Thursday, April 25, 2019
Earth Day | Environmental Impact of Music Festivals
www.livedesignonline.com: It’s no secret that the live industry has room for improvement when it comes to environmental impact—from the carbon footprint created by fleets of trucks zig-zagging around the country (not to mention the thousands of fans traveling to each event) to the mountains of discarded plastic and paper goods at events.
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The entertainment industry SUCKS at being green. Our planet needs to be treated better and I think that Music Festivals could definitely take more steps to improve their green practices. One of the first thing this article mentions if the amount of truck fuel that is used by the entertainment industry and honestly I didn’t even think about that but that’s awesome. The good news is that there are festivals trying to combat the fact that they have such a large carbon footprint by having recycling and composting programs within their festivals. Coachella has done some really super cool things for the environment. The fact that they have an “energy playground” where they power mobile devices through kinetic energy is super cool. Lollapalooza is AWESOME. The fact that they have offset CO2 emissions through green efforts is really great. I don’t know of the music festival Outside Lands or Austin City Limits, but I really enjoyed reading about how many different festivals are attempting to put in effort to improve the environment, or at least, damage it less.
As Ella said, the entertainment industry as a whole really sucks at being green. While recycling materials certainly helps, we still use significant amounts of energy from fossil fuels to move our rigs around the country, then power them. These issues are compounded at events like music festivals, where concessions are served in single use containers that are often discarded on the ground or wherever else is convenient. It is really cool to see how the industry has tried to step up in this regard. A number of musical festivals have or are planning to implement material recycling and composting programs. Some festivals have taken it even further, banning the use of single use goods like plastic cutlery and straws. It is frustrating to see the public so slow to embrace progress, but at least steps are being made. Also, I appreciate that added incentives like the ten for one bottle exchange at Coachella or the free shirt for collecting recyclables at Austin City Limits helps to increase attendee participation in green programs.
The efforts put forth to go green seem very small and insufficient in our day to day lives, but on the scale of large music festivals, it really makes a difference. One thing I’d like to know, is how accurate these claims are. I know that it’s super hard to make sure what you recycle is actually recyclable, and if it’s mixed with landfill trash, it makes it harder/impossible to recycle. Besides that, I like the incentives that were created to actually recycle/compost. In general, it’s hard to get people to really try to filter out their trash correctly, so by creating the 10 bottles for one deal they’ve given people who are spending a whole bunch of money to be there the incentive to save some money, while also saving the planet. Anything that benefits the consumer is an easy way to incentivize work that people don’t really want to do out of sheer laziness, such as recycling.
As someone who’s been to a number of music festivals myself, I know how quickly those trash cans fill up, how surprisingly important the food and drink scene is, and how unconcerned drunk festival goers can be. Reading this article was actually surprisingly reassuring-- I’ve never seen environmental efforts actually succeed in these spaces on the scales described. I tend to be a pessimist in terms of the environment and resort to doubtful thinking when large-scale efforts try to pat themselves on the back for “making a difference,” but this actually does give me some hope. That being said, we shouldn’t pretend that simply taking care of the land that these festivals are profiting off of is some generous act of charity-- it’s the right and responsible thing to do. There is more work to be done in the entertainment industry, and I hope that more traditional venues such as concert halls, arenas, and stadiums follow suit.
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