Hands up in the air, bracelets flashing under swirling spotlights as music pulses through the Indio, California, desert, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is the ultimate neon dream. The energy is intoxicating with glowing art installations, vibrant stages, and thousands of fans decked in glitter, bohemian chic outfits, and eclectic accessories. 

But the euphoria comes at a huge environmental cost. Discarded LED wristbands, plastic cups, food packaging, and promotional materials pile up, contributing to an average of 96 metric tonnes of solid waste each day. The event also generates significant carbon emissions: a 2016 report estimated that fan travel to the festival would cause over 36,000 private vehicle trips.

From fossil-fuel-guzzling transportation and huge power-sucking stages to thousands of guests eating plastic-wrapped catering, live music events like Coachella are both polluting and wasteful. A growing number of activists, artists, and event planners are trying to change that. To succeed, they must fundamentally shift how concerts and festivals are planned and executed. “I think there are so many environmental effects of concerts. Fast fashion. Travel,” says Julius Lindsay, an expert in climate change mitigation and adaptation at the environment-focused David Suzuki Foundation. “All these things have a significant impact. It’s not as large as really large emitters and the oil and gas industry, but… plastics, travel, and fast fashion all tie back to fossil fuels.”

The environmental footprint of live music

Live music events take artists and their teams around the world as thousands of fans travel to attend shows. In addition to travel, emissions come from fuel for running and lighting the stages and transportation of equipment, trucks, and food vendor operations. A 2022 Swiss study found that music festivals produce 128,000 metric tonnes of carbon emissions in Switzerland annually, with 67% of emissions coming from artists and attendees’ travel. Food and beverages accounted for 10% of carbon emissions while overnight accommodations for artists and staff made up 6%.

Global tours are the most polluting. Taylor Swift was expected to travel approximately 43,688 km for the 2024 portion of her two-year Eras Tour, excluding any detours. The tour’s estimated carbon emissions from travel alone amount to around 511 metric tonnes. To put this into perspective, these emissions are equivalent to the annual energy-related emissions of 120 homes, according to Natural Resources Canada’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator.

“It is a work in progress to understand the carbon footprint [of the music industry],” says Zena Harris, president of Green Spark Group, a sustainability consulting firm specializing in the entertainment industry. She notes that a forthcoming MIT-led study aims to establish a baseline measurement.

Beyond carbon emissions, concerts and festivals generate enormous amounts of waste. With many venues relying on disposable beverage containers and food packaging, single-use plastics are a particular concern. Many concert-goers also throw away food.  

“There is the fan experience, and then what the fans may bring, what the fans may leave behind,” explains Harris. “Depending on the festival, this is a big deal as there are music concerts that are overnight where people bring tents and stuff, and then sometimes they leave them.” Music festivals where attendees camp in the UK, for example, generate approximately 25,800 metric tonnes of waste annually—equivalent to the weight of 150 adult blue whales—and only 37% of it is recycled. Additionally, the Association of Independent Festivals estimated in 2018 that as many as 22,700 tents are abandoned at UK festivals annually.

Mitigating music’s climate impact

While the challenges are significant, some artists and many event organizers are adopting sustainable practices. For example, Coldplay is powering its shows for the Music of the Spheres tour with renewable energy from solar panels, rechargeable batteries, and renewable biodiesel made from waste like cooking oil. Fans also help power the show by dancing on kinetic floors and pedalling power bikes. 

Other industry players are also addressing the carbon footprint of running shows. Venues worldwide are beginning to transition to renewable energy sources—such as solar panels and battery storage systems—to power performances. Some festival venues are incorporating solar-powered stages. Others are reducing their energy use. BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, for example, has modernized with LED lighting, replaced air conditioners with heat pumps, and improved water efficiency. 

 “More music festivals and concerts are using battery power instead of diesel generators to power various parts of the concert,” says Green Spark Group’s Harris, “whether it be the main stage or various parts of the operations in and around the main stage.”

In addition to travel, emissions come from fuel for running and lighting the stages and transportation of equipment, trucks, and food vendor operations.

REVERB, an American non-profit organization dedicated to improving sustainability in the music industry, works with artists to make the transition to more eco-friendly performances. It partnered with the Austin City Limits Music Festival to implement a hybrid battery system, replacing diesel generators for the stage and backstage areas to prevent 15.4 metric tonnes of carbon emissions. Similarly, at Lollapalooza 2023, Billie Eilish collaborated with REVERB to power some stage elements with solar-charged battery systems, avoiding 1 metric tonne of emissions. 

“Events… present opportunities for sustainability whether in how they are powered or how attendees are encouraged to travel to them,” says Saadi D’hoore, a music officer at the City of Vancouver and a member of the city’s Music Task Force, which aims to strengthen the local industry. 

He emphasizes opportunities to reduce transportation emissions. “Right now, travel is one of the most environmentally taxing aspects of the industry,” says D’hoore. “If a venue is easily accessible by rapid transit, bicycle, or foot, it can significantly reduce its environmental impact.”Some artists and organizations are taking steps to address audience travel emissions. Coldplay, for example, encourages its audience to come by public transportation. In March 2024, Music Declares Emergency Canada collaborated with CBC on the Road to the Junos, a five-day event with nightly concerts leading up to the Juno Awards, Canada’s national music award ceremony. Attendees were encouraged to opt for sustainable transportation like biking, public transit, or carpooling. Those who chose eco-friendly travel were entered into a draw to win free Juno tickets.

Tackling concert waste

Awareness around waste at concerts is also increasing, with organizers taking more steps to address the issue. According to the online publication Packaging Dive, a growing number of artists and event organizers are embracing reusable products to reduce waste. The Imagine Zero Music Festival in Vermont, for example, aims to produce “zero waste and zero carbon emissions” by using reusable dishes and utensils, composting food scraps, and installing refill stations for water. 

Larger-scale efforts include Live Nation’s adoption of reusable cup company TURN’s system to cut down on single-use cups. Major acts like U2, the Rolling Stones, and Dave Matthews Band have rolled out reusable r.Cups for their events. The American nonprofit Upstream Policy Institute estimates that stadiums hosting hundreds of events annually could replace millions of single-use cups with reusable alternatives.

Coldplay fans help power their shows by dancing on kinetic floors and pedalling power bikes.

Gabriella Scali, manager of community programs and outreach at the University of British Columbia has worked on sustainability initiatives for small-scale events such as live musical performances for students, sports, and academic research events. She says better planning can mitigate the problem. “One of the most effective strategies is taking inventory of the waste that will be produced and ensuring there are ample bins for each type of waste,” she explains. “This also helps event planners look at ways they might be able to reduce that waste.” 

Scali emphasizes the importance of education in waste reduction: “If an event is using compostable cutlery, signage should indicate that it’s compostable, not recyclable, since people might assume otherwise. Having teams on-site to help attendees sort waste correctly can make a huge difference.” 

Scali also highlights the importance of procurement decisions in reducing environmental impact. Printing event materials or sourcing swag from businesses near concert venues can reduce emissions from transportation, she says. She also suggests events select food with a low carbon footprint. “This might include looking at utilizing local produce but also planning menus that take into account foods that have a high carbon footprint, like beef or lamb, and opting instead for lower-carbon, but still delicious, foods,” she explains. 

The way forward?

Though sustainability initiatives are on the rise, they are far from becoming an industry-wide movement. The City of Vancouver’s D’hoore says artists can take the lead in solving this problem. “Artists play an important role in sort of being the vanguard of these issues and reflecting some of the gaps back onto society,” he says. “Artists should either directly or indirectly talk about these things.” 

The biggest challenge, explains the David Suzuki Foundation’s Lindsay, is that concerts are short-term events involving multiple players—such as artists, event organizers, promoters, and venues—who may not share the same commitment to sustainability. He suggests establishing clear industry-wide standards to drive change, as there is currently no unified guideline for greener concerts. 

He also says that if major performers and fans demand sustainable practices, venues and event organizers will be more likely to comply.

“Unless fans are saying, ‘We are not going to show up to your concerts unless you have a robust sustainability plan,’ or unless artists are saying, ‘We will not play your venue or your city unless you have plans X, Y, and Z,’” says Lindsay, “it’s less likely that it’s going to happen.”

Bottom line, he says, “Change is possible if the industry and fans demand it.”

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