106 million pounds. Every year, 106 million pounds of waste are made when people attend concerts in America, according to the co-founder of A Greener Festival, an environmentally-focused nonprofit. Concert-culture is a big part of the music industry in America. Artists throw enthralling concerts for their millions of fans that can even cause minor earthquakes due to the fans screaming and jumping in the concerts. While these concerts make for exciting events for fans to look forward to, they are also a threat to the environment in a world where the climate crisis is growing larger and larger everyday. Instead of living in denial about the exacerbating environmental crisis, artists should take steps forward in being able to maintain the important concert culture of America while also meeting sustainable goals to make an impact and not leave behind a big carbon footprint. Seeing the grave environmental impact that concerts have on the climate, concert stadiums should set regulations to control the environmental impact that artists and their concerts have along with following the footsteps of other artists that have already taken precautions against the environmental climate crisis.

Being around for centuries, concerts have shaped a big part of American culture and much of the music industry. Yet, awareness about the environmental impact that concerts have, only started in the late 2000s when in reality, concerts have been having a great carbon footprint for a very long time. Ever since technology has drastically grown, concerts have been using a lot of energy and carbon emissions for the light and sound systems. Most of the energy being used for these systems are generated from fossil fuels. In fact, research from the Years Project, a project prioritizing climate change, has shown that American concerts produce over 400,000 tons of carbon pollution. These dangerous statistics should alarm musicians on how much waste and negative effects their concerts are having on the environment. However, they simply ignore these factors and continue with their concerts. Clearly, if the stadiums that host these concerts do not take initiative to solve this problem, it will continue to worsen as time goes on and as the concert culture of America grows. Thus, concert stadiums should require artists to meet a certain quota per every concert that is meant to help preserve the environment. These could be simple acts such as taking a certain percentage of the artist’s profit and donating it to environmental organizations and causes. If an artist were to not meet this requirement, then they should not be allowed to perform in the stadium. Having these regulations will not only force the artists to take initiative to help the environment because artists wouldn’t want to lose money over this issue, but it would also raise awareness of this issue beyond the music industry. 

Concerts already have grave impacts on environmental conditions: Coachella is said to make over 600 tons of waste during their events, yet less than half of that waste is recycled. But, in addition to that, it is also the fault of the artist themselves and their actions as a person, going beyond the concerts that they put on. Artists use their own private jets to travel to places in a short amount of time. In fact, one of the most popular rappers, Travis Scott, was reported to have 137 flights on his private jet in 2023, producing more than six million kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions. While such popular artists have a strong demand to meet when it comes to their tours and putting on a show for their fans, that should not be an excuse to use so much carbon dioxide and take so many private jet flights when they could be taking regular planes around the country. If concert stadiums place regulations on the artists performing, it would not only help regulate the carbon emissions caused by their concerts but would also influence artists to take precautions in their own carbon footprint through means such as traveling.

If artists understand the depth of this issue at hand caused by their concerts, they can also follow the footsteps of other environmentally-friendly bands and musicians. For example: as of June 2024, Coldplay has surpassed their goal of their carbon footprint caused by their concerts, according to The Guardian. Also, for every one ticket that Coldplay sells on tour, Coldplay plants a tree. Doing simple actions like this will make all the more difference in the concert industry’s negative effect on the environment.

Overall, although the American concert industry is greatly thriving and growing in today’s society, the carbon footprint caused and the direct actions of the artists are too grave to ignore. If the concert stadiums set quotas of environmentally-friendly actions for artists to meet, even the smallest actions will make a huge impact on sustainability in today’s climate crisis.