One of the most serious issues confronting contemporary music events is waste. Most festivals hire legions of trash pickers to assist with clean-up after their events, and massive waste management systems go into gear after the revelers have left (Abdulredha et al., 2018). Plastic disposable cups, containers, soda cans, and massive volumes of plastic flatware sell drinks and snacks. Wristbands, costume party apparel, glitter, bandannas, toiletries, camping gear, rugs, and tents are all composed of polymers that may last generations, if not centuries, in the ecosystem (Majgaonkar et al., 2021). Consequently, several major events in the United States and Europe are reconsidering their environmental effect. One of the most critical components of event sustainability, especially about festivals and concerts, is waste management. Various meals, drinks, and souvenirs are often supplied at such gatherings, resulting in large amounts of trash left on the festival site, including storage units, bottles, napkins, leftover food, and more. Trash management points to a set of ways of collecting, transferring, separating, recycling, and discarding rubbish and assessing these operations, as per Salmenperä et al. (2021). In this situation, waste is the consequence of human activities, which results in contamination of the environment, degraded air, water, and soil conditions, and damage to natural areas. Waste management in music festivals is crucial to the current mobilizations to a sustainable environmental outlook.
Context
Concerts and festivals can inspire people to be more aware and activists, which is crucial to sustainable development. Regardless of whether society acknowledges it or not, the value of sustainability is undeniable. When life grew more global and digitally connected than ever before, societies were more fractured, and regional fabrics became more fragmented. Wealth and social changes in the United States have escalated unfairness and economic imbalance ever since the late nineteenth century’s Gilded Age (Accominotti, Khan, and Storer, 2018). Ecosystems are degrading and crumpling, and the climate system is quickly moving into unparalleled inconsistency. Change is regimenting cultures worldwide, and indigenous knowledge is being buried under strip malls, car parks, and suburban development. As per Razgour et al. (2018), in the not-too-distant future, fewer environmental habitats will be divided among a larger population, culminating in poverty and food shortages, scarce water and hygiene, and global migration. Without the required measures, these untenable situations will turn the world into an inhospitable home for civilization and deteriorate communities to the point that they will be powerless to handle issues of current times.
Festivals may educate contemporary society on the good qualities that are required to develop cooperative communities as they embark on the path to sustainability. Music festivals, in general, have a special way of stirring and uniting people’s spirits. People need stronger energies to have the confidence to voice and act on the realities of vital problems like sustainability, and civilization cannot do this by rallying people’s heads alone; instead, they must activate their spirits, bodies, and emotions. Music has always had the potential to stir people on a deep and strong level, which is exactly the arousing that people need to face sustainability problems (Hsu et al., 2015). At its finest, music festivals provide considerable advantages necessary for a sustainable world. One of the most well-known benefits of music concerts may help host towns prosper commercially (Tomás, 2017). They bring in large quantities of money for host cities, aid in urban renewal, and promote tourism, employment generation, and other commercial outcomes. Second, music festivals may help safeguard and build a town’s or state’s social worth by encouraging civic participation, public pleasure, and the formation of communal resources, cooperation, and cohesiveness in the host population. They also have a one-of-a-kind ability to promote community, develop a society’s sense of belongingness, and rejuvenate citizens’ accurate perceptions and experiences.
Regrettably, the benefits of concerts and festivals are occasionally eclipsed by their negative repercussions. Because they use a lot of power, water, foodstuff, and environmental assets, as well as generating a lot of garbage and carbon emissions, music festivals have serious ecological imprints. They may put a lot of burden on the facilities, utilities, and physical spaces of host towns, pushing them to contend for limited resources. Festivals have been criticized for undermining local culture, traditions, and individuality for the purpose of profit as they have become too commercialized. Overconsumption, drug misuse, increased crime, negative health impacts, disconnectedness, and social network fragmentation have all been linked to significant social implications in communities (Richardson, 2019). Mega-events have also been admonished for initiating city expansion that is neither socially nor fiscally viable, neither does it take into account the long-term concerns of the host community.
The convergence of environmental sustainability with the planning stage of planning an event is referred as sustainable event management. Sustainability awareness, policy, and decision-making are all fully integrated into the event’s organizational processes, logistics, and production. Over the last two decades, strategic sustainability management has changed and is getting momentum in both internal and external events. As event planners strive to improve their events’ ecological reputation, the sustainable event argument has gained traction in the press and among the public at large (Zifkos, 2015). Sustainability strategies are now being used in conferences and seminars, industry events and exhibits, mega-events, sports competitions, festivals, religious or cultural celebrations, and community and political gatherings. Despite the fact that sustainable event management is gaining popularity, it is still not frequently employed. Few factors or procedures have fueled the quick adoption and expansion of sustainable event management as common procedure in the music industry. As a consequence, approaches to aid event organizers in integrating and enhancing the long-term administration of music festivals are required.
In today’s context of international ecological disasters, it is evident that nothing can be done the very same way it used to be handled. People, who not long ago were primarily concerned with meeting their consumption demands, delight, and amusement at the cost of nature, have progressively realized that there is no other way to preserve the environment for forthcoming generations than to be environmentally conscientious. The administration of events is no exception (Richardson, 2019). Events have evolved into not simply a method of providing entertainment and disseminating information to organizers and audiences but also a powerful sensationalistic weapon for establishing a new environmentally friendly mentality among the public (Robertson et al., 2015). Environmental and resource initiatives impact the company’s image, give event support from local governments, boost event appeal for consumers, and become the foundation of an event planner.
According to Wang, Wang, and Wang (2019), when merged with generic event management techniques, applying energy conservation ideas culminates in a decrease in the undesirable effect of human actions and an enhancement in societal mindfulness. Sustainable events are regarded as an element of a company’s social and environmental responsibility concerning economics and management. When it comes to energy conservation, one may argue that it is a broad notion that encompasses a wide variety of resource usage difficulties. It entails using less energy to maintain the same level of energy production for infrastructure and industrial operations. People should seek to build an economically justifiable use of power sources via ongoing technological advancement while maintaining compliance with regulatory protection standards, per the energy efficiency viewpoint (Kim et al., 2021). People may limit hazardous gases into the environment by using less non-renewable energy; conserved energy can be utilized instead of freshly generated energy, reducing pollution.
The waste management system aims to reduce the negative impact on the environment and human health. Furthermore, since garbage can be recycled, it may be utilized to provide significant economic advantages. At events, waste management entails the removal of effects and the prevention of unregulated waste proliferation via the use of different measures such as the use of biodegradable cutlery, composting toilets, and the reuse of extra food (Werner, Griese, and Faatz, 2019). Furthermore, green procurement implies that the institution’s supply chain is focused on environmental stewardship, accountability, and awareness programs. Corporations and event planners acknowledge that they must consider higher profitability and operating cost minimization and the ecosystem’s and subsequent generations’ well-being (Vejaratnam, Mohamad, and Chenayah, 2020). Waste minimization, reusing décor, optimum use of decomposable polymers and cautious choice of a local food are some instances of green procurement.
All aspects mentioned earlier seem to be included in the notion of sustainable development, which leads to sustainable event management. Sustainable development, in principle, attempts to walk a fine line between meeting humanity’s present demands and safeguarding future generations’ concerns, particularly their need for a secure and healthy ecosystem. It is a planned development centered on a methodical strategy and current technology for modeling potential future outcomes to choose the best course of action.
Arguments
The strong belief that humanity can think in a far-reaching proactive way, seeing no other approaches of flourishing than sustainability; the alignment on sustainable power; and the reevaluation of human problems in light of the planet’s needs are crucial concepts of sustainability. In the same way, sustainable event management serves the demands of current visitors and host locations while also conserving and expanding prospects. Its actual execution in its day-to-day operations is outlined in corporate social responsibility plans.
When it comes to the environmental challenges that arise from music festivals, they may be split into three classes: resource concerns, waste and emissions, and behavior problems. The first category’s worries are about the depletion of natural resources, such as air, water, land, power, and living creatures (Luoma, 2018). Natural ecosystems are destroyed due to the intensive usage of their resources. Pollution happens not only during the event itself but also during the transit of people to the venue, for instance. Massive volumes of garbage are created during the event, particularly if the crowd’s environmental awareness is poor. If the festival’s management fails to provide enough garbage disposal infrastructure, the rubbish would probably spread to even larger areas (Fleming et al., 2019). In terms of the third group of issues, it should be emphasized that it is the most difficult to overcome due to human nature. People will litter in any situation, and some cars will get to the location.
It is only feasible to instill environmentally conscious attitudes among the general public. The occurrences have both beneficial and bad environmental consequences. Improved municipal infrastructure, additional building, and urban change or revitalization are among the favorable outcomes. According to Bendrups and Weston (2015), the negative effect is, predictably, greater, particularly when the function occurs in a natural setting that is not meant for gatherings, as opposed to stadiums. Other issues include road congestion, noise pollution congestion, wastewater issues, and the aforementioned negative results of the events.
Organizers are often confronted with acres of dumped rubbish after festival-goers and merchants have left and contractors dismantle infrastructure. The key to effective and measured disposal is rigorous organization and clean-up preparation. The first stage is to divide professional and volunteer resources into many squads, each with its own set of tasks (Cummings et al., 2014). The capacity to separate garbage into pre-determined groups is crucial to efficient disposal. The organizers will hire contractors to provide appropriate storage and transportation containers for each category. An expert person should decide what may be recycled and what must, sadly, go to landfills or be burnt (Ferdous et al., 2021). Most of the items mentioned above may be recycled at a charge; however, garbage will almost certainly need to be burnt. Fortunately, some firms specialize in handling tent garbage for event organizers. Some types of trash, such as medical or toxic materials, and sewage, need the services of specialized contractors for collection (black water) (Lakho et al., 2020). Any contractors responsible for collecting garbage from the site after the event should submit feedback on the sort of items collected, the quantity or amount, and what was recycled versus what was burnt or sent to landfills. These findings are included in the festival’s post-event trash sustainability reports.
According to Trail and McCullough (2021), pre-event information offered to festival-goers and exhibitors and regular reminders during the festival to limit trash and ensure it is either taken home or discarded responsibly on-site is a vital part of controlling music festival site waste post-event. If garbage removal services offer receptacles and services for pre-sorting rubbish during an event, it may help greatly with post-event cleaning. The majority of individuals are now aware of their social responsibility to rid of their garbage responsibly.
Under mounting pressure to become sustainable, music event organizers adopt a jumble of sustainability programs with little direction. Music event organizers are not the only ones facing being more environmentally conscious. Organizations such as businesses, schools, organizations, and individuals undergo various organizational transformation processes to ensure their long-term viability (Margherita and Braccini, 2020). There are currently few practical implications or implementation plans available to assist firms in becoming more sustainable.
Instead of being separated into sections, concerts must be involved, organized, and run as a complete linked system. Like the biological system of a creature, music festivals are a complicated structure of moving elements that generate their behavioral patterns and are reliant on both internal and external components. If event planners continue to think of sustainable event management as merely “going green,” the environmental component of sustainability will always remain isolated. Likewise, if event organizers continue to perform routine work while making certain processes greener, sustainable solutions will always be prohibitively expensive. At its most basic level, adopting sustainability involves an intentional decision to go beyond isolation and toward unity (Séraphin and White, 2018). This move implies that using a holistic approach will assist festivals in establishing a long-term direction and priority for the whole festival community. The festival’s sustainability success will be hindered if the sustainability director or section is considered a distinct company component. Furthermore, a comprehensive perspective is required to achieve the advantages gained by later phases of organizational transformation for long-term sustainability.
If festivals persist in disaggregating sustainability as a distinct aspect, they will not evolve beyond project-based sustainability efforts to structural, organizational success. Instead, sustainability knowledge, planning, and decision-making must be woven into the fabric of the whole firm. Event organizers may achieve these goals through cultivating the festival’s supporting connections, comprehending the event’s setting and ecosystem, and engaging in the host site’s and region’s community organizations. Using a comprehensive approach to event management is essential for improving the long-term viability of music festivals in the United States.
Additionally, audiences must be aware of the festival’s sustainability activities and relevant sustainability challenges. Every music festival should be open about its sustainability goals and results on its homepage, social networks, newsletters, pre-event advertisements, yearly reports, and other platforms. According to Werner, Griese, and Faatz (2019), it is also critical that this information be widely disseminated across the event grounds. Attendees must be informed about all of the festival’s sustainability measures and why the festival is taking such steps in design to motivate them to participate in such projects. According to this argument, the sustainable policies of a festival cannot be over-communicated to participants. Beyond these fundamental interactions, creative awareness creation should be centered on the festival’s unique location and setting and pertinent to the local customs. Some types of creative marketing communication will be more well-received by some societies (Jansson and Pettersson, 2020). It is crucial not to push or advocate ideals or practices on participants.
Attendees should be informed via the festival’s design and presentation. The festival’s design, the structure of its venues, and the materials and equipment that circulate through the festival all work together to produce a concealed pedagogy that subtly educates guests. The kind of collaborators, food stalls, network operators, and sponsorships selected to work with the event will also inform attendees, for better or worse (Nadais et al., 2021). All of these different aspects of the festival work together to shape the overall direction of the event and provide chances to exhibit sustainability teaching. In critical areas of the festival site that relate to sustainable measures, clear and explicit message signs should be put. The event should, for instance, disclose how much water was used wherever it originates from, what sort of energy was used, who supplied it, the energy conserved and where it was acquired, and how much garbage is created on-site. This move is a chance to promote environmental literacy by highlighting ecological concepts such as interconnections, processes, collaborations, variety, and solar energy on the festival grounds.
Conclusion
Recent developments in event management reveal that an increasing number of festivals are becoming ecologically friendly and accountable, which is due to rising awareness and the fact that environmentalism is becoming more economically efficient. Furthermore, music festival attendees are becoming more receptive and willing to learn about sustainability. When organizing a green festival, it is important to note that sustainability metrics should be monitored at every step of the event, from idea development through post-event operations. The preparatory step is crucial; external analysis of the local region should give the event perspective. The event itself is by far the most important stage, yet it will fail if there is no thorough sustainability plan in place and the insufficient emphasis on the festival’s greenness in post-release documents. As depicted, there are no limitations to the brilliance of sustainable event management. Environmentalism is no more a fashionable fad but instead a necessary prerequisite and a mark of competence in today’s world. It is imperative for an event planner to tackle all environmental elements, from pollutants to energy conservation to constructing an ecologically friendly and sustainable image. As a consequence, events may be turned from just entertaining elements into vehicles to create ecologically conscious generations.
If negative consequences are reduced, and positive ones are advanced, sustainably managed concerts have great return and may give an array of advantages to a healthy, sustainable, and pleasant civilization. Sustainable event management should be broadly acknowledged and established as standard procedure to realize this enormous possibility. To drive this development in sustainable event management, it is important to understand the challenges and performance measures that music festival organizers confront as they work to make their events more sustainable. Music festivals can be very powerful motivating factors, inspiration, and transformation for the betterment of the world. They have long been places for people to meet, communicate, and celebrate. They also have a special potential to bridge intergenerational and interpersonal divides by bringing people together via shared interests. People’s hearts are opened, pleasure is stimulated, and possibilities for being and belonging are provided during music festivals. One of the most beneficial applications of music festivals is their engagement in the transition to sustainability. There is an interesting correlation between the positive and harmful consequences of events, and each festival demonstrates this relationship in its way. Music festivals, on the other hand, may be positive influences for good with the minimization of negative consequences, and the positive benefits are enhanced.
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