Sustainable Power Solutions for Small-Scale Music Festivals

Music festivals bring large numbers of attendees together so they can enjoy themselves and listen to their favorite music. Although these festivals create a sense of community and excitement, they are some of the most unsustainable events on the globe as most festivals are powered with gas generators which spew tons of greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere. These generators can produce twice as much carbon dioxide as the power grid, and if festivals want to modernize their events to help our planet, more sustainable energy solutions are needed (Soucy, 2022). Using Tempe Beach Park as a venue for a two-day music festival, the power demands must be analyzed and then I will provide potential power solutions for this event and highlight which solutions are the best in terms of practicality, cost, and sustainability. In this report, I analyzed solar power, battery energy storage, and biodiesel, as well as other alternative solutions. I found that while solar power and battery storage are extremely expensive, they produce clean energy and do not give off any emissions. For smaller festivals, cost will be a big deciding factor in determining how to power the festival. Biodiesel serves as a cost-effective sustainable alternative that can reduce carbon emissions by up to 85%. If a festival has the budget to put in a couple hundred thousand or million dollars into the power system, they should invest that money into sustainable solutions. While biodiesel still gives off carbon emissions, it isn’t too expensive and should be used in cases where festivals are using gas generators and do not have the funds to invest in a clean power system. Festivals can decide what factors matter the most to them, and choose whether these solutions could be implemented at their festivals.