Nothing says summer like staking a claim on a blanket in front of a stage on a sunny day, cold drink in hand, to hear a favorite band blast out tunes al fresco. But as the festival season returns across Canada, it’s becoming harder for fans and performers alike to ignore the impact of climate change.
“It’s absolutely a wake-up call for people living here,” says Toronto-based guitar ace Donna Grantis in a recent interview with The Globe and Mail. She has made the climate battle central to her career. “I think it’s such a brilliant initiative and I can’t wait for the day when the Earth becomes the greatest beneficiary of songwriting royalties of all time,” she says.
It’s not huge compared with heavy industry. Still, according to the Canadian chapter of the non-profit Music Declares Emergency , touring and live shows account for 63 per cent of the industry’s revenue, and also the bulk of its environmental footprint. That includes transporting gear – which in this country can mean long road trips. There’s also the impact of vehicles that fans use to attend festivals and shows.
MDE seeks to play the role of organizer for climate-related initiatives on the Canadian music scene. It holds summits for the industry and sets up events such as a Halifax concert planned for September that will be pedal-powered. That region is still recovering from the damage wrought by Hurricane Fiona last autumn, and the concert will act as a reminder of its destructive and lingering force.
MDE held the Canadian Music Climate Summit last October in Toronto, which brought together people from across the industry to discuss sustainability under the theme No Music on A Dead Planet. There, Ms. Grantis recorded, a guitar piece inspired by and featuring spoken words by Canadian environmental activist Tzeporah Berman, chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative.