This autumn’s Liverpool Music Weekend will test a range of proposals to radically decarbonise the events industry, headlined by Massive Attack, Idles, and Nile Rodgers and Chic. Announced as the United Nations names Liverpool its first Accelerator City for Climate Action, the Act 1.5 Presents series will reduce audience transport emissions, as well as use a fully renewable energy site, an engagement stage installation that reduces gear transport and zero landfill waste disposal , taking place from November 28 to 30 at the meat-free M&S Bank Arena.
To combat emissions from fan transport, the event’s biggest barrier to decarbonisation, the first block of tickets will be sold to Liverpool locals, with unlimited public transport access added to buyers on the day of the concert. (Shows finish at 10pm while transport networks are still operating.) There will also be public transport incentives for those in the second block of tickets traveling out of town.
The series follows Massive Attack and Act 1.5’s trial of various climate initiatives at the Massive Festival in their hometown of Bristol last month. The event marked the first practical phase of Massive Attack’s long-term partnership with the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research. The research also includes plans for smaller venues and collaborations.
“Our last show in Bristol definitely showed that major live music events can be Paris 1.5 compliant,” Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja said in a press release, referring to the Paris Agreement’s goal of preventing global warming 1. More than 5 degrees Celsius. “Audiences are enthusiastic about change,” he said, and Liverpool’s status as a UN Accelerator City is an opportunity to test “more dynamic pilots and experiments to rapidly phase out fossil fuels”. This idea and this claim do not go back into any box. We are happy to see artists like Coldplay testing elements such as localized pre-sale of tickets as recommended in the Tyndall Center Paris 1.5 decarbonisation roadmap and encouraging other artists to do so freely. The talk stage is over, it’s time to act.”
Referring to the Massive Attack partnership and Liverpool’s UN Climate Action Programme, Nile Rodgers added that Chic’s We Are Family Foundation has “been raising the alarm and working in the climate change space for years, as has Massive Attack, and now is the time for everyone. music and film communities to get on board. Yes, we’re going to have a party at the Liverpool Arena, but we’re also going to perform.”