Solution-focused climate activism? Green festivals bring the change

Written by Raegan Kelly, Head of Product and Sustainability, and founding member of Better for All

Artists have long known the power of music to carry a message. In 1971 Ravi Shankar and George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh raised money for and increased awareness of the sharpening humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh. The benefit concert was born, and the decades since have seen internationally broadcast festivals and local shows alike take on a wide range of serious issues including world hunger, AIDS activism, oppression, and apartheid.

The scale of the issues facing us all due to climate change challenges live events to commit at an even deeper level than fundraising and awareness. A concert or festival is at once travel destination and hospitality venue. Festivals in particular effect not only offsite economies but also the immediate environment they transform.  Every year across the U.S. 800 festivals take place in parks, deserts, on beaches and in fields. Elaborate sets, Porta-Potties, food, drink and swag vendors, campgrounds and myriad support services arrive en masse, in effect dropping a temporary live music ecosystem onto existing environments and communities.

The economic upside is demonstrated by Taylor Swift’s record breaking ERAS tour across 53 locations in the US last year: “Typically, every $100 spent on live performances generates an estimated $300 in ancillary local spending on things like hotels, food and transportation. But for the Eras Tour, Swifties are…dropping an estimated $1,300-$1,500 on things like outfits and costumes, merchandise, dining, and travel—boosting local economies by hundreds of millions of dollars in one weekend. ”

Now for the downside. Economies today for the most part adhere to a “linear” model in which products are designed to be discarded when they are no longer wanted or needed. In the linear economic model, festival related purchasing creates tons of waste, most of it destined for landfill. Festival promoters deal with a big trash problem.

“Coachella, Stagecoach, and Desert Trip produce an estimated 214,000 pounds of waste a day, and only a fifth of that is recycled. The rest is sent to landfill…In the U.K., festivalgoers leave behind 250,000 tents every year.”

MAKING FESTIVALS CIRCULAR

“In a circular economy, products and materials are kept in circulation through processes like maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, recycling, and composting. The circular economy tackles climate change and other global challenges, like biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution, by decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources.” – Ellen Macarthur Foundation

There is a potential solution inherent in the very structure of the festival. Many venues and festivals are essentially ‘closed-loop’ systems. For security reasons, festivals and venues require attendees to bring very little in, purchase as-needed on site, and leave disposables behind when the event is over. With pre-planning and coordination between the concessions and service providers involved, festival and concert waste can be radically mitigated. Norway’s OYA and the UK’s Glastonbury Festival have integrated solar powered batteries, banned straws and most petroleum plastic products, implemented returnable wristbands, rental systems, and food packaging must be certified compostable. Leftover food is sent to local food banks, and the rest is composted or turned into biogas. Oya recently boasted achieving a 60% reduction in plastic waste since 2016, and has increased its recycling rate to 60%.

But that still leaves 40% of waste going to landfill. My own experience of Coachella 2024 was mixed on the waste front, at least when it came to consumables. After each performance the grass was literally covered in a layer of mixed material trash and non-recyclable and non-compostable plastics, including cups.

TORTUGA MUSIC FESTIVAL

This year, I was also given the opportunity to personally witness the upside potential for live events to inspire fans while addressing climate pollution. Rock the Ocean’s Tortuga Music Festival is an annual 3 day Live Nation event and ocean conservation fundraiser located on the beach in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  Because Tortuga happens on the beach, Rock the Ocean’s mandate to reduce and contain waste is super critical. Discarded petroleum plastic cups, reusable or not, will leach toxins and produce microplastics for decades if lost on the beach or in the ocean. Most compostable cup options are made from PLA, which does not biodegrade in marine environments. What to do?

Planning Ahead

Rock the Ocean committed to sourcing an ocean safe solution to the approximately 40,000 cups used on site each day. My startup, Better for All, makes cups from a PHA called PHBH, a plant based material that feels like plastic but that is nontoxic, compostable, and that can be consumed by microorganisms that live in soil and marine environments. By making Better for All cups the “Official” cup of Tortuga, all concessions, boxes and bars offered a cup that was distinctive to fans and easy for sorters to divert from landfill during daily cleanup. In the months before the event, we partnered with both Rock the Ocean’s designated composter, Renuable, to ensure our cups worked in their composting systems. PHBH’s natural color made it easy for volunteers to sort cups with food waste and other compostables at end of each day.

“Rock The Ocean’s Tortuga Music Festival sets an industry example of how live music can be a source for change. It integrates fun as a way to change perception and drive a culture of sustainability. Results are impressive.”  — International Business Awards Judge Tortuga Music Festival – 2023 Stevie Award Winner in Sustainability Leadership

THE FANS: A DEEPER LEVEL OF ENGAGEMENT

Live music is, at its core, about the connection between the fans and the artists. There is almost nothing like the feeling of watching your favorite artists perform alongside hundreds of fellow travelers. This feeling of community, however ephemeral, can extend to every aspect of the festival experience.

Coldplay enrolls fans in their carbon emission reduction project by installing energy generating dancefloors and exercise bikes at their shows so fans can generate power for the event by dancing or riding together. At OYA, attendees bike into the venue, and Glastonbury’s Love The Farm, Leave No Trace campaign encourages all attendees to pack only what they need and can carry back out with them.  Global Citizen Festivals are part of a larger initiative to encourage attendees to do more than contribute financially, to act, combining education and political action with entertainment.

Including fans in the infrastructure of live music events arguably creates a better collective experience. At Tortuga the fans were engaged with Rock the Ocean’s ocean conservation awareness initiatives, spending time at the conservation pavilion, noting the care event producers take in choosing the safest materials to introduce into the festival oasis, for both fans and the location itself.

There are not too many ways to bring joy into today’s climate conversation – greening live events is a unique opportunity.  In June, the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative announced–with industry giants like Live Nation and Warner Music Group–the formation of an advisory panel of experts to report on live music and climate change. One goal among many: “identify key areas where the industry and concert goers can make tangible improvements to reduce emissions and drive planet-positive outcomes.”

 The committee includes a suite of managerial, academic and music business experts, as well as artists Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, Ellie Goulding, Coldplay, Depeche Mode and Shawn Mendes. As climate scientist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson put it on The Interview: “Climate activism needs way better vibes”. Better vibes are coming.

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As Head of Product and Sustainability at Better for All, Raegan Kelly works with biopolymer engineers and manufacturing experts to create a unique line of PHBH™ home compostable bioplastic cups. Prior to Better for All, she produced creative projects for USC Annenberg, Warner Bros Records, LACMA, Otis College of Design, Disney’s Epcot Center and more.

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