The Roots, Haim, and Sheryl Crow are set to headline The Big Climate Thing, a new climate-themed festival with live music and talks in New York. It takes place on the opening weekend of Climate Week NYC, on September 16-18, at Forest Hills Stadium. The Flaming Lips, the Weather Station, Khruangbin, Courtney Barnett, Princess Nokia, and Mykki Blanco are also among those on the bill. Find ticket information and more here.
A single-stage event presented by Climate Control Projects, The Big Climate Thing will mix music and climate programming including videos, talks, and calls to action. Proceeds from the event will support EarthPercent, a nonprofit launched by Brian Eno, although the festival has not detailed the amount or nature of the support. The organization is aiming to raise $100 million by 2030, channeling music-industry funds into climate initiatives. Alongside Reverb and Forest Hills Stadium, the festival will be carbon-mapped in order to focus efforts to reduce its environmental impact.
“The purpose of the event is to serve as a unified call to action for artists, fans and the music industry itself,” a Climate Control Projects representative told Pitchfork. “The event is focused on creating an inclusive community that centres a message of climate justice. By that we mean, those least responsible for causing climate change are paying the highest price of its catastrophic effects, and that climate change exacerbates existing inequities such as income inequality, housing and food insecurity, systemic racism, and gender inequality. We also focus on progress rather than perfection with encouragement to our audience to just take the first step without worrying about getting everything 100% right on the first day.”
The Weather Station’s Tamara Lindeman told Rolling Stone: “I think music, along with all the cultural industries, have spent way too long sitting back on this issue. I believe music plays a primarily emotional role in people’s lives, and as such I think it has huge potential in pushing us to recognize our tangled emotions around this topic. When I imagine a stadium full of people coming together for a climate event centered on music, what I imagine is an enormous opportunity to feel a solidarity that has been so missing here. I truly hope that an enormous in-person event can have some power to bring people together and create some common experience around climate, and push those in attendance to examine their climate feelings and push through them enough to act.”