The band’s Act 1.5 festival generated 98 per cent less power emissions than the typical outdoor live music event. How did they pull it off?
After campaigning on this issue for years, trip-hop legends Massive Attack have broken the world record for the gig with the lowest carbon emissions ever.
This was confirmed by scientists at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, who compared Massive Attack’s show – a day festival called Act 1.5 which took place last summer – with a hypothetical outdoor music event of comparable size. Their report found that Act 1.5 produced a whopping 98 per cent less power emissions.
Playing in their hometown of Bristol for the first time in five years, Massive Attack kept emissions to a minimum by making the event 100 per cent battery-powered, using electric vehicles, only serving vegan food, and working with local rail providers to allow as many attendees to arrive by train as possible. The band significantly reduced the amount of equipment they brought with them, and every artist on the bill travelled to the event by low-carbon means, including by coach and ferry.
The scientists behind the report hope that Act 1.5 will serve as a template which will transform how outdoor festivals are organised going forward. “It demonstrated that there are real opportunities for promoters, providers, local authorities and central government to create the conditions for the UK to lead the world in super-low carbon events," said Professor Carly McLachlan, associate director at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.
The report notes that the majority of carbon emissions which the event did generate came from the five per cent of people who had flown to Bristol to attend. There is some evidence that air travel to gigs is increasing as big artists tend to play international tours with fewer locations, which presents a challenge for the industry if it wants to curb emissions. “There’s a huge question now for tour planning, but also for media and promoter marketing campaigns high on the glitz of epic summer tours that normalise leisure aviation,” said Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja.
Massive Attack launched the Act 1.5 project in 2019, with the goal of decarbonising the live music industry at a rate compatible with the Paris Agreement (an international treaty which aims to prevent global temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees celsius.) In November 2024, the band brought Act 1.5 to Liverpool with a weekend of events and live music, to mark the city being designated the world’s first ‘UN Accelerator City’ for climate action. The city received this title partly due to its years-long collaboration with Massive Attack to decarbonise its cultural sectors.