Green Music is all the go, apparently. Courtesy Triple J.
Many pop acts bang on about environmental issues – then embark on worldwide tours by plane fuelled by throwaway facilities and disposable food suppliers at their gigs. UK band Coldplay has taken the lead to actually do something about the wasteful gig culture. By Jeremy Torr.
London, November 2019. Anybody that has attended a big ticket concert (and small-ticket gigs too) will probably have been amazed at the amount of plastic and unrecyclable litter generated by a single night’s musical excitement. Then there’s the cost of flying, trucking and pampering the stars to the cities where they perform; add on the resource cost of powering the event and creating the stage; and lastly think about the travel consumption and costs incurred by thousands of eager fans and you can see why band touring might be bad for the atmosphere.
Luckily, it could be that the era of conspicuous pop music consumption is easing off on the consumption gas (or wah-wah) pedal.
For example, pop queen Billie Eilish has committed to only running tours that are as green as she can make them. As a practising vegan, Eilish is big on looking after the planet, and says there will no plastic straws on her tours and encourages fans to bring their own drinks (and bottles) instead of throwaway products. She is also big on direct action, pushing fans to join climate activists Greta Thunberg’s Friday Environment strikes or signing up to the likes of Greenpeace or WWF.
Manchester-based pop-rock four-piece The 1975 has said it will (maybe not personally) plant a tree for every ticket sold for its recent tour of the UK, as well as collaborating with Thunberg on a song which will send all profits to Extinction Rebellion.
“I’m grateful to get the opportunity to get my message out to a broad new audience in a new way,” said Thunberg in an interview. “We quickly need to get people in all branches of society to get involved. And this collaboration I think is something new.”
It is, but the problem is an old (and big) one. According to WEF research data, music festivals produce up to an estimated 23,500 tonnes of waste are produced by music festivals every year, along with over 400,000 tonnes of greenhouse emissions, as estimated by sustainability group Global Citizen. Worse, some 250,000 single-use tents are dumped at festivals each year in the UK, with most ending up in landfills.
Music festivals like Glastonbury are woeful when it comes to left behind litter. Courtesy Skiphire Co.
In Italy, the Terraforma Festival is taking a new approach, with festival goers proactively restoring the festival space and rebuilding Labyrinth gardens as part of their attendance requirements. As well, local architects work with fans to build a unique space made from sustainable materials while and after the music plays.
In Denmark, the Northside Festival claims its festival management are continually working towards a green-friendly event. For example, all food is 100 percent organic, there are no car parks on site, and special roving Trash Talkers help you sort your rubbish and put it into the correct bins (they provide six different waste stream options) for recycling.
Coldplay are not touring until they have sorted out a solid emissions stance. Courtesy ColdPlay.
Another musical influencer group -100-million selling Coldplay - has gone one better and has embarked on a No-Date Tour to promote its latest "Everyday Life" album. Coldplay member Chris Martin said in an interview that the band would not be touring in the foreseeable future until they had established a way of playing live concerts that were inherently more sustainable.
"We would be disappointed if (a tour) is not carbon neutral," said Martin, emphasising that any concerts should ideally not just be sustainable, but maybe a bonus to the environment too. The new album was launched with just two dates in Amman, Jordan, on Friday, and fans can watch the events for free on YouTube.
"Our next tour will be the best possible version of a tour … environmentally," added Martin. "The hardest thing is the flying side of things," he said. "But, for example, our dream is to have a show with no single-use plastic, and to have it largely solar-powered." Bring it on.