Concerts are great for seeing your favourite artists, dancing your heart out and making memories with friends, but the environmental damage of these experiences can be catastrophic. Cerys Deakin explores the true environmental costs of concerts and how efforts are made to promote sustainable experiences.
Pic Credit: StockSnap via Pixabay
Imagine you’ve just seen your favourite artist live; your ears are ringing, your feet hurt, and your body is sore. You get to go home and rest in bed, but the earth is left hurting from the costs of your memories.
Since the lifting of lockdowns and the ease of social restrictions, the concert and festival industry has boomed. In 2023 alone, the top 100 concerts grossed at an approximate $9.17 billion. Despite the huge engagement and attendance at these events, the environmental effects are rarely discussed. It seems that the desire for experience outweighs the need to need to be sustainable and conscious of environmental impacts.
Air Asia Plane commemorating the Taylor Swift concert in Malaysia. Pic Credit: M Radzi Desa via Wikimedia Commons
On average, a music festival produces 500 tonnes of carbon emissions, through travel, fashion and sky-rocketing energy consumption. These events are also notorious for producing physical waste on mass. In 2022, pop icon Taylor Swift was responsible for 8,300 tonnes of carbon emissions just from travel, selecting to travel via private jet throughout her tour and other events. The travel decisions of artists, crew and fans are one of the leading contributors to the total carbon footprints of concerts. These events are often coupled with concert-specific fashion trends, enhancing the demands on fast fashion. The fast fashion industry accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions and is expected to continue to grow alongside popularity growth of artists and concert events.
Coldplay concert in Manchester, part of the Music of the Spheres Tour. Pic Credit: Raph_PH via Wikimedia Commons
Hope is not lost however, and these events can become more environmentally conscious and sustainable. An excellent example of this is the Coldplay Music of the Spheres tour. The tour was designed with the planet in mind, and much of the planning was guided by three core principles – reduce, reinvent and restore. The band and staff pledged to cut down their direct emissions by at least 50% when compared to their previous tour’s output.
These principles were acknowledged in various ways. Planning the tour involved a schedule which would minimise carbon emissions where possible, alongside the use of local equipment where possible to reduce emissions generated when transporting equipment. The band and staff also used trains and commercial flights where possible.
Coldplay concert 2023, featuring the recyclable LED wristbands given to fans. Pic Credit: Raph_PH via Wikimedia Commons
The concerts were powered almost totally by renewable sources in the form of solar panels, biofuels, rechargeable BMW batteries and kinetic energy. The kinetic floors implemented at the concerts were a real hit with crowds and the concerts quickly went viral on platforms like TikTok for their sustainable approaches. Fans also had the opportunity to ride electricity generating bikes whilst at the concerts, which fed into the power of the lighting at the venue.
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