Members of the Party With The Planet alliance united to address the critical issue of climate risks and adaptation opportunities at Australian music festivals.
In July, Green Music Australia, in collaboration with the Australian Festival Association, hosted the fifth iteration of its Party with the Planet roundtable series in Sydney. Themed “Building a Pathway to Climate Resilient Festivals” the event saw 41 representatives from the festival community including Strawberry Fields, Secret Sounds, Lost Paradise, Sydney Festival and Wanderer Festival join both online and in person on Gadigal Country.
Academic researchers, Associate Professor Catherine Strong (RMIT University), Dr Ben Green (Griffith University), Dr Lauren Rickards (La Trobe University) and Dr Todd Denham (La Trobe University), prepared and facilitated discussions with the festival community on the impacts of extreme weather and the potential for solutions to better address and mitigate climate risks impacting the music festival sector.
The workshop supported participants to better understand the key climate change risks impacting the success of music festivals across Australia, and how festivals can adapt and embed climate resilience across the industry. Participants unpacked the stakeholders, infrastructure, services, sites, and government and economic levers that affect a festival’s ability to adapt to increasing climatic events.
Various avenues for reducing exposure to climatic extremes were explored, as well as other opportunities to bolster resilience including technological solutions, and strengthening consumer trust and relationships with government and emergency services.
Following the roundtable, the insights and perspectives shared from participants were collated into a discussion paper which was submitted to the Parliamentary Inquiry into the challenges and opportunities within the Australian live music industry and will be used to further the research of adaptation solutions for Australian music festivals.
Associate Professor Catherine Strong says of the roundtable “It was a very important first step in starting to find out how festival stakeholders are thinking about climate impacts, and what they think they are going to need to respond.”
“We have seen extreme weather events start to impact festivals more and more in recent years, and everything that scientists are telling us about the climate crisis suggests this is going to get worse. Having an understanding of this and working together to adapt is going to be central if we want to keep music festivals in our lives in this country.”
Berish Bilander of Green Music Australia agrees “It was great to see so many members of the Party With The Planet network come together to brainstorm and share their perspectives on how to build resilience as we face increased climate disruptions in the years ahead.”
Established in 2019, Party With The Planet is an alliance convened by Green Music Australia with the aim of supporting festivals to collectively tackle some of their most challenging environmental issues, with a key focus on waste reduction at festival campsites.
With the impacts of extreme weather becoming more prevalent, Party With The Planet has reshaped to help support the festival community to share perspectives and possible solutions in order to develop a resilient path forward while reducing its impact at the same time.
Are you a festival or event organiser interested in joining the Party with the Planet alliance? Contact Green Music Australia to learn more about how you can get involved.
The Party With The Planet Alliance is supported by the NSW Environment Protection Authority and the NSW Government through Create NSW.
