The CLUAS Archive: 1998 - 2011

01

Having turned down the eco-unfriendly Glastonbury festival, Radiohead's green demands will be met at their concert in Arras, France on 6 July.

Flushing meadows: RadioheadThe show, part of the northern town's Main Square Festival, will be one of the most energy-efficient music events staged in Europe this summer. Up to 80% of the show's electrical needs will be supplied from renewable sources.

The Radiohead concert will be powered with energy drawn from biomass - in other words, human waste. This is thanks to a new €12 million waste treatment plant in Calais. The centre, opened in January, incorporates a process developed by engineers in Thailand in which sewage material is treated with nitrogen at high temperatures. The result, euphemistically called 'bio-oil' or 'brown energy', causes much less pollution than traditional oil when burned.

As part of the festival's commitment to using this new energy source, the contents of onsite portaloos - including those backstage - will be brought directly to the treatment plant by truck every night. Bio-oil will provide the energy for the concert's sound system, which means that what fans hear on the night will come entirely from the waste treatment process.

In addition, an onsite biogas converter (as used by the Indian government) will generate additional energy from smaller-scale activities like the catering tent and press centre.

"We are happy that Radiohead will play at our green festival," said the event promoters. "The band have always practised recycling, and they say they are interested in this sewage conversion system."

A Radiohead spokesperson praised the festival as "a valuable contribution to promoting sustainable development. Radiohead are committed to reducing their emissions, which is good news for conscientious music lovers around the world."

Here's 'Karma Police', which a slanderous, polluting 'playa hata' might unfairly allege recycles 'Sexy Sadie' by The Beatles:


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Nuggets from our archive

2003 - Witnness 2003, a comprehensive review by Brian Kelly of the 2 days of what transpired to be the last ever Witnness festival (in 2004 it was rebranded as Oxegen when Heineken stepped into the sponsor shoes).