Leadership / 05.04.22

'The Planet Is Our Only Dancefloor': How Dance Music Events Are Adapting to Sustainability

Access Staff

Mixmag (04/29/22), Ross, Gemma

The dance music community is prioritizing eco-friendly festivals, with this year's International Music Summit (IMS) in Ibiza emphasizing the threat of climate change. "Just before the pandemic, I remember very clearly curating IMS 2020 — I felt that year the world really woke up to the fact that there is an ever decreasing and vastly emerging timeline in which we can save this world," says IMS co-founder Ben Turner. "The music industry wasn't doing enough, the electronic industry certainly wasn't doing enough, but I felt like the world turned that year and this was the number one priority for everybody." This year, IMS rolled out the Eco Badge initiative encouraging festival attendees to travel more sustainably, in return for a heavily discounted price. "We've also added an eco-tax onto the delegate badge, so we're contributing a certain amount from every ticket sale toward this area with beach cleans and generally putting it back into the system," Turner notes. Meanwhile, Amsterdam's DGTL Festival has this year realized its goal to become a completely sustainable electronic music event, and The Climate Gig motivates artists to travel greener with sustainable aviation fuel. "To me, it's the responsibility for the music industry who want to continue having fun and partying and enjoying music on this planet [to promote sustainability] — let's make sure we do this responsibly for anyone to enjoy today and continue enjoying tomorrow," says Camille Guitteau, Managing Director at Bye Bye Plastic.

Read the full story from Mixmag.

Tags: Music , Sustainability , Climate Change