Fields of Green: Addressing Sustainability and Climate Change through Music Festival Communities

In his opening remarks at the September 2014 United Nations Climate Change Summit in New York, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated unequivocally: "climate change is the defining issue of our time. It is not a distant threat. It is coming and approaching much, much faster than we may think ... All of us have a stake in this fight and all of us can make a difference. Every action counts, large and small." Ban stresses the importance of tackling a global problem with local action, and this project takes up that challenge by addressing climate change through music festival communities.

In a study by Julie's Bicycle, the British cultural sector's leading environmental consultancy (who also sit on the advisory board for this project), the sale of music products and live music performances to UK consumers was said to create at least approximately 540,000 tonnes CO2 equivalent per year. The live music sector together with audience travel accounted for three-quarters (~75%) of the UK music industry's greenhouse gas emissions, with large music festivals accounting for the highest level of emissions. These figures stand in stark contrast to the branding of music festivals as sites where alternative ideas of community are performed, from hedonistic and carnivalesque escapes (e.g. BangFace Weekender, Beermageddon) to transient socially conscious utopian cities (e.g. Eden Festival, Glastonbury, the latter of which donates most of its profits to charities). This project uses four distinct disciplinary approaches (sociology of music, sustainable development, urban planning and environmental management, and songwriting as practice-based research) to investigate this tension and work with music festival communities - made up of artists, audiences, and organizers - to address climate change and sustainability, one of the most urgent problems facing the wider global community.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh, University of the West of Scotland, and Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts have co-designed this project with our community co-investigator, Creative Carbon Scotland (CCS), the key organization in Scotland for advising the cultural sector on matters of environmental sustainability, and an active partner throughout the project's duration. CCS has traditionally worked with arts organizations funded by Creative Scotland, but this project supports them to extend their reach to engage with the wider music festival sector in Scotland.

We will organize roundtables with festival organizers to determine what actions can enable and encourage audiences to engage with and enact sustainable behaviours themselves within the temporary communities formed during such events. We will also research two Scottish case study festivals - Go North Festival in Inverness and Solas Festival in Perthshire - and collect data from audiences on their engagement with sustainability issues through surveys and interviews. We will engage musicians in a practice-based research component which includes the creation of a digital mini-album with five internationally recognized Scottish musicians (including academic investigator Jo Collinson-Scott, who records and performs under the name Jo Mango) tackling the theme of travel and movement, as well as getting the musicians to reflect on and map the impact of their travel on the festival touring circuit. The work will also be performed and discussed at a workshop at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow.

CCS, as a key partner in the project, will ensure the research from the project reaches not only the academic community but also festival organizers, the music industry, funders and policymakers, musicians, and audiences. We expect a range of outputs relevant to academics (conference paper and peer-reviewed article), (new links between CCS and music festival communities, 'next steps' document produced by CCS), and music audiences (digital music album released by Olive Grove Records).

In the short term, one of the key impacts of this project is the building of new relationships and understanding of what support Scotland's MUSIC FESTIVAL ORGANIZERS require now and in future to make environmental sustainability an intrinsic part of their business. The users of the research outputs will include our music festival partners and the wider live music industry through the creation of a network of festivals engaged in environmental sustainability, instigated through the pre- and post-festival workshop round-table sessions organised by CCS.

In the longer term, this project will fill a significant knowledge gap by establishing a baseline of current levels of engagement with and action towards environmental sustainability in Scotland's music festival organisers, thus providing a solid foundation upon which to base future CCS work and research. In particular music festivals could see a reduction in carbon emissions (and associated financial costs) stemming from key areas of environmental impact including energy, water, waste and travel. Outputs such as CCS's 'next steps' guide will be used to engage and support more music festivals in their environment work and will identify the key challenges and opportunities in reducing their environmental impact and engaging artists and audiences in their contribution towards this. CCS has experience in delivering training for standards such as ISO20121 International Standard for Sustainable Event Management which may be recommended as a useful longer term course of action for a number of the festivals involved in this initial project.

Through the team's links with Scotland's MUSIC INDUSTRY, FUNDERS AND POLICYMAKERS, the project will aim to generate positive practice-based and policy-based change that could have considerable impact on the overall carbon emissions of the live music sector (which makes up 45% of the UK's music industry's greenhouse gas emissions). These longer term ambitions will be aided by the best practice guide, in addition to the securing of attendance of key players in Scotland's music industry at the proposed workshops. CCS's already strong relationship with Creative Scotland - Scotland's primary arts funding body - and agreement to require environmental reporting for all Regularly Funded Organisations from 2015/16 provides a solid foundation for future discussions with funders and policy makers.

There are several anticipated impacts stemming from the involvement of 5 internationally recognised Scottish MUSICIANS (including Co-I Collinson-Scott) in this project. The process of exploring sustainability via songwriting (and travel mapping activities) will impact on artist practices related to sustainability via art and mindfulness of their own relationships with travel and other environmentally impactful behaviours. The outcomes of this research could in turn contribute to CCS's programme of artistic projects which include an artist residency. There is scope for international interest in the outcomes of this aspect of the project via organisations including Cape Farewell and the Clipperton Project.

A key outcome of this project is the identification of what actions are being taken by festivals to engage and support AUDIENCES in issues of sustainability and climate change. It will contribute towards a baseline from which to identify future actions for audience engagement and measurement of their success. The performance of the practice-based research at one of the partner festivals and engagement with the festival-going public in a workshop will raise awareness amongst the general public of sustainability issues related to live music attendance, paving the way for broader attitude-change. Finally, audiences internationally will have access to the digital mini-album via Olive Grove Records (who will promote it through their digital distribution channels and combined social media reach of >50,000) and can become engaged in the discussion as a result.