Lollapalooza Music Festival: Event Strategy to Support Renewable Energy
Music has always been at the center of how we feel about the world and what action we take based on those feelings. Lollapalooza's leaders wanted to show audiences how important renewable energy is to everything in our lives. Over the course of a summer, we demonstrated to thousands of concert-goers across America that renewables are, indeed, doable.
Event challenges:
One of the biggest challenges we faced was competing for concert-goers' attention. Because they were there to see the music, we decided to bring the lessons to the stage!
Event strategy:
We decided the best path forward was to actually show Lolla’s audiences renewable energy in action, so we developed a plan to showcase different renewable energy technologies each day. We partnered with the Schatz Energy Research Center in Arcata, CA, to demonstrate hydrogen fuel cell technology at every show. We did this by making smoothies for the crowd in a blender powered by fuel cell technology. We also worked with the National Biodiesel Board to power the 2nd stage entirely on 100% biofuel. We also used the jumbotron screens to run an environmental trivia contest with questions linked to renewable energy, and in several cities, we used solar panels to power sound systems and DJ set-ups near the festival stage.
Results:
We collected commitments from more than 15,000 people who agreed to make “renewables doable” by making changes in their own lives and by contacting their representatives. While musicians had used biodiesel on tour in the past, Lollapalooza became the largest festival to date to power one of its stages on 100% biofuels. Cave In, one of the Festival Stage artists, was also featured on MTV as part of the program to promote renewable energy. At the end of 2026, Shatz expects to complete a municipal bus route in Northern California powered by hydrogen fuel cell technology.
