Festivals and gigs are great fun, no matter how small or large they may be. We go to festivals and gigs to make new friends, escape the daily grind, hear new music, learn about culture, or have fun.
We often forget to consider the environmental impact that events have on our environment. Every event requires resources and people. Is there a way to maximize our resources and minimize our environmental impact? Kermit the Frog, a wise and well-known environmental advocate, once stated, “It’s difficult being green.” It’s not a mistake.
FOR EVENT ORGANIZERS
As an organizer, you can include a variety of sustainable practices into events of any size. When you are the main organizer for a large festival or an intimate gig, what do you do? Tim shows you how to adopt sustainable practices regardless of attendance.
You can also consider transport if you are putting on an event. This will allow you to see how people move around. Encourage carpooling and other group travel to reduce driving. You can encourage people to ride by offering safe facilities for bikes to be looked after. This is more than just a tree or a lock. But a securely locked space.
FOR MUSICIANS
What about on an individual level? As a musician, you have the opportunity to act as an advocate for change and to facilitate acceptance and the normalizing of environmentally-sustainable practices within the industry.
LEAD BY EXAMPLE
But the big question surrounds how you can get people to actively participate in environmentally-sustainable practices both as punters and event organizers. You can tell them what to do and how, but how do you get people to care? This is the advice of industry professionals. Be a leader and make sure that the culture you create is sustainable. You can be involved in the logistics decisions you make if you are an event manager. If you are a musician, your fans can display your choices. If you associate environmentally-positive choices with something or someone people love and respect (music/musicians), you can instigate social change to benefit the environment.
Tim is a man of great wisdom. We thank him for his valuable tips and time to help you find sustainable ways to improve your music career as an organist or musician. You might wonder, “What’s this guy doing to change the world?”
GREEN MUSIC AUSTRALIA
We are so glad you asked, even if it wasn’t. It’s some cool stuff. Green Music Australia uses three words to describe their work: FACILITATE ORGANISE AND INSPIRE. They connect musicians and events to provide sustainable practices. They organize them to make their pipedreams a reality.
Green Music Australia has been working with 22 festivals to eliminate single-use plastics. Tim says that the project is small enough to be feasible (when you consider the volume of waste impacts) but large enough to make an impact. They also train musicians to advocate for various causes they support, giving them a voice to the industry’s often overlooked and serious environmental issues.
When talking to musicians and event organizers, people want the change. They might not always know how it can be made a reality.” The desire to offer more sustainable events stems, if the media landscape of recent years is any indication, from the expectation of attendees that sustainable practices should be “business as usual”. This willingness to learn and change by industry professionals, combined with the impressive industry advocates and resources like Green Music Australia, will bring about some positive changes.