Top names from the live entertainment and environmental fields assembled today for the 17th edition of Green Events and Innovations (GEI17), the leading conference for event sustainability.

Organised by A Greener Future (AGF) in partnership with the International Live Music Conference (ILMC), the event attracted hundreds of delegates to London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel, kicking off ILMC Week.

Headline session Act 1.5 and Beyond focused on the groundbreaking work of Massive Attack and their collaborators, following their huge proof-of-concept show in Bristol last year, and UN Accelerator City being awarded to Liverpool in 2024. Hosted by AGF’s Claire O’Neill, the session featured environmentalist Dale Vince (Ecotricity/Forest Green Rovers) and professor of climate and energy policy Carly McLachlan (Tyndall Centre), plus special guest – writer and Act 1.5 lead producer Mark Donne.

“The theory and critique was important, but we didn’t want to just produce reports… [the idea was to] bring as many identities together and create a proof-of-concept show,” said Donne. “We know it works, we know fans want to do it and buy into it, but how do you begin to proliferate this stuff? How do you scale it? How do you work with government and authorities?”

Held last August on Clifton Downs, the 32,000-cap Massive Attack gig was powered by 100% renewable energy and has now been confirmed as breaking a world record for producing the lowest ever carbon emissions.

“We went about it by initially developing this super low carbon live music roadmap, which was setting out some targets for different areas of emissions,” explained McLachlan. “Act 1.5 in Bristol last summer was putting the elements of the road map into practice.

“The thing for us as scientists working with Act 1.5 as a partner is that they wanted to get stuck in there. This collaborative process was really central.”

“Act 1.5 has demonstrated that it is possible to run a significant outdoor event entirely from batteries without any diesel generator back up”

McLachlan has co-authored a newly published report reviewing the performance of the Act 1.5 show against the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Super-Low Carbon Live Music Roadmap.

The report concludes that Act 1.5 “demonstrated that it is possible to run a significant outdoor event entirely from batteries without any diesel generator back up”, adding that: “Emissions associated with onsite electricity were at least 81% lower than the counterfactual event running on diesel generators.”

AGF was responsible for advanced planning, on-site sustainability management and coordination, post-event analysis and reporting for the concert. Donne revealed the show was originally planned for Liverpool, but switched to Bristol to serve as a homecoming for Massive Attack.

“Part of the reason why Massive Attack decided to do the show in the Downs was because there’s an existing festival there [Forwards], which is run by Team Love, who are effectively our hosts, and they were every bit as committed as we were in this initiative,” added Donne.

The GEI panel stressed the need to “break down barriers” with the wider industry, so that others can follow the example.

“We’re down here talking about sustainability, they’re talking about something else,” said Donne. “We need to be in the same room. They wouldn’t exist without everyone in this room, and we need to break that barrier down and stop having reductive conversations about individual exercises. We need to talk to the government, but world leaders making hundreds of millions of pounds in profit every year need to start stepping up.”

Act 1.5 also included a 100% vegan menu, while extra trains and free EV buses were organised for the audience.

“Foods brought a 90% reduction in emissions. Artist travel [saw a] 73% reduction,” said McLachlan.

“GWR [Great Western Railway] were amazing to work with,” said Donne. “We want to get to a position quite quickly where we can partner with a show and there is a rail presale of 48 hours with something like GB Rail being the sponsor.”

“There wasn’t much choice when it came to food & beverage 20 years ago”

Asked about other initiatives similar to Act 1.5, McLachlan added: “We heard a lot from others we interviewed that often in production, there’s good intent in the beginning, but then you hit some bumps. There’s pressure from commercial and time aspect, but you have to find a solution that’s in that super low carbon space.”

Earlier, the opening Food & Drinks: Impacts & Emotions – The Cow in the Room session explored the impact of sustainable food & beverage within the live event industry. It heard that while the easiest issue to solve on a practical level, F&B has long faced resistance from profit-driven companies and event audiences who are hesitant to attempt plant-based alternatives that would greatly reduce their carbon footprints.

“There wasn’t much choice when it came to food & beverage 20 years ago, but what we’ve noticed over the past five to eight years, especially from the younger generation, is a huge drive towards wellness and understanding the provenance of product,” said Adam Hempenstall of festivals & events bar operator Peppermint. “There are more indie breweries such as Small Beer and Purity that are producing more information and are being more transparent about the carbon footprint of their processes, and there is absolutely a higher interest in locally-produced F&B nowadays.”

While the focus of the Events in the New Climate: Damage Limitation panel was on the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles last month, Megan Best of Native Events recalled her experiences being at festivals such Co Kildare’s Forever Young in Ireland as an example of the ruinous effects that extreme weather has on live events.

“These extreme weather events are tough enough for us when it comes to the human & financial cost, but there’s a huge natural cost as well,” she explained, adding that we have quickly gotten used to “once having a wet Glastonbury, to enduring more intense tropical rainfall over the last decade”.

Further panel reports from GEI17 will appear in IQ in the coming days.

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British band Massive Attack has announced their first concert in five years, which will be powered by 100% renewable energy.

The outdoor show, which will take place on Clifton Downs in their home city of Bristol, will have the lowest carbon footprint of any concert of its size, according to the band.

The concert, production and catering will be powered entirely by battery and solar power. In addition, food vendors will be vetted to ensure they use locally sourced produce and a “climate-resilient woodland plantation in the south-west region” will be created after the show.

The Act 1.5 concert, scheduled for 25 August 2024, will primarily target audience travel – “the single largest contributor to an outdoor event’s carbon footprint”.

Mark Donne, a filmmaker and climate activist who has worked with Massive Attack on several projects, said 65% to 85% of emissions for large-scale shows comes from audience travel. “This will be the first show that meaningfully deals with that,” he said.

“In terms of climate change action, there are no excuses left”

Massive Attack will give local fans priority when it comes to tickets, train travel will be encouraged, and the organisers are putting on free electric buses to ferry crowds back to Bristol Temple Meads station if they’ve come from farther afield.

The band said all vehicles used for the concert will either be electric or fuelled by certified waste product HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) fuel.

“We’re chuffed to play our home city again and to be able do it in the right way,” reads a statement from the band. “In terms of climate change action, there are no excuses left. Offsetting, endless seminars and diluted declarations have all been found out – so live music must drastically reduce all primary emissions and take account of fan travel.

“Working with pioneering partners on this project means we can seriously move the dial for major live music events and help create precedents.”

The concert is the band’s latest attempt to tackle the live industry’s carbon footprint. In 2021 Massive Attack created a guide for the music industry on how to combat climate change, in conjunction with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. And in 2019 the band decided to tour by train rather than flying between European concerts.

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