sustainability
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The Music Sustainability Summit (MSS) has announced programming for its next event, which is set to take place on Feb. 3, 2025, at Solotech Studios in Los Angeles. Produced by the Music Sustainability Alliance (MSA), the second edition of the conference will focus on solutions to climate change’s effects on the music industry, with special […]
Jacob Collier and Swedish alt-pop artist Aurora recently boarded a ship to the arctic to perform amid the glaciers.
In video, premiering today (Oct. 1) the duo play a mash-up of their two songs, Collier’s “A Rock Somewhere” from his 2024 album Djesse Vol. 4 and Aurora’s 2019 song “The Seed,” with the performance intended to raise awareness for ocean and climate protection.
“The moment I heard about an opportunity to jump aboard one of the legendary Greenpeace ships, head to Arctic waters, and sing a song with one of my favorite artists next to a mighty glacier, I knew I was signing up for something special,” Collier says in a statement. “What I hadn’t foreseen was quite how transformative and moving the experience would be, and how much it would teach me – musically, energetically and environmentally.
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“I was bowled over at the sheer magnitude of the Arctic – and also its deep fragility,” Collier continues. “We’ve lost two thirds of all the Arctic summer ice in the last forty years. It’s a shadow of its former self – yet it’s not too late for us to help.
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“We compete with each other as nations but we forget the one thing we all have in common,” adds Aurora. “If we keep interfering with the few untouched areas of this Earth, there will be no future. We have to stop deep sea mining. I hope our Prime Minister and the other world leaders will do what is right. Not for them, but for the children of the children.”
Greenpeace notes that millions of people around the world have signed Greenpeace’s petition calling for ocean protection. 32 countries currently support a deep sea mining moratorium, precautionary pause or ban on deep sea mining in the international seabed, which covers more than half of Earth. Greenpeace adds that 58 leading electric vehicle and technology companies have publicly committed to not source minerals mined from the deep sea, with this list including Google, Samsung, Apple, Volvo and BMW.
“We won a historic Global Ocean Treaty last year, which keeps our goal of protecting 30 percent of the world’s oceans by 2030 alive,” Dr. Laura Meller of Greenpeace Nordic says in a statement. “But governments now want to mine the deep. We won’t let that happen. We hope this collaboration will inspire millions of people around the world to join our mission to protect the oceans for future generations. We still have time, but governments must act now. They must protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030 and introduce a moratorium on deep sea mining.”
Billie Eilish is further distinguishing herself as one of the most environmentally forward thinking artists in music through a new partnership with Google Maps.
As part of Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft tour, which launches Sept. 29 in Quebec City, fans can use Google Maps to find eco-friendly transportation and plant-based food options in many of the places the 43-city world tour is hitting.
Through Maps, Eilish will offer tips for fans looking for sustainable travel options like fuel efficient routes, walking, bike-sharing and public transportation. In each city, Google Maps will offer a walking or public transit route if it’s as convenient and fast as driving in each tour stop city.
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Eilish will also offer recommendations on where fans can grab a plant-based meal in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Nashville, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Fans can simply search for one of these tour cities in Maps and scroll down to find Eilish’s picks.
“I am so excited to see you all at my shows over the coming months, and for us to work together in reducing our collective footprint when it comes to transportation and what we eat,” Eilish says in a statement. “Every action matters, no matter how big or small, and together we can truly begin to heal our beautiful planet. Thanks to Google Maps, everyone will have easy access to resources that will help you make great sustainable choices when you come to my shows. Thank you for caring. See you soon!”
In an interview with Billboard earlier this year, Eilish and her mom Maggie Baird, the founder of Support + Feed, which encourages access to plant-based foods, spoke about incorporating sustainability measures into Eilish’s career.
“It’s a never-ending f–king fight,” Eilish said. “As we all know, it’s pretty impossible to force someone to care. All you can do is express and explain your beliefs, but a lot of people don’t really understand the severity of the climate [crisis]. And if they do, they’re like, ‘Well, what’s the point? We’re all going to die anyway.’ Believe me, I feel that way too. But ‘what’s the point’ goes both ways: ‘What’s the point? I can do whatever I want. We’re all going to die anyway.’ Or, ‘What’s the point? I might as well do the right thing while I’m here.’ That’s my view.”
Since Lollapalooza ushered in the era of the modern music festival in the early 1990s, one main power source has been driving them all: diesel generators. These mobile devices have been particularly crucial to the festival industry given that many of these events take place in open fields and parking lots that aren’t connected to the power grid.
But generators are also environmentally problematic. At the biggest festivals, they can burn through thousands of gallons of diesel fuel over a weekend, spewing carbon emissions that altogether make them the second biggest carbon emitters in live music, after emissions created by fan travel. They’re also loud, and they kind of stink.
“You can hear them from the stage, you can smell them from the stage,” says Adam Gardner of the band Guster, and who also co-founded the music sustainability nonprofit REVERB. “It’s just unpleasant.”
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But the live events industry, and the festival industry in particular, is amidst what seems to be a sea change in how events are powered. And increasingly, the more viable alternative to the diesel devilry is simple — batteries.
Last month, the Lollapalooza 2024 mainstage was powered entirely by batteries, which kept the lights, sound and other power components on during performances by Chappell Roan, Megan Thee Stallion, SZA, The Killers and more. A rep for Lollapalooza tells Billboard that with this effort, the festival saw a 67% reduction in both fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions over prior years, when batteries had not been used. This equates to the sparing of 26 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, or the equivalent to five homes’ electricity use for a year. The use of batteries also saved over 3,000 gallons of fuel. Lollapalooza says this initiative made it the first major U.S. festival to power its mainstage on a hybrid battery system.
“I’ve heard some rumors about competitors being maybe a little jealous that we were the first ones to do it,” says Jake Perry, the director of operations and sustainability at C3 Presents, which produces Lollapalooza.
Lolla’s effort helped demonstrate that what may seem risky is actually a reliable alternative that’s evolving power options for live events. “There’s a lot of fear and apprehension over providing the power that’s turning the show on,” says Perry. “But there were, like, zero issues.”
The battery set up at Lollapalooza 2024
Dusana Risovic
REVERB, a 501c3 nonprofit that’s focused on sustainability in music for 20 years and was co-founded by Gardner and his wife, environmentalist Lauren Sullivan, estimates that each year, U.S. festivals burn the equivalent of 46 million miles driven by gasoline powered vehicles. As battery technology evolves, they’re becoming a more viable solution to the issue, if organizers can be convinced that they’re reliable enough to use.
“If there’s a choice between sustainability and reliability, everyone’s going to choose reliability,” says Greg Landa, CEO of CES Power, the industry’s leading mobile power provider for festivals. “The pop star doesn’t want to be on stage if there’s no audio or lighting.”
But early adopters have demonstrated batteries’ efficacy. In May, Northern California’s two-day Mill Valley Music Festival was powered entirely by batteries. At the 2023 edition of Willie Nelson’s Luck Reunion near Austin, Texas, the REVERB team powered all four stages with batteries, setting up a temporary on-site solar array to charge them. By 2024, the entire event was battery powered, with the only generators on site being inside the tour buses of the artists playing. In total, 350 gallons of diesel fuel were used at Luck in 2022, with that number down by 90% in 2023 and 100% in 2024, tour buses notwithstanding. This year, REVERB also brought battery power to SXSW, using it to power an outdoor stage for public performances by artists including Bootsy Collins.
REVERB and Overdrive Solutions’ solar setup at Luck Reunion 2024
Courtesy of REVERB
These efforts were backed by REVERB’s Music Decarbonization Project, which aims to eliminate carbon emissions created by the music industry. The Project made headlines in 2023 when it brought a temporary solar array to Lollapalooza in Chicago, using it to charge the battery system that powered the mainstage during a headlining set from Billie Eilish, arguably the modern artist most vocal about sustainability. (Eilish helped launch and fund REVERB’s Music Decarbonization Project in 2023.)
Through this initiative with Eilish, “we were able to help Lollapalooza [get] to where they are now, where they were able to take it upon themselves,” says Gardner, “which is exactly the point of the Music Decarbonization Project.”
Lollapalooza’s use of battery power in 2024 came after years of the fest searching for the battery technology to make it happen, with C3 testing batteries from myriad manufacturers over the last few years at events including Austin City Limits and North Carolina’s High Water.
“The technology is evolving very quickly,” says Perry. “This year it finally got to a point where it was big enough and capable enough to put it into an installation this size.” The effort falls into Live Nation’s goal of cutting its emissions by 50% by 2030.
Battery power at a festival functions in essentially the same way as in a hybrid car; think of battery systems as a hybridization of the stage. How long batteries last depend on what’s being powered (i.e. a stage, a lighting source, a food vendor, etc.), how long it’s powered for and the battery’s storage capacity.
Partnered with CES, Lollapalooza 2024 used lithium ion batteries made by industrial equipment manufacturer Atlas Copco. All batteries, regardless of manufacturer, can carry only a certain amount of charge and must have charge added during the event. Each battery is connected to a secondary power source that charges it back up when necessary.
As such, how green batteries actually are varies by the way they’re charged. Batteries can be powered off the grid if utility power is available, or from a generator running off diesel (the most common option) or biodiesel, which has less of a carbon footprint but can be hard to source. Solar panels don’t require any fuel to be burned, although setting up the necessary solar array at an event can be time- and space-intensive.
But even when using diesel backup generators, batteries are more efficient. Landa says that if the company put a 60 kw battery at an event site, it’s unlikely the battery would ever be using that full 60 kw power, with levels more likely to be at 30-45 kw depending on what it’s powering. At that rate, the battery would likely last four to five hours before being charged by the generator, thus using less fuel.
“That’s the hybrid approach we’re talking about,” Landa says.
Batteries also have built-in computers, making them able to report how much power they’re using at any given time. When they need to be charged, they automatically turn on their power sources. When they reach the necessary level of charge, they automatically turn this backup source back off. And because batteries are intelligent, if a failure occurs, they’ll instantly flip on the backup source to avoid power interruptions.
“They’re telling you everything in real time,” says Gardner. “You can literally monitor your power usage on an iPhone as it’s happening.”
According to Landa, the top mobile battery suppliers are currently Caterpillar, Atlas Copco and portable power solutions supplier POWR2. The Vermont-based Nomad offers transportable battery systems designed for rapid deployment and operation at the utility (or grid) level, although Alex Crothers of the Burlington-based music production company Higher Ground incorporated Nomad batteries into the company’s 2024 summer season, along with batteries from Overdrive Solutions. Crothers is currently exploring how to make these batteries into backup power for the venues he co-owns, given that the concert series only happens a few times a month due to the weather. Meanwhile, Overdrive Solutions provides battery power stations and systems and has partnered with AEG on myriad events, assisting with planning and on-site execution.
“A lot of them use the same technology in their guts,” Gardner says of all these products.
As battery technology improves, there could come a time when they can be charged with utility power before being transported to a festival, then run for the duration without being recharged. “That is not where we are today,” says Landa. “But that is the goal.” As batteries become more efficient, they’ll also likely become smaller, which will allow more of them to fit on a shipping truck and reduce costs and carbon emissions related to transport. Some batteries currently being made by Overdrive Solutions are already as small as a rolling suitcase.
The current hybrid battery model is what makes it possible for artists to say that their shows are completely battery powered, even though there are generators on site. “When you hear about Coldplay, they brought just as many generators as they brought batteries,” says Landa. “While Chris Martin was on stage, he may have been without any emissions, but there were diesel generators charging those batteries [after]. I’m not trying to greenwash this.”
At Lollapalooza 2024, generators ran on b14 biodiesel, a blend of diesel and biodiesel, with C3 partnering with CES and sustainability consultancy ZAP Concepts (who worked with Coldplay on their Music of the Spheres Tour, which pledged to reduce the band’s direct carbon emissions from production, freight and band and crew travel by at least 50%) to make the project a reality.
Of course, batteries have many festival applications beyond powering stages. REVERB worked with Coachella and Stagecoach to put up battery-powered light towers that were charged by solar. “Festival organizers loved it,” says Gardner, “because they didn’t have to run out to light towers on the outskirts of the festival in their golf carts and fill up the diesel generators.”
REVERB and Overdrive Solutions’ solar setup at Coachella
Courtesy of REVERB
Perry of C3 says that after the success of 2024, Lollapalooza will likely roll out additional battery usage incrementally, ultimately working to entirely replace the roughly 70 generators on-site annually. This endeavor will become easier as the general supply of batteries increases, as currently, Perry says, “these types of high-capacity batteries are low supply, high demand.”
He adds the price of the Lolla mainstage project was “not cheap,” with the festival partnering with CES, Live Nation’s sustainability program Green Nation and T-Mobile to cover costs. Landa says that while lithium-ion batteries currently cost about five times the price of diesel generators, batteries are rechargeable and built to work for a decade or longer, so buyers can spread the cost out over time.
Landa predicts that, as with electric cars and iPhones, prices will come down as technology evolves, with a trickle-down effect likely to occur. “Think electric vehicles at the top,” he says, “then think industrial applications, then think events and entertainment at the bottom of the funnel. We need the guys ahead of us to drive down cost and increase the supply chain so that it makes sense by the time it gets to the bottom of the funnel.”
As this happens, and as the industry grapples with sustainably — particularly in the face of events being affected by major and extremely freaky weather events — initiatives like REVERB’s work at Luck Reunion and SXSW and what C3 did at Lolla 2024 are meant to build broad trust, showing the industry what this technology is and that it works.
“I think the most positive feedback that I got was that it went unnoticed,” Perry says of Lolla’s batteries. “For me, an operational person, the biggest kudos is to be smooth and unseen.”
As three wildfires rage throughout Southern California, electronic music festival Nocturnal Wonderland has been canceled due to its proximity to the blazes.
Produced by Insomniac Events, the festival was set to take place this weekend (Sept. 14-15) at the Glen Helen Amphitheatre in San Bernardino, Calif. But producers announced Wednesday (Sept. 11), that the festival will not happen because of the Line Fire, which is burning near the venue.
“We are saddened to inform you that new fires in the San Bernardino area have ignited over the last 35 hours and are now approaching the Glen Helen Amphitheatre,” the festival announced on social media. “The health and safety of festival attendees and staff is our highest priority. After further discussions with local authorities, due to the impact of the fires surrounding the venue, we will be unable to proceed with Nocturnal Wonderland.”
The statement notes that ticketholders will receive an email regarding ticket refunds in the coming days, along with information about how ticketholders can support local firefighters and the residents of affected areas.
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The Line Fire has been burning in the San Bernardino National Forest since Sept. 5, and expanded to 34,659 acres burned as of Sept. 11. As reported by the San Bernardino Sun, local authorities announced on Wednesday that “the worst is getting behind us” in terms of getting the fire contained. Two other fires, the Airport Fire and the Bridge Fire, are currently also burning in Southern California, forcing evacuations and affecting air quality throughout the region.
These blazes continue on the tail end of a signficant heatwave, which gripped the region over the last week and brought temperatures up to 112-degrees in parts of the city. Amid this heatwave, the Hollywood Bowl lost power on Sept. 8 and was forced to cancel a show by singer-songwriter Vance Joy. The region also experienced a 4.7 magnitude earthquake at approximately 7:30 a.m. local time on Thursday (Sept. 12).
Nocturnal Wonderland is Insomniac Events’ longest running festival, with the 2024 iteration having scheduled featured performances by artists including Kaskade, RL Grime, Slander, Flosstradamus and other genre-spanning electronic acts.
In the comments section of the announcement, Insomniac Events Founder Pasquale Rotella wrote, “My thoughts and prayers go to all those affected by the fires. Heartbroken about the cancellation. Your support means the world. Can’t wait to celebrate together in the future.”
As Southern California struggles through a record-setting heatwave, a performance by Australian singer-songwriter Vance Joy at Hollywood Bowl was canceled on Sunday (Sept. 8) due to a heat-related power outage. Related Click ‘Edit’ to Select Content 09/09/2024 Shortly before the performance was set to begin on Sunday, the venue announced on social media that “due […]
While the solutions to climate change an also feel so big to be beyond our control, a new song from Diane Warren, Tiwa Savage and producer Damon Elliott intends to remind listeners otherwise.
Out Friday (Aug. 16), “One Heart Can Change The World” is sung by the Nigerian singer, produced by Elliott and written by Diane Warren, the 15-time Oscar-nominated legend.
The bright Afrobeats anthem is the sole song from the soundtrack to Ozi: Voice of the Forest, an animated film that tells the story of Ozi, an orangutan whose habitat is destroyed by deforestation. Forced from her home, Ozi goes on adventure through the forest, ultimately using social media to tell her story with the world.
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“One Heart Can Change the World” provides a climactic and uplifting end to the film, which is out Friday (Aug. 16) in Europe and will be released in the U.S. this fall. Hear the song below.
At a recent screening in Los Angeles, Savage, Warren and Elliott spoke on a panel after the film to talk about the song’s origins and intention.
“I was really touched by this movie and it really spoke to me,” Warren said of writing the soaring song. “What it has to say is what everybody needs to pay attention to, what’s going on with our planet. I sat down and wrote the song ‘One Heart Can Change the World’ because it’s true. One of us makes a little change and it can change the world.”
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Warren had Savage in mind to sing on the song, reaching to her via DM.
“I literally thought it was a joke,” Savage said of getting Warren’s message. “Then she said she wanted to send me the music, and when I heard it — I already I knew it was going to be an amazing song, because it’s coming from her. The lyrics and the melody were incredible and refreshing, because it’s different from everything that’s out right now, and I just loved the message behind it as well. I have a nine year old son, and it is something to think about: what kind of planet is my son going to grow up in, and his kids. I’m really honored to be able to lend my voice.”
For Warren, a longtime animal activist and vegan, working on this song was particularly meaningful. “The environment is ruined because of the greenhouse gasses which [are] caused by the cow industry and agriculture, aside from the horrible cruelty of it,” she said, “so I feel like my little one heart can make a change, and that’s how I choose to do it, by choosing kindness over cruelty.”
Elliott, a close collaborator of Warren’s who’s releasing the song through his own Kind Music Group, added that he took a course in Afrobeats production to make sure he got the sound right. “I was like, ‘This has to be the real deal,’” he said.
Ozi: Voice of the Forest was produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and Mike Medavoy and is an Appian Way and GCIFILM Production. While the film is a smart, heartfelt and entertaining way to introduce children to ideas around deforestation and climate change, Warren emphasizes that the movie and song’s message is for everyone.
“I didn’t write a song for kids,” she said. “I wrote a song for people of all ages. You could be five years old or 50, or whatever age. This song is saying something that’s important, that one heart can change the world, however old your heart is. “
All audio, lighting, video and stage production on the main stage at this year’s Lollapalooza will be entirely powered by a hybrid battery system, the festival announced Monday (July 29).
According to organizers, that makes Lollapalooza the first major U.S. music festival to have a main stage run entirely on a hybrid battery system. Typically, diesel generators power the stages at large-scale events.
Lollapalooza’s hybrid-powered stage will deploy over 1.5 MWh of battery storage capacity. A representative for the festival tells Billboard that the batteries are reusable and will be charged using diesel generators that run on biodiesel fuel (typically made from renewable sources like vegetable oil, animal fat or recycled cooking grease and used as a cleaner-burning alternative to petroleum-based diesel fuel). That’s similar to systems that power hybrid vehicles.
The batteries, manufactured by Swedish industrial tools and equipment company Atlas Copco, will be deployed by CES Power, which provides temporary event power generation, power distribution, and HVAC for festivals, film and broadcast, major events, and industrial projects. The system is being deployed via a partnership between Live Nation’s sustainability initiative Green Nation, T-Mobile and CES Power.
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“We have set a goal to build a more sustainable future for music festivals, which requires taking bold steps to find solutions that can reinvent how we operate and in turn, build industry trust in new technology so that major live events can see a path towards becoming more energy efficient,” Jake Perry, director of operations and sustainability at C3 Presents, which produces Lollapalooza, said in a statement.
“Solutions like the ones Lollapalooza are pioneering not only contribute toward our global Green Nation goal of cutting our emissions in half by 2030, but they provide local benefits as well through reduced noise and air pollution which creates a better experience overall for the artists, fans and crew,” added Lucy August-Perna, head of global sustainability at Live Nation. “We look forward to sharing the results and learnings from Lollapalooza with our network of over 200+ festivals around the world who are committed to raising the bar for more sustainable live events.”
Major events have historically been reticent to incorporate hybrid battery power due to concerns about its reliability, but such batteries are becoming more popular on the live scene as the technology advances. This past May, California’s Mill Valley Music Festival became the first U.S. festival to be powered by 100% renewable energy through the use of batteries.
This isn’t the first time Lollapalooza has experimented with green energy on its main stage. Last August, Billie Eilish‘s headlining set at the festival was partially run on a solar-powered battery system via an initiative with environmental nonprofit Reverb.
Lollapalooza 2024’s headliners include Meghan Thee Stallion, Hozier, SZA, Stray Kids, The Killers, Future and Metro Boomin, Blink 182, Melanie Martinez, and Skrillex.
On July 18, 1991, Phoenix, Arizona hosted the first Lollapalooza. By the time gates opened, those who were there estimate it was 110 degrees.
Many artists on the bill — Butthole Surfers, Rollins Band, Ice T — felt beat up by the heat, but it was only Nine Inch Nails, whose sequencer malfunctioned after sitting in the sun, that ended their performance after two songs because of it. Frontman Trent Reznor made his feelings about the situation known as he flipped over amps and mic stands on his way offstage.
“I would advise groups like that not to play outside in that type of heat,” says Danny Zelisko, who partnered with Perry Farrell to promote the festival that year. “Fortunately, there was a whole lineup of groups behind them that didn’t have to rely on electronics.”
Thirty-three years later, Phoenix has grown into the nation’s fifth largest city, with 1.6 million residents. It’s also the country’s hottest major metropolitan area, with scientists attributing the city’s rising average temperatures to both carbon emissions and heat trapped by man-made structures as development sprawls further into the Sonoran Desert. Last year was the warmest on record globally, according to the National Weather Service, and the fourth hottest on record in Phoenix.
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Amid a heatwave last July, the city clocked 19 days with record-high temperatures, including two that reached 119. Last July 22, a show by rock act Disturbed at the city’s Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre was postponed when the band’s equipment wouldn’t work in the 118-degree heat. A month later, 50 Cent postponed a show at the same venue due to an excessive heat warning.
A major tour stop for acts moving through the Southwest, Phoenix is home to many small, mid-sized and large-scale venues. Outdoor spaces include the 20,000-capacity Talking Stick, which is operated by Live Nation, and the 5,000-capacity Mesa Amphitheatre in nearby Mesa, Ariz., both of which host shows over the summer. (This summer, Mesa’s schedule is down to one summer show, in August, from several last year. May and August 2023 sets by Interpol and My Morning Jacket were moved to nearby indoor venues. A representative for the Amphitheatre did not immediately respond to Billboard‘s request for comment about whether these moves were heat related.)
But amid extreme heat — which is again currently gripping the city, many other areas of the U.S. and the world beyond — is Phoenix simply getting too hot to play in the summer, or is it business as usual?
Zelisko, who’s put on shows in the city for the last 50 years and has worked in nearly all its indoor and outdoor venues with his company Danny Zelisko Presents, says agents often ask about the realities of playing there in the summer. But despite concerns, “The fact is that economics come into it as well, and in many cases they can make more money outside, so sometimes acts just grin and bear it.”
Given that many summer tours are routed through amphitheaters and thus designed specifically for these types of spaces, it can also be difficult to move into a different kind of venue for a single show.
But certain artists “just won’t play outside when it’s this hot,” Zelisko adds. “It’s a wise move, because you’re really putting your crew out. These people will finish a show in Albuquerque, drive all night, show up here at 7 a.m. to load in, then do it all over again. Throwing a super-hot day into the mix is hard on some people.”
Steven Chilton, who promotes mostly indoor club shows in Phoenix under the name Psyko Steve, agrees the city is “a little slower” in summer, with some artists routing further north.
But Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre’s head of venue operation Karl Adams says he’s seen “no major changes” in how shows have been routed through the venue in recent years. This summer, Talking Stick has hosted shows by artists including Kenny Chesney, Paula Abdul and Cage the Elephant, with Sammy Hagar, Megadeth and more on the calendar through the end of August.
With some artists and fans willing to brave the Phoenix heat for a show, safety protocols at both outdoor and indoor venues are crucial. In the last 30 to 40 years, Zelisko says more responsibility has fallen on promoters to look out for crowds in the heat. “As it’s turned into a business where you put an act up any time of year that you can get them, promoters really plan for what’s going to happen on game day,” he says. “You have to look out for people, because you want them back as a customer.” This is particularly true for venues that have large expanses of concrete or asphalt, which can get to 130 degrees or hotter on a warm day.
At Talking Stick, protocols include encouraging fans to bring their own water bottles and fill them at free water stations. The venue is equipped with misting fans and cooling stations, provides free sunscreen and even has onstage air conditioning for artists. It also emails ticket holders prior to the event with show information that includes advice on how to prepare for weather, with this info also posted to the venue’s social accounts. Zelisko recalls handing out cooling ice pack necklaces at particularly hot shows, creating shaded resting areas and putting up pools backstage for bands to jump in after a set.
“When you’re a fan in line and somebody goes through handing out water, it’s a simple gesture, but very appreciated,” says Zelisko. “You’ve got to be thinking about that stuff, because you don’t want people dropping by the time they come in.”
That was the worst-case scenario outcome last December in Rio de Janeiro, when a 23-year-old fan died from heat exhaustion in a hospital after passing out during the second song of a Taylor Swift concert. Fans lined up for hours before the show in temperatures that reached 105, and many accused organizers of not delivering enough water supplies for the more than 60,000-person crowd. Fans also reported that they were not allowed to take their own water into the stadium.
Last summer, heat exhaustion was widespread at shows throughout the U.S., with Jason Aldean experiencing heat stroke while onstage in Hartford, Conn. last July. Zelisko predicts that all promoters will eventually have to deal with some type of weather issue, and that the heat in places with humidity is more challenging than the dry heat of the desert.
Still, “most of our 911 calls are heat related,” Chilton says of the Rebel Lounge, the 300-cap venue he manages. “It’s a big issue every summer, and it’s always the shows [that skew younger] where kids arrive early and want to sit outside in the sun for 10 hours in 110-degree heat, because they want to be first in line. Then they come into the venue exhausted and dehydrated and pass out. That’s a constant struggle for us.”
At Rebel Lounge, fans are thus only allowed to wait outside an hour before any given show. Once inside, Chilton says the venue has a competitive advantage, given that it has stronger air conditioning than many other local indoor venues, with these places losing out on summer bookings because they don’t get as cool inside.
While he says the cost of running multiple air conditioners is “very significant,” it’s worth it for the comfort of fans and artists. He recalls seeing a show at a nearby venue with weaker A.C., “and the band was furious at the end of the night.” Chilton says no one in the crowd complained, as locals know the realities of summertime in Phoenix.
The general vibe among those interviewed for this story is that the effects of climate change don’t yet feel hugely significant “because it’s always blazing hot in the summer,” says Zelisko, who once successfully fried an egg on a sidewalk during a 120-degree day. “I’m not saying it’s not getting hotter, because there’s a lot of proof that says it is, but what are you going do about it? We’ve still got to live.”
For Chilton, the difference thus far is “not necessarily that it’s more miserable, it’s that it’s miserable longer,” with heatwaves lasting longer than they used to. Still, the biggest weather issue he’s experienced wasn’t heat-related, but a fluke rainstorm during the two-day Zona Music Festival he produced in December of 2022.
“I did the research, and since 1900 in Phoenix it’s only ever rained three times on that day,” he says. “It was the most rain Phoenix had seen on a single day in like, a decade.”
Promoters also emphasize that Phoenix’s desert climate offers its own advantages. Adams of Talking Stick says the venue has “a longer season than some outdoor venues” since it can start hosting shows in April and continue them through the fall.
Zelisko wishes more groups would come to town in January, February and March — when outdoor shows are impossible in much of the country due to the cold — “because that’s the best time of year here.”
But as things stand, it’s unlikely summer shows will stop anytime soon in America’s hottest big city. “Performing outside in Phoenix in July is crazy,” says Zelisko. “But money makes people do crazy things.”
LONDON — Record companies that actively embrace sustainability are more efficient, more innovative and more likely to appeal to artists, fans and employees, according to research carried out by European independent labels trade body IMPALA.
The Brussels-based organization’s inaugural report into the economic benefits of sustainability, published Thursday (July 25), says that labels who have implemented green measures, such as reducing travel and shifting distribution from air to sea freight, make cost savings over time and reduce waste.
Other rewards identified by IMPALA members who took part in the survey include tax breaks for sustainable initiatives and the ability to gain a competitive advantage over less-eco-friendly businesses when it comes to attracting and retaining artists, especially from younger musicians who place sustainability high among their list of priorities.
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Labels and music companies who have taken environmentally friendly action additionally benefit from an improved brand image among music fans and a more creative and forward-thinking business culture, said the trade group.
The report’s findings are based on qualitative interviews IMPALA conducted earlier this year with a number of European indie labels signed up to the organization’s sustainability task force, including Beggars Group, Ninja Tune, PIAS, Warp and Domino.
Independent research projects carried out by U.K. labels trade body BPI, professional services company PWC and Harvard Business Review into sustainability also fed into the report’s findings.
Helen Smith, executive chair of IMPALA, said its research indicated that the adoption of sustainability practices by record companies benefits not just the planet but also delivers “concrete advantages in other areas such as attracting artists, reducing costs, hiring and retaining employees,” as well as “being seen as a [market] leader.”
“The question of futureproofing is also important as companies see sustainability as an opportunity before it becomes a burden, and this pays off almost immediately,” said Smith in a statement accompanying the report.
IMPALA, which represents 6,000 independently owned European labels and music companies in 33 countries, launched its sustainability program in 2021. It aims to halve the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions before 2050.
To help reach those goals the organization devised a carbon footprint calculator for member labels to measure and reduce their emissions. So far, nearly 150 labels have signed up to the initiative, which has now been rolled out to the U.S. in partnership with the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM).
IMPALA’s first carbon footprint calculator data report, which was published last year, found that the biggest source of carbon emissions for the indie sector is manufacturing (predominantly vinyl production), followed by the distribution of physical products.
To help tackle the climate crisis record labels around the world are taking positive steps to become more sustainable by reducing waste, water, electricity and fuel consumption.
Other green practices that have been recently introduced by IMPALA members include replacing plastic jewel CD cases with cardboard ones and switching vinyl production from PVC compound to the more environmentally friendly polyethylene terephthalate (PET) material, which equates to a 70-80% reduction in energy consumption, says the organization. Opting for 140g vinyl instead of 180g also lowers production costs and labels’ environmental impact, it adds.
Members of IMPALA’s sustainability task force noted that green initiatives had a significant impact on the quantity and quality of job applications they received, improving employee retention and workplace culture.
“We’re proud to have sustainability as one of our core company values and have seen this translated with attracting and retaining top talent, said Horst Weidenmueller, chair of IMPALA’s sustainability task force and CEO of K7 Music.
Last month, the Germany-based label became one of the first indies to receive B Corp certification in recognition of its social and environmental practices. “It’s great to see consumers and suppliers moving in the same direction,” said Weidenmueller in a statement.
According to a 2022 survey by U.K. charity Music Declares Emergency and the University of Glasgow, music fans are more likely to care about climate change and place a higher priority on tackling the crisis than non-music fans. A different survey by U.K. entertainment product manufacturer Key Production found that 71% of 18–24-year-old respondents were willing to spend more on physical music products with a reduced environmental impact. Across all age groups, 50% of respondents said they would pay a premium price for eco-friendly merchandise, CDs or records.
In line with consumers’ growing concerns around environmental issues, sustainability has become a key focus and area of investment for the wider music industry.
Last year, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group joined forces to establish the Music Industry Climate Collective (MICC) – a new alliance to address and lessen the sector’s environmental impact, which is being assisted and advised by A2IM.
In 2021, all three major record companies, plus independent labels BMG, Beggars, Partisan, Warp, Ninja Tune and the Secretly Group, signed up to the Music Climate Pact, a wide-ranging commitment to “decarbonize” the global record business.