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Thought Piece
FESTIVALS DECLARE EMERGENCY? By: Rose de Wend Fenton
CO-FOUNDER AND FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE LONDON INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF THEATRE (LIFT) CONSIDERS HOW FESTIVALS CAN RESPOND TO THE TRIPLE EMERGENCIES OF CLIMATE, CORONAVIRUS AND BLACK LIVES MATTER We are in the midst of an accelerating climate and ecological emergency. We know that we have less than ten years to ensure global warming stays below 1.5º C. Anything beyond significantly increases the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people. The last five years since the Paris Climate agreement was signed have been the hottest on record; one million species are at risk of extinction, biodiversity is collapsing, and as I write Arctic glaciers are melting and fires are raging across the world. COVID-19 – inextricably linked to the climate and ecological emergency – has lifted the lid more starkly on the huge inequalities, injustices and fault lines in our fractured and failing societies. Taking effective action is now accepted as an urgent priority across society. In this environment, what is the existential basis for international festivals of the future? Throughout the ages, festivals have traditionally been a place where people have come together to celebrate what sustains them as a community, offering a pause from daily life to step back, question and re-set the world around them. They are “experimental zones of sociability” where new ideas can be explored, new futures imagined. So how might international festivals today evolve and be part of leading the vital changes needed to decarbonize and regenerate our planet? In order to resonate and thrive, what must we relinquish, restore, and repair? Many festivals have already taken effective actions, embedding environmental sustainability into their operations, creative work, and business practice. These include adopting an environmental policy for their organization; appointing someone in their team responsible for environmental initiatives; and creating a dedicated sustainability budget for their event. Some festivals are reporting on their carbon emissions, others are exploring the idea of adopting a “carbon budget”. How many flights, how big a company, how many productions can we afford? At the same time festivals are increasingly commissioning discussions and works from artists – many collaborating with sociologists, economists, scientists, horticulturalists – that specifically address the climate and ecological emergency, with topics ranging from climate justice to re-establishing our longneglected relationship with nature.
