This week social media showed Ed Sheeran stepping off the overnight train from Sydney into Melbourne’s Southern Cross Station. On tour in Australia, the USD 700 million star chose an 11-hour train trip instead of a one-hour flight. Reports noted his wife, Cherry Seaborn, works in sustainability and has encouraged lower-carbon travel. Sheeran has also spoken about buying land to “rewild” parts of the UK, saying he loves his county, wildlife and the environment.
In a live-touring industry built on tight schedules and frequent flights, Sheeran’s choice is largely symbolic — a gesture to reduce his carbon footprint — but symbols can matter. Australia stages hundreds of concerts and more than 160 music festivals a year; in 2024 the live entertainment sector saw over 31 million attendances, including more than 14 million concertgoers. Large-scale sell-out shows inevitably carry a major environmental footprint.
Event footprints vary by scale: conferences can emit hundreds or thousands of tonnes of CO2, large festivals and concerts tens of thousands, and global mega-events like the Olympics hundreds of thousands or more. A common estimate is about 5 kg CO2 per attendee per day, though impacts depend heavily on travel and event design. There’s no single global total for concerts; most assessments are done per event. UK music festivals are estimated to produce more than 400,000 tonnes of CO2 annually — roughly equivalent to the yearly emissions of over 230,000 average passenger cars.
Carbon audits typically include how audiences travel to venues, where they stay, what they eat and drink, how sites are powered, and waste management. While media attention often focuses on artist travel and production gear, research shows those are seldom the biggest contributors. Audience travel is the largest source: multi-city tour analyses found attendee transport creates about 38 times more emissions than artist and crew travel, hotels and gear combined. Accommodation is commonly the second-largest source when events draw interstate or international visitors. Food and beverage services, venue energy use, freight logistics and waste management make smaller contributions.
The live music industry is responding. Artists, promoters and venues are experimenting with ways to cut emissions, especially around energy and touring operations. Coldplay reported reducing direct touring emissions by about 60% compared with its 2016–17 stadium tour, based on show-by-show comparisons and independent audits. They replaced diesel generators with battery systems, used renewable energy, redesigned freight logistics, and trialed kinetic energy solutions such as power-generating dance floors and bicycles. The tour also funded tree planting—one tree per ticket—supporting millions of plantings worldwide. Massive Attack staged ACT 1.5 in Bristol, billed as one of the lowest-carbon live events, using battery power, plant-based catering, reduced freight and incentives for low-carbon audience travel.
Despite these advances, evidence shows even low-emission concerts can only go so far unless audience travel behavior changes. Green Music Australia identifies fan transport as a major remaining emission source and urges organisers to pursue public-transport incentives, strategic venue selection and travel partnerships. Technological improvements on stage are increasingly feasible; shifting how tens of thousands of attendees travel is the harder challenge.
Sheeran’s train journey may be a small step, but such choices help normalize lower-carbon options and reinforce environmental values across an industry already facing climate risks. A global analysis of over 2,000 mass gatherings disrupted by extreme weather from 2004 to 2024 found arts, cultural and entertainment events—particularly festivals and concerts—are often affected. Storms, heat and other climate impacts are already changing event timing and financial viability in countries including Australia, the UK and the US.
In short, the live events industry both contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and is increasingly vulnerable to climate change. Reducing event footprints should be central to broader adaptation strategies for the sector: its survival depends on stable environmental and climatic conditions.
