The August Bank Holiday weekend of 2024 will hopefully be a significant marker in how live music events can engage with the global climate crisis and enact a substantial reduction of carbon emissions at future events. Tonight, at a 30,000 strong headline performance on the Downs, hometown heroes Massive Attack have embarked on the admirable feat of attempting the lowest carbon footprint ever for a one day music festival.
In 2021, the group commissioned a report by decarbonisation specialists Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, and subsequently proposed a roadmap to ultra-low carbon emissions at live music events. Tonight’s mini-festival – featuring four support acts, including contemporary Irish folk group Lankum and US rapper/activist Killer Mike – has been bestowed with the moniker Act 1.5, a reference to the 2015 Paris Climate Accords and the goal of keeping the rise in global surface temperatures to a preferable limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Addressing the key areas of transport, food, energy and waste, Act 1.5 has put into practice the recommendations of Tyndall Centre’s report. Firstly, driving to the venue is out of the question – there is, intentionally, no car park. As the travel footprint of concertgoers makes up the highest proportion of an event of this nature’s emissions, local people have been prioritised with pre-sale access to tickets. A network of free buses and electric shuttles have been set up, and ticket-holders have been incentivised to travel by specially chartered trains with a VIP (amended to Very Important Process) bar and toilets.
The main stage is being powered by Ecotricity batteries, all food has been provided exclusively by vegan venders and, rather than portaloos, we have compost toilets. The band themselves have made a direct, and significant, alteration to their own footprint: their usual haulage of a mammoth twenty-five trucks has been reduced to two.
Robert ‘3D’ Del Naja has been the band’s spokesman in interviews prior to the gig and his proposition that tonight – the first Bristol show since their Steel Yard, Filton gig in 2019 – could well be the group’s final hometown appearance, has created a palpable anticipation amongst a stacked audience. In concert with the band’s predilection for political messaging, Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza addresses the crowd before a note has been struck. He calls attention to the 40,000 civilians killed in Gaza since Israeli strikes began post 7th October and a rather pollyannaish declaration that “all Palestinians just want peace.” Some Palestinian flags are waved within the audience and there’s a brief chant of “Free, free Palestine.”
A characteristically political tone has thus been set by the time Gigi D’Agostino cover ‘In my Mind’ rumbles into gear. Documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis has designed tonight’s visuals; images of war, death and destruction – particularly in relation to the Gaza conflict – run consistently throughout, along with various videos, #hastags and sociopolitical sloganeering. Given the band’s virtuous efforts in bringing about the realisation of Act 1.5, and their heartfelt want of a better world, it’s a rather cruel quirk of fate that – akin to the apocalyptic downfall of their Downs show in 2016 – the heavens open once again.
By the time former member, and Jamaican roots reggae singer Horace Andy delivers the vocals to ‘Girl I Love You,’ it’s gotten a tad wet and onlookers start to partially disappear under a second skin of coats, hats, ponchos and brollies. It’s a testament to how good Massive Attack sound this evening (the eco powered stage is delivering its audio-visual responsibilities with aplomb), that the adverse weather conditions, and any PTSD for those who also attended in 2016, don’t appear to be dampening of the audience’s spirits.
Musically, there’s hardly anything left off the menu that the group’s fans would quibble about. We have a host of crowd-pleasing covers, collaborations and guest slots: Cocteau Twins’ Liz Fraser provides her eerily whispering vocals over the menacing bass grove of ‘Black Milk’, Tim Buckley cover ‘Song to the Siren’ and later over the harpsichord riffs on ‘Teardrop.’
Mercury Prize winning progressive hip-hop act Young Fathers join for a hattrick of tunes (‘Gone’, ‘Minipoppa’, ‘Voodoo in my Blood’) and Deborah Miller’s soulful vocals during early career standouts ‘Safe From Harm’ and ‘Unfinished Symphony’ are an apt proxy to those provided by Shara Nelson in their recorded versions. We even get a perhaps surprising cover of an Ultravox tune in the form of ‘ROckwrok’
If we’re talking purely from the point of view of visuals and sonics, the Act 1.5 experiment seems to have been a resounding success. Certainly there will be feedback to consider, upon which today’s event can be a vital platform for improvement; there were reports of waste building up in the toilet areas and revellers finding it difficult to scoop up the requisite sawdust once it became a sodden mulch; some folk were seen jumping in taxis home rather than wait around in the wet conditions for the designated shuttle services; and (admittedly this may be separate to the sustainability concerns) the absurd food queues birthed reports of two hours’ wait for a bit of falafel .
All in all, and despite the infernal downpours that have cursed our hometown heroes, it’s been a highly encouraging event. With mega-famous musicians like Billie Eilish and Coldplay introducing climate conscious measures and sustainability plans for their own live shows going forward, the landscape for how live music can positively impact the global climate crisis is hopefully starting to shift.
Scott Hammond
Photo by Darren Clarke (@darrencphotography)
