The Sea Star Festival Demo Site in Umag, Croatia focuses on Prevention and Zero Waste, with specific attention to plastic bottles and cups generated in high-traffic festival environments. Taking place at Stella Maris lagoon in the City of Umag, Sea Star Festival has been bringing tens of thousands of young people to Istria since 2017 and is presented by REMEDIES as a strong testbed for scalable zero-waste measures in the event sector. With an estimated attendance of 50,000 people per festival edition, the Demo Site addresses the challenge of disposable plastic waste created during large cultural events, while also testing practical solutions that can be transferred to other EXIT-related festivals and event contexts.
At the core of the Umag Demo Site is the ambition to show that large music festivals can become living laboratories for circular and zero-waste practices. Τhe Demo Site includes 20,000 branded reusable bio-based beer cups, an innovative washing system equipped with heat exchangers and green walls to recover and reuse water, stakeholder awareness activities, and the deployment of a digital application supporting the tracking and management of reusable cup circulation. The demonstration showcases how reusable cup systems can be effectively integrated into large-scale music festivals while promoting circular resource management and reducing single-use plastic waste. Expected outputs include the successful demonstration of a reusable bio-based cup system, validation of the washing infrastructure under real festival conditions, increased awareness among festival stakeholders and visitors, and practical evidence supporting the replication of the solution at future events. Some of these outputs include saving 600 kg of plastics per Sea Star Festival, and reaching more than 300 people through zero-waste cosmetics workshops. The approach is also connected to the short technology video on bio-based cups for PLUG-AND-PLAY 2 ZERO-WASTE.
One of the key REMEDIES technologies linked to Umag is PLUG-AND-PLAY 2 ZERO-WASTE, led by Alchemia-nova Greece, with Bio-Mi, AITIIP, CIBOS, and National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) as partners. The solution combines cleaning infrastructure for reusables, bio-based cups, and piloting a mobile application to help festivals and tourist destinations eliminate single-use plastic waste. It is designed for beverage suppliers, festival organisers, cultural managers, municipalities, resorts, campsites, water-stressed locations, and islands. Its demonstrators focus on the 0.5L beer cups, described in the REMEDIES article as the most frequently discarded item and responsible for more than 70% of event-generated waste. The solution includes decentralised cleaning infrastructure, reusable cups designed for more than 100 uses, and NFC, QR, or barcode-based smart tracking to monitor material cycles, reuse rates, and environmental impact.
The Umag Demo Site also tested behaviour-change and citizen engagement through the Zero-Waste Seaweed Coatings for Cosmetics innovation, developed by the National Institute of Chemistry. This technology aims to eliminate single-use plastic bottles in the cosmetics sector by using a seaweed-based biopolymer coating that protects cosmetics and dissolves when used with water. It is designed for the cosmetics and hospitality sectors, eco-conscious consumers, zero-waste communities, and policymakers, with the capacity to support up to 500,000 single-use shampoo balls per year. At Sea Star Festival, the technology was translated into hands-on public engagement: during the zero-waste cosmetics workshops at SeaStar Festival on 24 and 25 May 2024, organised by National Institute of Chemistry Slovenia (NIC) and EXIT, more than 40 participants created colourful handmade seaweed-coated shampoo alternatives, while more than 2,000 shampoo balls were distributed to festival visitors.
The Shiny Umag clean-up initiative, the zero-waste cosmetics workshops, and the ecological themes promoted through REMEDIES during the festival are also captured in the REMEDIES Sea Star Festival 2024 video, while the clean-up component is presented separately through the Shiny Umag Beach Clean-up video. The Sea Star Festival 2024 combined sustainability and creativity through the zero-waste seaweed cosmetics workshops, where more than 40 participants joined and more than 2,000 handmade shampoo balls were distributed, alongside a coastal clean-up designed to raise awareness about plastic pollution among festival-goers. These activities show how the Demo Site used a popular cultural event not only to test materials and systems, but also to make plastic prevention visible to festival-goers.
The Umag experience was further developed through the BRIDGE Conference in Umag, where REMEDIES hosted the panel “REMEDIES for Festivals: A Bridge to Green EXIT and a Circular Future” on 22 May 2025. Organised by EXIT Foundation, the REMEDIES partner and Demo Site leader, the session brought together voices from the festival and sustainability sectors to discuss how festivals can reduce plastic pollution through circular practices, innovation, awareness, and collaboration. The panel connected Green EXIT, Bridge to Green EXIT, examples from Boom and EXIT festivals, realistic sustainability goals for event organisers, intersectoral collaboration through EU-funded projects such as REMEDIES, and the pathway from demo editions to long-term impact. REMEDIES also supported the next Shiny Umag clean-up activity, planned for 24 May 2025, starting from Trg Slobode in Umag.
The Umag Demo Site is also connected to the REMEDIES artistic and cultural engagement pathway. Through Art as a Force for Ocean Regeneration, REMEDIES highlights how artistic residencies can turn marine litter, waste, and scientific messages into public experiences that shift mindsets and support behavioural change. Although the first residency debuted at EXIT Festival in Novi Sad in July 2025, its connection to the EXIT festival ecosystem reinforces the same principle tested in Umag: large cultural events can become platforms for environmental storytelling, citizen engagement, and zero-waste transition.
The broader EXIT ecosystem also contributed to REMEDIES’ clean-up and awareness work beyond Umag. Through the Ada Bojana beach clean-up, EXIT Foundation supported a three-hour action on 20 September 2023 as part of the #20TonnesChallenge. With 85 participants, including Ada Divine Awakening Festival visitors and staff and the “Srcem za Adu” association, the action collected nearly two tonnes of waste from almost one kilometre of beach, with support from the City of Ulcinj, Communal Company-Ulcinj, and Ulcinj Riviera. This work complements the Umag Demo Site by showing how REMEDIES-linked festival communities can mobilise clean-up action across different locations.
REMEDIES also connected the festival-sustainability agenda with wider business and circular economy discussions through the Novi Sad conference “Beyond Plastic Waste: Are We Ready to Do Our Bid?” on 4 October 2024. The programme included good practices from PLASTIC FANTASTIC winners, an “arena” roundtable on REMEDIES innovative solutions for circular and zero-waste business models, EU funding possibilities, and the Green EXIT initiative. This extended the Demo Site learning from practical festival interventions to wider conversations on how different business sectors can adopt circular economy solutions.
Together, the Umag Demo Site updates show how REMEDIES is using festivals as real-world laboratories for plastic prevention, reuse systems, bio-based alternatives, zero-waste cosmetics, coastal clean-ups, stakeholder engagement, and circular event management. By working through the Sea Star and EXIT festival ecosystem, Umag demonstrates how high-attendance cultural events can reduce single-use plastics, influence consumer behaviour, test scalable infrastructure, and support a wider shift towards circular, zero-waste practices in the Mediterranean event sector.
