Backstage Pass: The Pick that Rocked
- traceless
- Jun 12
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 7
From material innovation to music festival — how our friespickers made their large-scale debut.
Thousands of festival-goers. Two iconic festivals. And one small pick making a big statement for the planet. This year’s Rock am Ring and Rock im Park weren’t just about guitars, drums, and crowd-surfing. They were also about rethinking foodservice — and pioneering more sustainable ways to serve food. Together with Gastro Team Bremen (GTB), part of Aramark Germany, we brought our traceless® friespickers to life at two of Europe’s biggest festivals.
Here's your backstage pass to how this small friespicker ended up in the spotlight.
Setting the Stage: Serving Sustainability
As a major user of single-use items, the food-service industry plays a key role in the shift toward sustainable materials. Regulations and taxes on single-use plastics are accelerating the shift — and food providers are searching for alternatives that are both functional and future-proof.
That’s why festivals like Rock am Ring & Rock im Park are taking sustainability seriously. And the collaboration with GTB highlights how the foodservice sector can drive real change.
While reusable systems are essential in many settings, they aren’t always practical at large-scale events with limited logistics. Balancing convenience and efficiency with sustainability remains a challenge. In these cases, traceless offers a solution — combining the practicality of single-use with the responsibility of circular design.
Soundcheck: A New Kind of Pick
traceless® friespickers are made from our certified plastic-free, biobased, and home-compostable material — based on plant-based agricultural residues. They’re part of our growing traceless® food-service collection, which also includes cutlery, ice cream spoons, food trays, and more.
Our resource-efficient production process reduces CO₂ emissions by around 90% compared to conventional plastic. Thanks to its granulate format, the material can be processed into flexible films, coatings, and rigid items — like our tested friespicker. They’re convenient, safe, and entirely free from plastics, microplastics, and harmful chemicals — making them a smart pick for both people and the planet.
The Line-Up: Collaboration in Harmony
Big stages require big coordination. And this pilot wouldn’t have happened without the combined efforts of a powerful line-up:
traceless – material innovators
Ecko-Pack & CompriseTec – our production partners
Rock am Ring & Rock im Park – the festival organizers
GTB / Aramark Germany – catering providers
Our collaboration with Gastro Team Bremen (GTB) goes back to 2022, when we first joined forces to explore how our material could be used in festival catering. That early co-development led to our first prototype, presented at Labor Tempelhof 2022 — a concert series and innovation lab inspired by the Cradle-to-Cradle approach and known for piloting sustainable practices in real-world settings. In 2024, the product was tested under real-life conditions at the next edition of Labor Tempelhof.
Main Stage at Rock am Ring & Rock im Park
Fast forward to June 2025: at Rock am Ring and Rock im Park, we’ve taken the next step — bringing our industrially produced friespickers to scale across multiple food trucks and reaching thousands of festival-goers.
From smooth handling by food truck operators to enthusiastic feedback from festival guests, this pilot marks a major milestone in scaling our traceless® food-service collection — the one that’s here for your food, not for forever.
Karen Matthiesen, Project Manager & Sustainability Officer at GTB Gastro Team Bremen, states ''Sustainability is a central component of our catering approach at major events such as Rock am Ring and Rock im Park – even if single-use products are often unavoidable due to logistical requirements. As a full-service catering provider, we actively seek more sustainable alternatives to conventional plastic. The practical testing of innovative solutions such as the traceless® friespickers is an important step in this mission. Initial feedback is encouraging and shows that a solution like traceless® can offer the same convenience and practicality that festivalgoers expect – while ensuring true sustainability.''
The Encore: From Pilot to Production
This pilot wasn’t just a one-hit wonder — it was a key step in something much bigger. Because 2025 isn’t just the year our pickers hit the festival stage — it’s also the year of our commercial market-entry!
Anne Lamp, CEO and co-founder of traceless materials, states, ''Seeing our traceless® friespickers in action at Rock am Ring and Rock im Park was a truly proud moment for the entire team and me – and we are grateful for the great collaboration with GTB. It may be just a small fork, but it's part of a green revolution in the foodservice industry. This is just the beginning of our journey, and I’m excited to see our production grow, enabling us to provide meaningful solutions for businesses and consumers on a large scale, thereby making the kind of impact needed to tackle plastic pollution.''
With the market entry coming closer, we’re scaling up to bring traceless® materials to more foodservice partners, packaging producers, and sustainability pioneers across Europe. Whether it’s friespickers, cutlery, or ice cream spoons — we’re ready to meet the growing demand for plastic-free and naturally compostable alternatives designed for real-world use. Because when innovation meets industrial scale, a small pick can lead to a big change.
So if you're looking for a material alternative for your foodservice needs we’d love to hear from you.
Reach out to our team at sales@traceless.eu
