sustainability
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One of sustainable touring’s pioneering acts, the Dave Matthews Band, is reporting several successes in that realm following its latest tour. The band’s summer tour, which wrapped in early September at The Gorge Amphitheatre in Quincy, Wash., unrolled the group’s “On the Road To Zero Waste” initiative, done in partnership with Live Nation. According to […]
Only six months since launch, the “Feat. Nature” artist page on Spotify has generated major funding for conservation organizations.
On Thursday (Oct. 24) at the COP16 Biodiversity Conference in Cali, Colombia, organizers of the Sounds Right project — which launched the page on Earth Day in April — announced that $225,000 generated by the project will be donated to agencies working to protect areas of Colombia’s Tropical Andes, a region that boasts one of the world’s highest rates of biodiversity and native species.
Of that sum, $100,000 will go to Reserva Natural La Planada, which oversees 3,200 hectares of lands protected and governed by indigenous communities. Elsewhere, the Fundación Projecto Titi, which protects Colombian cotton-top tamarin monkeys in a 900-hectare reserve, will receive $80,000 over two years. FundaExpresion will receive $35,000 over two years, with the money going to community-led initiatives securing 450 hectares in the Andean forest, along with other local endeavors. And Jacana Jacana, an initiative focused on music, education and ecological awareness among children, will receive $10,000 over one year.
The recipients were selected by the Sounds Right Expert Advisory Panel, which is made up of conservationists and Indigenous rights activists. A representative for the project tells Billboard that the panel assessed projects based on their proven models of ecological and community impact, with a “strong intent to honor the communities whose ways of life nurture vital biodiversity strongholds, yet are often underfunded or overlooked.”
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Sounds Right organizers also announced the addition of seven new tracks to the “Feat. NATURE” artist page, with contributions coming from artists including Lykke Li, Ela Minus, AySay, Sam Lee, Alexis Taylor and Louis VI. The songs join a playlist that includes music by David Bowie with Brian Eno, Ellie Goulding, U.K. electronic outfit London Grammar, neo-soul and folk artist UMI with V of BTS, Indian artist Anuv Jain, Norwegian singer Aurora, and more, bringing the total number of songs on the playlist to 24.
As announced in April, songs on Spotify’s “Feat. Nature” artist page incorporate sounds of the earth, melding ocean waves, wind, bird calls and other nature sounds into original tracks and remixes. Since April, the playlist has generated more than 65 million streams from 7.5 million listeners in more than 180 countries, a representative for the project says.
“Feat. Nature” shares royalties with participating artists, with streaming income consistent with other artist payouts for music and ambient nature sounds on digital streaming platforms.
“We strive to leverage our platform for good and inspire, engage and educate listeners and the wider community to take climate action,” Spotify’s sustainability lead Hanna Grahn said in a statement. “Sounds Right is a fantastic initiative, leveraging the power of creativity and music to support nature. We are proud to be part of such impactful organizations and creators, and that nature finally is getting the praise she deserves.”
The rep for Sounds Right says that since launching, the “Feat. Nature” project has raised approximately $300,000 through royalties and institutional and individual donations, which are separate from the philanthropic funding that’s been raised to cover program costs. The organization will publish an annual impact report to show how income generated by the project through royalties and donations is being used.
Sounds Right was developed by the Museum for the United Nations — UN Live, a Copenhagen-based organization that uses culture to create local action and global change in collaboration with a variety of climate-focused partners.
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.