Massive Attack have been campaigning on environmental issues for years – and are now fixing their gaze on the music industry itself with a groundbreaking Bristol show next month.

"The future we choose is in the hands of each of us alive right now." These words, read by former UN climate lead Christiana Figueires, featured on the track #CLIMATEEMERGENCY, released in 2020 by Bristolian trip-hop legends Massive Attack. The band have been campaigning on environmental issues for years – and are now fixing their gaze on the music industry itself with a groundbreaking homecoming show set to be the lowest-carbon concert of its size ever.

The show – an all-day festival called Act 1.5 on Clifton Down, a large public park in the west of Bristol, on 25 August – will also feature performances from Irish folk band Lankum and US rapper Killer Mike, among other acts. "The show production is pioneering in all aspects of decarbonisation and will create a blueprint for the way live shows can be produced," Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja, also known as 3D, tells the BBC. "The scale of innovations and emissions reductions will speak for themselves."

Act 1.5 is the culmination of years of work by the band towards a climate-friendlier future for the music industry. In 2019, Del Naja told the BBC that Massive Attack had started touring Europe by train to reduce their carbon emissions, and in 2021, the band partnered with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Research to publish a roadmap for a low-carbon future for live music.

Many of the measures laid out in that report are being put into action at Act 1.5. The entire festival will be powered by renewable energy and battery sources, including the use of electric trucks to install the infrastructure. Every food outlet will serve plant-based food procured using local supply chains, and waste is being minimised with the use of compostable plates and cutlery and the redistribution of surplus food.

"It's wonderful to be part of such a significant and innovative low carbon event," says the Tyndall Centre's Professor Carly McLachlan, one of the report's authors. "Massive Attack and Act 1.5 have built a community of organisations here – new collaborations, doing things differently, experimenting and learning across power, waste and travel."

Audience travel specifically will be a key issue in the future sustainability of live music. Much attention has been paid to the travel habits of famous musicians – 2023's highest-grossing musical artist was Taylor Swift, whose extensive use of private jets has faced much criticism, and even spawned an entire genre of memes.

But the carbon footprint of a performer, and even of their whole touring operation, is just one side of the story. Big tours see thousands of fans travelling to each show, often by car, and sometimes even flying domestically or internationally........

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