Covid put music festivals on hold. Climate change might offer bigger long-term problems.

Music festivals are in the common position of contributing to the climate crisis while being weighed down by their own practices. Trash cans overflow with plastic cups, bright lights and booming sound devour energy; fans and artists drive and fly from all over the globe. For a few days, festivals manufacture bliss in a blocked-off camp and parks. They sell the transgressive power of song at the GrubHub-sponsored stage. But the summers are getting hotter, the storms are fatal, and the windows for hosting outdoor gatherings are shrinking. What’s the point of music if it’ll only hurt us in the end?