With the closing of Burning Man on Sept. 1, the 2025 summer festival season has come to an end. As the music fades, burdened infrastructure, disrupted habitats and the mounting challenge of balancing cultural expression with sustainable responsibility are all that is left in its place.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans travel across the country to attend festivals filled with the sounds of EDM, pop, rock, hip-hop and other global genres, the largest being Coachella in Southern California, Lollapalooza in Chicago and Summerfest in Wisconsin.

While these festivals are pillars of culture in these areas, the strain they cause cannot be ignored. AP Environmental Science teacher Zachary Marotta said, “Summer music festivals are a great way to get people to come together to socialize and enjoy the musical talents of different artists. However, these summer music festivals do have environmental consequences. Depending on the location of the event, the severity of the environmental impact may vary.”

Heavy foot traffic generated by these gatherings tramples ecosystems and damages soil composition, leaving necessary nutrient availability and biological activity to diminish. The venue of Lollapalooza, Grant Park, has a daily capacity of 115,000 but attracted over 450,000 attendees to the four-day event in 2025 as stated by Northwestern University’s student publication, North by Northwestern.

The sheer magnitude of attendees underscores just how severely these festivals can strain the environment.

Multiple aspects of music festivals cause carbon emission levels to rise in the areas that surround the venues. The personal transportation of attendees in and out of concerts as well as the process of moving equipment, staff and artists and the energy required by large diesel generators to power stages, sound systems and lighting in off-grid locations all contribute to the significant localized air pollution that results from music festivals.

The largest of these festivals generate multiple types of pollution through improper waste management. Due to dangerously hot days, these festivals must use large quantities of water for sanitation, drinking and cleaning. This can strain local water resources and eventually causes human waste and runoff to enter local waterways. In addition, festivals can generate thousands of tons of waste in the form of food, merchandise packaging and discarded items, most of which will end up in landfills. In 2023, music festivals produced 23,500 metric tons of solid waste as recorded by the Trinitonian.

Much of the environmental damage that occurs around music festivals, however, happens before the gates are even opened.

In preparation for the event, attendees plan complex outfits that typically result in the unnecessary buying of clothes. This promotes a cycle of fast fashion that ultimately ends with large additions to the pre-existing mountains of disposed clothing located across the globe.

Senior Juha Kim has attended multiple concerts and enjoys getting dressed up, however, she believes that there is a limit. “It’s understandable to buy one or two statement pieces for a concert or festival, but ultimately, the attire that is typical at these places isn’t clothing that can be worn in most everyday situations. This results in thousands of articles of clothing being purchased for a one-time wear and then being tossed in the trash.”

Even in Iowa, residents experienced the fallout from music festivals in the form of the Hinterland Music Festival. Taking place in St. Charles, Iowa for three days in August, the venue has grown in its popularity, attracting 25,000 people per day, a 4,000 increase from the year before according to KCCI News in Des Moines. For a town of less than 700, the presence of this gathering easily overwhelms the area.

Ultimately, the only way to combat the impact requires deliberate efforts to reduce the environmental harm.“The sad truth is that in many cases, when people are doing any activity, there is a negative impact on the environment,” shared Marotta.“To reduce our impact we have to look at changing our ways or doing more to restore the environment.”

These venues can become sustainable by using renewable energy resources like solar power, implementing comprehensive waste management systems with increased recycling and composting and eliminating single-use plastic items in favor of reusable alternatives.

Organizers can utilize social media prior to the event and encourage attendees to choose shuttle services and carpooling and educate them on the festival’s sustainability initiatives and provide resources to guide them in efforts to minimize waste and conserve water.

Music festivals will continue to serve as vital platforms for artistic expression and community connection, but they must turn towards sustainable practices to ensure these celebrations thrive for generations to come.

This story was originally published on Spartan Shield on September 10, 2025.