Sustainability. Possible. Now

The Green Beat workshop, part of the SHIP Festival in Šibenik, Croatia, offered an in-depth exploration of the green transition in the music sector. Festival directors, venue managers, choir leaders, musicians, bookers as well as EMC team and board members discussed the same question: how do we make our sector sustainable without losing what makes it magical?

To get a bit closer to an answer, the workshop offered sessions around heatwaves and how to adapt, around waste reduction and waste management, around signage and climate messaging, and around travel and transport. Participants also got the chance to try out practical tools such as CO2 calculators and learnt about funding opportunities.

“My favourite moment? The group activities! It is just amazing how engaged everyone is and all the ideas coming to the light, epic!” says workshop facilitator Nika Brunet Milunovic. We are confident to have met our aim to inspire a change of mind set in the European music sector towards greater environmental responsibility.

During the panel discussions in the SHIP conference programme the following day, we looked at how to make sustainability a core value in the music sector. Ákos Dominus (Sziget, HU), Lisa Branigan (Nasta) (Green Futures Festivals, Re-Play Music C.I.C, UK), Morana Periša (Tvrđava Kulture Šibenik, HR), Nika Brunet Milunovic (Calm Nest Collective, AT), all experienced green thinkers and doers, shared examples of circular approaches at festivals, community-driven initiatives and personal advocacy, not leaving out questions of well-being in the teams and crews and social aspects of sustainability. The panel moderated by Ruth Jakobi (EMC) encouraged a mindset that favours progress over perfection.

Simone Dudt (EMC) interviewed leading figures behind some of the most impactful music-related European projects: Balázs Weyer (Hangvető, MOST, Budapest Ritmo, HU), Fernando Bittencourt Hersan (Liveurope, BE), Oskar Štrajn (European Talent Exchange, ESNS, SI/NL), Veronika Vajda (UPBEAT Platform, HU). It became obvious that all these great initiatives are based on a strong idea, a strategic vision, collaborative mindsets and a great enthusiastic team. But it was made very clear that all these initiatives need appropriate funding to sustain the music sector.

Photos of the workshop