Lorde and Little Simz to Headline World-First Clean-Powered Festival in Bristol
Lorde, Little Simz and Wet Leg will perform at Bristol's Forwards festival this weekend, which is billed as the world's first festival run almost entirely on clean power.
The clean power pilot (CPP) scheme behind the festival is backed with regional public money and political will, and over the summer it has guaranteed a secure source of green mobile power to festivals, events and TV film crews. About a dozen events, including the Bristol Balloon Fiesta, have been powered with its help, as have Bristol-shot television shows such as the drama Mavis Eccleston. The performances this weekend are seen as the pinnacle.
Ben Price, head of partnerships at Team Love, which runs the festival on the Downs, said it felt like a gamechanger. Because of the site's geography and geology, the festival cannot access green energy from the National Grid, and the economics of producing such events make it impractical to invest in their own temporary energy supply. "We need the backing of public money to de-risk it," Price said.
CPP grew out of a homecoming gig in Bristol by the trip-hop collective Massive Attack, which was credited with producing the lowest-ever carbon emissions for such an event. Act 1.5, a creative industry project that brings together artists, technicians and scientists, worked with Massive Attack on that concert and was determined to take the concept further. The West of England mayoral combined authority provided financial backing, while the Greens-led Bristol city council has given its support, along with clean energy providers and Bottle Yard studios.
Mark Donne, lead producer of Act 1.5, called the scheme a global first: "There isn't any comparable programme anywhere, in terms of scale, design or sectors procuring and acting together – no precedent or comparison." John O'Sullivan, another senior figure, said it meant many fewer noisy, diesel-guzzling generators at events and sets. "The only thing you notice is the quiet."
This weekend, the main stage is being driven by a compact hydrogen power plant set up by GeoPura. Its only byproduct is pure water, which Lorde and other artists will be invited to sample after their gigs. A second stage and other areas are driven by battery units topped with electricity from renewable suppliers, backed up by generators powered by hydrotreated vegetable oil.
Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja said the group's 2024 show was never meant to be a one-off. "This project was always about systemic change, so it's gratifying to see this permanent legacy of decarbonisation for all major festivals and film and TV productions in Bristol." He added that the world is surpassing 1.5 degrees and unprepared for climate disasters, but projects like Act 1.5 can be a catalyst. Actor Jonathan Pryce, who appears in Mavis Eccleston, also backed the project, saying that severe weather has become a vivid reality and that art provides spaces to imagine a better future.
Act 1.5 said it is working with other mayoral authorities across England to roll out the concept further, and there has been international interest.