Christopher BarrettMassive Attack is the latest act to be announced as headliners and curators of a day at AEG Presents’ LIDO Festival show series in London’s Victoria Park.
The event, which will be the band’s first London festival show in nine years, will be another step in its ACT 1.5 initiative designed to decarbonise live music events. On 25 August last year, Massive Attack staged an Act 1.5 event at Bristol’s Clifton Downs that was billed as the lowest carbon show of its size ever staged. It saw Ecotricity and the Grid Faeries power the event with a battery that replaced the use of 2,000 litres of diesel, saving 5,340kg of carbon emissions. The battery will be rolled out again at LIDO.
Also performing at Massive Attack’s LIDO show will be Air, Yasiin Bey, The Alchemist, FORENSICS and Tirzah.
The band’s Robert Del Naja (3D) said, “History shows it’s often the combination of art and science that overcomes the greatest challenges we face, so it’s good to see LIDO take learnings from our ACT1.5 event last year and apply those technologies to where they see emissions coming from. Clean productions beginning this journey to normalisation is good news for everyone, but especially for music fans that come to festivals and the local communities that live around them.”
AEG Presents CEO of European Festivals Jim King said, “Big changes require both courage and determination, and I cannot speak highly enough of Massive Attack and their team for embracing the challenge of launching this important initiative. AEG was fortunate to collaborate with Massive Attack on the ACT 1.5 event in Bristol last summer, which set the standard and inspired our team to continue the work they have started at LIDO.
“Massive Attack has demonstrated that there is a better way to operate for the future of both our planet and our industry. LIDO represents the next step towards a broader adoption of industry-leading sustainability principles across AEG European Festivals, all while continuing to bring the world’s biggest artists and the best production to deliver incredible experiences for fans at our festivals.”
Massive Attack will join previously announced headliners Jamie xx (7 June), OUTBREAK Fest (13 June), Charli xcx (14 June) and London Grammar (15 June) for the inaugural LIDO.