Festivals during the climate crisis – Giovanni Ansaldo

Global warming is causing increasingly unstable and unpredictable weather patterns around the world. And it has left festival organizers scrambling to cope with a new normal that is far from easy. Many will remember the controversy surrounding Bruce Springsteen’s concert in Ferrara, which took place in June, immediately after the floods in Emilia-Romagna. Others will remember the premiere of the Two Worlds festival in Spoleto, which was canceled due to bad weather. These are not isolated cases: Italy is certainly one of the countries in Europe most affected by climate change, but there are examples all over the world.

The website Pitchfork recently published an article on the matter, recalling a series of events brought to their knees by the weather. Last summer, Primavera Sound in Madrid had to cancel the first night on June 8 due to a weather warning; Bonnaroo in Tennessee was forced to leave the concert venue for the same reason; The German open-air metal festival in Wacken was forced to cut capacity by two-thirds due to heavy rain, while other events were forced to stop or even cancel concerts. Unexpected rains turned Burning Man, an event in which a temporary city is built in the Nevada desert that collapses after eight days, into a hellscape of mud, and Uganda’s Nyege Nyege festival moved its dates from September to November. be closer to the start of the dry season and avoid the heavy rains that made regular concerts very difficult last year. There are also more extreme cases: in August 2022, one person was killed and fifteen others were injured at the Medusa Festival in Valencia, Spain, after a stage collapsed due to strong gusts of wind.

This situation, as Pitchfork explains, is affecting insurance policy prices, which are rising as more risk areas emerge around the world. In fact, many festivals now, in addition to preparing for the worst at any time, are forced to give 5 to 10 percent of their profits to insurance companies.

What are the solutions? Joe Barnett, organizer of the UK festival We Out Here, believes organizers have two options: First, they must adapt to the new reality of extreme conditions by improving infrastructure. And then they have the task of educating the public. “I don’t think festivals have a responsibility just to reduce their environmental impact,” says Barnett, “you also need to talk about climate change and encourage your customers to be aware of it.”

Mikołaj Zilkowski, founder of Polish event Open’er, agrees, citing Billie Eilish’s solar-powered stage at Lollapalooza as an example of a positive message. “We believe in climate change, but many people are in denial,” he explains. “We have the perfect tool to connect with new generations.”