you want to pay for it, there are two possibilities:

• either you have an eco token to exchange for the container (a plastic cup or a bottle), in which case you pay only for the contents, i.e. 1 token
• or you don't have one, in which case you'll have to pay an additional 0.5 token. You pair your drink with 1.5 tokens.

This means that it's a good idea to keep the cup or bottle with you, and never throw it on the ground, otherwise you'll have to pay an extra 0.5 token for each drink. At the price of a token, that's a lot of money to pay for a cup on the floor...

How do you get them back?

Good news, when you set foot in the festival, you'll receive a recycling token!

Do you have a lot of drinks? No problem! You don't need a token, because in the end you'll be exchanging one container for another, and the operation will be totally transparent. But when you want to stop drinking and get rid of your container, you can get your token back.

There are two ways of doing this:

• either by going directly to the bars: you hand in an empty container and the staff will give you an eco token in return
• or at recycling points. In the same way, you return a piece of waste and receive an eco token in exchange.

If you're planning to buy a round and don't have enough eco tokens with you, or if you've lost them, pick up as many cups from the ground as you need and use them as currency. It's as simple as that.

Please note tokens are not cumulative. This means you can't use more than one to buy a drink. It would be wrong to think that by collecting 3 dirty cups from the floor you can buy yourself a cold beer as a reward.

Take a picture of your chips!

What's in it for you? To win prizes after the festival!

On each eco token you'll get a code (we're talking about a sequence of characters that can look like a wifi code). And keep this code to one side. When you return home after the festival, you'll be able to access a game page that Q-dance has set up for you. As an example, here's the game page for the 2023 edition.

The list of prizes up for grabs is interesting. In 2023, for example, there was this:

• 1x Defqon.1 2024 Weekend Tickets incl. a stay at The Sanctuary Campgrounds
• 2x premium tickets for X-Qlusive Holland 2023
• 2x premium tickets for Qlimax 2023
• 5x dediqated year memberships (worth 49,99€)
• 10x merchandise voucher (30€ each)

Once you've logged in, you'll be asked to enter one of your codes. A draw will then be made, and you'll receive the results by e-mail.

Take care of your eco token :)