Concerts for Conservation: How Music Festivals Are Leading the Green Charge
Rob Sheffield once wrote: “When we die, we will turn into songs, and we will hear each other and remember each other, nothing connects to the moment like music. I count the music to bring me back, or more precisely, to bring her forward.” It is in his melodic memoir titled “Love Is a Mixtape,” that he recalls the ways music connects him to his deceased wife, and music to life. Since the beginning of time, music has transcended the tangible world in a way that humankind will never be able to fully comprehend. It’s through this ethereal unification that music brings us together, both physically and spiritually. Because of this, we saw the rise of music festivals all over the world; such as Coachella, DGTL Festival, Woodstock, Glastonbury Festival, and many more.
The music festival aesthetic has historically consisted of populations in the hundreds of thousands, acid trips, drugs, and reckless partying. However, while once synonymous with excessive waste and environmental negligence, music festivals are undergoing a major transformation. In recent years, a wave of eco-consciousness has swept through the festival circuit, leading to a surge in conservation efforts. These initiatives, ranging from waste reduction strategies to sustainable sourcing practices, signify a pivotal shift towards environmental responsibility within the entertainment industry, and hopefully the world. Because of its longevity and size, music festival conservation single-handedly has the power to finally dismiss any excuses politicians or foreign dignitaries consistently have when actively fighting against the very same planet that gives us life.
The origins of eco-consciousness within music festivals can be traced back to the early 2000s when pioneering events like Bonnaroo and Glastonbury began prioritizing sustainability. Recognizing the environmental footprint of large-scale gatherings, these music festival organizers initiated measures to mitigate their carbon footprint. These small efforts–such as tree planting and natural reserve preservation then gained momentum, catalyzing a shift in the festival landscape forever, creating an end goal for festivals that are now known as “Circular Festivals.” Circular Festivals are music festivals that produce zero waste for the entirety of the festival. The first and most notable of circular festivals is Amsterdam’s DGTL’s Music Festival.
DGTL Festival (Amsterdam)
DGTL–pronounced “Digital”– is a global event originating in 2013 that has a turnout of over 40,000 people each year. While all different kinds of artists headline and perform at DGTL, it is most commonly known for its techno, disco, and house beats. This Dutch festival has championed a socially conscious ethos and has continued to innovate on ways to reduce the carbon footprint of thousands of people, demonstrated most through their conservationist efforts in energy, sanitation, and food. Being the largest music festival in the world, by far their most impactful efforts have been in their renewable energy. In the past, to properly put on such a large show for hundreds of thousands of people, festivals have used diesel generators. Which according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in addition to harmful pollutants, also produces greenhouse gases. To put it in perspective: a typical diesel generator produces more than twice the amount of greenhouse gases than grid power. At DGTL, they use wind panels to generate energy for their pyrotechnics, stage power, speakers, and other necessary technology, significantly lowering the festival’s effect on GWP (Global Warming Potential).
On the monetary front, all purchases to be made in or around the DGTL festival are cashless. To complement this, in their journey to becoming circular, they coined their “Hard Cup” system. One of the biggest issues with humans’ use of plastic/recyclable waste is that it is very often not disposed of correctly. At DGTL, they have set up a system to replace the plastic-cup plague. For a visitor’s first beverage, they pay a dollar more for their drink than its original cost (for the cup), and then to ensure reuse, each time the visitor comes back for another beverage, as long as they bring the cup back they can get that drink at a reduced price. If the visitor does not want another drink, they can bring the cup back up to the bar to exchange it for a “festival token,” to be used to purchase some other food or drink anywhere else on the festival grounds. In just this simple exchange, DGTL is avoiding about 1000kg of plastic waste per festival each year. Through DGTL’s conservation efforts, they have not only lessened their environmental footprint, but they have inspired music festivals around the world to follow suit, including America’s most infamous festival of all time: Coachella.
Coachella (Indio, California)
Known for its bohemian fashion, star-studded performance lineups, car camping, desert dust, and music of the indie rock/pop persuasion, Coachella is the end-all-be-all of Hollywood popularity contests. Some even measure their career’s success by if they ever got the offer to headline one of the two back-to-back weekends at Coachella. Similar to DGTL, they also have made efforts to switch to renewable energy. However, Coachella approaches its zero waste initiative in an even more instantly gratifying manner.
In 2004, Coachella partnered with Global Inheritance to launch their “TRASHed” campaign. The goal of TRASHed is to design interactive art projects made completely from recycled materials that focus on improving planetary health. In recent years, some projects included the painting of recycling bins, see-saws, and car decoration with Carpoolchella–the act of carpooling with either friends or random strangers to the festival grounds to limit carbon emissions. Winners of their respective competitions won prizes and recognition for their hard work.
Also in partnership with Global Inheritance, Coachella has its “Recycling Store.” The Recycling Store is one of the greatest new conservationist efforts of our time. Naturally, at music festivals, there is tons and tons of water drunk each day. While Coachella and many other modern festivals have water bottle refilling stations to reduce plastic waste, they understand that many still consume gallons of water daily through plastic bottles. So, to combat this, they have created incentives based on how many empty plastic/metal cans and bottles a festival goer successfully bag up and collect over the weekend.
The lowest reward–but most refreshing–is the 10-for-1 Water, where if you collect 10 bottles, you get in return an ice-cold bottle of water. Other prizes–varying in number of bottles needed to obtain them– consist of Ferris Wheel tickets, hats, shirts, posters, tote bags, raffle tickets, and even VIP upgrades for a whopping 1,200 bottles–in case you were wondering. Though not many reach the pinnacle of prizes with VIP upgrades, they sure as heck sweat trying. In a recent TikTok video, user Diogenes Gamble documented his experience collecting bottles to obtain his free t-shirt and VIP upgrade. In enacting these arcade-style transactions, Coachella has successfully recycled over 7 million recyclables since the project began in 2007.
They also have artist-specific merchandise mystery bags, which are essentially discounted bags of merchandise that the participating artists at the festival didn’t sell out of on their respective tours, or were older exclusive merchandise drops that did not sell. As for food, Coachella partners with the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission to donate any excess food from their catering tents and vendors to community members of the Valley facing food insecurity, collecting nearly 44.2 tons of food by the end of last year. In conjunction with all the other efforts listed above, in 2023 Coachella proudly announced that they recycled a total of 298.6 tons of materials.
Pulsating with energy and unity, music festivals are just about one of the last places on Earth where we can find ourselves sharing the things we love with the ones we love, while feeling the love our planet has continued to give us for the last 4 billion years. Whether it’s through lyrics that inspire change, benefit concerts supporting sociopolitical crises, or conservational efforts at festivals, music always finds itself returning to its roots: connecting us with the natural world around us. And, with the help of music festivals all over the world, music is allowing us to love our home back the way it has loved us all these years.
