For the first time in Forwards Festival’s history, every stage will be powered by renewable energy as 60,000 people descend on Bristol this weekend. The switch is being sold as a clean future for live events, but it also shows how quickly big cultural machinery can be retooled when money, technology and local authority backing line up. Diesel generators are out at this event. Green hydrogen and scalable batteries are in.
The State and the Festival Circuit
Forwards Festival is the latest example of a wider shift tied to Massive Attack’s legacy. Other major events, including Love Saves the Day and Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, also swapped diesel generators for green technology this year. The article says Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja described their 2024 show as always about systemic change, and said it was gratifying to see a permanent legacy of decarbonisation for festivals. That legacy now runs through the festival circuit, where the energy source matters as much as the booking poster.
The 2024 ACT 1.5 Massive Attack music festival in Bristol produced 98% less power-related emissions than comparable shows, according to the article, by being 100% battery powered and selling 100% vegan food, among other things. The numbers are stark. So is the contrast with the usual festival model, which leans on diesel, waste and the easy language of sustainability after the fact. Here, the infrastructure changed first. The branding followed.
Clean Power, Public Funding
The changes at Forwards Festival have been made possible with funding from a Clean Power Pilot led by the West of England Combined Authority, or Weca, running this summer. That means the shift is not just a matter of artists or organisers making greener choices. It is being underwritten by a regional authority, with public money and institutional backing shaping how a major cultural event runs.
Helen Godwin, Weca mayor, said: "After another exceptionally hot and dry summer, everyone can see how our climate is changing." She added: "Here in the West of England, we've brought together our brilliant creative industries and clean energy sectors to try to help tackle the climate crisis and clean up our air." Godwin also said: "We've always been a region that cares about our environment, cares about clean energy, about clean air. But we also love to have a good time." She said dirty air affects people's health.
Those lines do a lot of work. They frame climate damage as visible and immediate, while presenting the region’s creative industries and clean energy sectors as partners in the fix. The article doesn’t say who pays the costs when the weather turns hotter and drier. It does say the model is being built through Weca, and that the authority wants to expand it.
A Model for More Control
Weca’s ambition is to expand the model in 2027, extending it to multiple sectors and paving the way for adoption elsewhere in the UK and internationally. That’s the real institutional story here. A festival experiment becomes a template. A local pilot becomes a wider model. The language is all about clean air and climate crisis response, but the machinery underneath is about scaling a managed version of sustainability through official channels.
Forwards Festival will feature Lorde, Little Simz, Tems and Goldie. The event itself remains a mass gathering, but the power system behind it has changed. The article presents that as a legacy of Massive Attack’s 2024 show and as a sign of what more events might do next. In Bristol, at least, the old diesel hum is being replaced by batteries, hydrogen and the careful choreography of public funding. The festival still goes on. The infrastructure just wears a cleaner face.