Last Friday, Minister for the Environment Simon Corbell announced the festival as one of seven winners of the ACT Sustainable Cities awards for 2009.

The festival won the resource recovery award.

Mr Corbell said, ''Each of the winners and finalists exemplifies the endeavour and initiative to preserve the environment for generations to come.''

Corinbank managing director Dan Watters said the festival had earned the award by building a ''leave no trace'' culture over the past two years.

''We built stages, bars, bridges, tables and fences out of on-site timber, salvaged from the 2003 bushfires. We ran an education campaign to encourage food vendors to use only recyclable cutlery and crockery,'' he said.

Corinbank had been the first festival in Australia to use only composting toilets, and the first festival in Australia to generate power solely from biodiesel.

The festival was first held in 2008.

The music festival was at the Corin Forest recreation park in the Brindabella mountains and this year's festival, held from February27 to March 1, drew thousands of Canberrans to set up camp and hear local and national music acts.

Corinbank joined Oz Harvest, Papercut, Orana School, Jervis Bay School, and others in winning the awards, which included categories such as community partnerships, litter prevention, and water conservation.