Live Nation Teams To Reduce Waste At Sheds; Festival Promoter: 'Business-Wise, It's A Good Move'

Jiffy Lube Live – Jiffy Lube Live

Concert promotion and ticketing giant Live Nation has committed to remove all single-use plastic straws in favor of a marine-friendly paper alternative at all of its 45-plus U.S. owned and operated amphitheaters, teaming with environmental organization The Lonely Whale.

“The ocean belongs to all of us and everyone deserves access to tools that empower us to keep our ocean free of plastic pollution,” said Adrian Grenier, Lonely Whale Co-Founder and UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador. “The For A Strawless Ocean toolkit allows anyone to take the torch from Lonely Whale, and all of those who have come before us, to create independent waves of change For A Strawless Ocean.”

Live Nation estimates this change will spare the use of over 3 million plastic straws at its amphitheater shows this summer. Live Nation and Lonely Whale are collaborating to progress a new standard for sustainable straw use across live events beginning this year. Live Nation estimates this change will spare the use of over 3 million plastic straws at its amphitheater shows this summer.

Lonely Whale, which seeks to drive “market-based change on behalf of our oceans,” today announced the “For A Strawless Ocean” toolkit to reduce the 10 million-plus metric tons of plastic scientists estimate enter the ocean each year, starting with the single-use plastic straw.

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Global stakeholders in the initiative include Live Nation, the City of Malibu, World Surf League PURE, Wildlife Conservation Society, Shedd Aquarium, Cachet Hospitality Group, and Loyola Marymount University, as well as the Chicago Athletic Association hotel and its onsite food and beverage partner Land & Sea Dept.

Live Nation’s owned or operated U.S. amphitheatres include Ascend Amphitheatre in Nashville, The Gorge in Washington, Jiffy Lube Live in Virginia, Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain in Scranton, Pa., PNC Bank Arts Center in New Jersey, Sleep Train Amphitheatre in California and many others.

The toolkit is available at strawlessocean.org.

The adoption of the strawless program mirrors a larger trend mostly noticed at festivals to reduce waste in recent years, with major events like Glastonbury Festival in England pledging to get rid of plastic bottles entirely by 2019 and using steel cups onsite, and indie events such as the Air + Style festival in Los Angeles using paper water cartons rather than plastic bottles.

– Levitate Music Festival
sustainability report

Another indie festival aiming to reduce its carbon footprint is Levitate Music and Arts Festival in Marshfield, Mass, which released a sustainability report in 2017 that says its waste-reduction measures eliminated the need for more than 31,000 single-use water bottles on site. During 2017’s Levitate, nearly 4,000 gallons of water were pumped onsite through 12 water-filling stations where custom nalgene and steel water cups were provided.

“What’s really amazing is how much waste there would be if you weren’t making a diligent effort to conserve,” Levitate founder Daniel Hassett told Pollstar. “It’s cool because it’s a multi-front thing. You have to invest some time and effort and money in it to do it right but in reality it’s not only something that helps the environment and educates future generations but it’s actually, business wise, a good move. You end up saving quite a bit of money if you use less.”

Levitate this year July 7-8 features Trey Anastasio Band, The Head And The Heart, Slightly Stoopid, Rebelution, Lake Street Dive, Xavier Rudd and many others.

Hassett said festivalgoers are happy to partake.

“You have to wrap your head around it, have to invest some time and thought,” Hassett said of the waste-reduction plan. “And I get it when you’re a business moving fast and it’s hard to slow down and reassess how you do things. But it’s nice when something like that lines up with business interests as well.”