In December, a new initiative Bye Bye Plastic emerged with support from 1500 artists, management and booking agencies across the world who pledged to remove single-use plastics from their riders.
Entitled #PlasticFreeParty, the movement started by Vivie-Ann Bakos aka BLOND:ISH, is focusing on DJs primarily at first, to pledge to request an eco-rider in their DJ booth and artists that have signed up to it include Richie Hawtin, John Talabot, ANNA, Pete Tong, Honey Dijon, Ben Klock, Patrick Topping, Cassy, Sven Väth, Nicole Moudaber, Eats Everything, Annie Mac and Late Nite Tuff Guy – full list here.
The aim is for an eco-rider to become an industry standard.
Practically, this means that any DJ who sends a promoter their rider which usually lists the drinks etc that the artists will have on the night won’t contain any single-use plastics or straws and would instead be replaced by a more sustainable, recyclable option or the DJ’s own sustainable bottle at the very list. Recently, the booking agency Coda signed up to a Green Artist Rider initiative.
If this was to be expanded into live music, and we don’t see why it shouldn’t be an active consideration, then the replacement of single plastic bottles for water on stage should be replaced with the cardboard eco water on offer at festivals recently, or better yet, a system involving a water tap pre-installed back stage that could be used to refill sustainable bottles for on-stage use.
We’ve already seen festivals taking these steps of late and it would take a bit of extra work to change a venue’s water supply to a more sustainable version long-term.
Another idea in terms of touring is implementing carbon offsetting, which is a conversation that the electronic dance community has been having around long-haul international flights.
Bye Plastic offers a number of resources for artists, event organisers and promoters on their website or Instagram.
