The Sustainability of Music Festivals: A Green Evolution

Music festivals have long been a staple of summer entertainment, bringing together people from all walks of life to enjoy live music, food, and community. However, as the environmental impact of these events has come under scrutiny, festival organizers have been working to reduce their carbon footprint and promote sustainability.

Hannah Love, a lifelong festival goer and mother of three, values the sustainability efforts of the festivals she attends. “I think the kind of festivals I go to place a big emphasis on sustainability and attract people like us who do think about the environment,” she says. Love’s children also enjoy the festivals, and she looks for those that offer activities for the whole family.

The environmental impact of music festivals is significant. According to research by A Greener Future, a sustainability consultancy, and industry think tank Powerful Thinking, the UK festival community alone uses in excess of 12 million litres of diesel annually. Transport is another major source of emissions, including people traveling to and from the events and goods being transported to and from the sites.

Festivals are making strides to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels. Last year’s Glastonbury Festival featured a wind turbine that supplied electricity to selected market stalls. Installed by Octopus Energy, the turbine, along with solar panels and a battery, supplied a small grid with enough electricity to run 300 fridges a day.

Chris Johnson, co-founder of the Shambala festival in the UK, has adopted a range of eco measures over the festival’s duration. The festival only serves up vegan and vegetarian food and has switched from diesel generators to sourcing power through sustainably-sourced hydrogenated vegetable oil, solar and hybrid units, and introducing energy tariffs for traders to encourage greater responsibility for energy consumption.

Mysterland, a three-day electronic music festival in the Netherlands, has taken steps to become less reliant on fossil fuels. Now 80% of its power is generated by solar panels on a nearby farm. The festival and its partners also dug electricity cables into the ground to connect the festival to the national grid.

Reducing fossil fuels is a key point in the European Green roadmap, a sustainability checkpoint list for the festival and events industry. The report states that “energy generation from non-renewable, fossil fuel sources is not sustainable and must be phased out.”

Claire O’Neill, co-founder and chief executive of A Greener Future, and co-author of the European Green roadmap, says that all industries, including the festival sector, need to change. “The Green Deal in the EU is setting the target for 55% emissions reduction by 2030. The festival sector doesn’t have any such roadmap, and a lot of the actions we’ve been working with festivals on for nearly 20 years on sustainability can be quite ad hoc. Nothing really fundamentally changes over time.”

Establishing grid connections is important but can be expensive. With transport making up the bulk of emissions, festival organizers must work with transport providers to ensure that people travel in the greenest way possible to and from the sites. Sometimes performers themselves can set the example, as Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters took the train to Glastonbury last year.

While there is limited regulation of music festivals’ greenhouse gas emissions, any festival organizers planning to promote the sustainability of their events should review their green claims carefully. Regulatory scrutiny of green marketing claims is at an all-time high, and the UK’s consumer regulators are taking proactive steps to tackle greenwashing through increased enforcement action.

In conclusion, music festivals are making significant strides towards sustainability, reducing their reliance on fossil fuels and promoting eco-friendly practices. Festival organizers must continue to work towards reducing their carbon footprint and promoting sustainability to meet the expectations of audiences and the industry as a whole. The future of music festivals lies in a green evolution, and it is up to festival organizers to lead the way.