Music Time: Music festivals and their impact on the environment
An interview with David Irle, independent eco-advisor and co-author of the volume "Décarboner la culture"
Ana-Maria Popescu, 13.04.2025, 14:33
David Irle is a French independent consultant on the environmental transition of the cultural sector. He works with the Bureau des Acclimatations and provides training for the French Ministry of Culture and the DGCA. For over ten years, he has been involved in developing European cultural projects and integrating French operators into European networks. Currently, he focuses on implementing environmentally responsible practices in the cultural sector through artistic projects, professional models, and the redefinition of public cultural policies. He is the co-author of “Decarboner la culture”, published by Presses Universitaires de Grenoble in 2021.
At the end of March, David Irle took part in an event organised by the French Institute in Bucharest, called “Towards the Future: An ecological approach approach for cultural institutions.”
In this quick chat with him after the event, we discussed the main sources of music festivals’ carbon footprint, and the extent to which organisers are able to address them, in what seems to be an increasingly necessary paradigm shift in the live music industry.
