KINETIC DANCE FLOORS and power bikes are some of the measures that will be in place at Croke Park as part of Coldplay’s pledge to reduce their direct carbon emissions.
Coldplay will take to the stage at Croke Park this evening for the first of four shows, with the others taking place on Friday, Sunday and Monday.
The gigs are part of the band’s Music of the Spheres World Tour.
In 2019, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin said the band would not launch a globe-trotting tour for their then-new album Everyday Life due to environmental concerns.
At the time, Martin said the band needed to “work out how our tour can not only be sustainable [but] how can it be actively beneficial”.
In 2021, Martin announced that the band had come up with ways to tour in a more sustainable way and pledged to cut its direct carbon emissions from show production, freight, band and crew travel by at least 50%.
Coldplay added that the figures have been verified by the Environmental Solutions Initiative at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
In terms of show production, Coldplay has been generating power for their shows by in-venue solar installations, kinetic dance floors and power bikes.
The kinetic dance floors generate power per step that can be used to power the stage, with stationary power bikes also being used by some spectators for the same purpose.
The energy generated by this is enough to power one of the smaller stage areas each night, as well as provide the crew with phone, laptop and tool-charging stations.
A spokesperson for Croke Park told The Journal that the power bikes and kinetic dance floors will be in place for the Coldplay gigs.
The spokesperson added that other measures will also be in place around Croke Park to reduce single use plastics and food waste.
Croke Park added that it will use battery power rather than the grid where possible and that the arena has “worked closely with the tour on this”.
The Croke Park spokesperson added that the stadium will also have its “usual procedures and policies in place when it comes to sustainable event operations in areas such as energy, water, and waste”.
The spokesperson also noted that Coldplay has “implemented a lot more behind the scenes in terms of how they power their tour vehicles and their travel arrangements, so what we’re doing at the venue is only half of it when it comes to Coldplay’s pledge”.
Meanwhile, attendees to the concerts will be given an LED wristband that will be used for the light shows.
These are intended to be returned after the gig and Coldplay has thanked concertgoers who have returned their wristbands for recycling.
Coldplay said that the average return and re-use rate of these LED wristbands is 86%.
The band also plants a tree for every ticket sold and has planted over 7 million so far and has reported a 33% reduction in freight impacts.
Fan travel has not been included in Coldplay’s direct emission figures, but data gathered by the via SAP shows one-third of concertgoers use public transport, while 4% travel on foot or bike.
It added that the average carbon footprint per traveller is 48% lower on this tour than their previous one in 2016-17.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say