JUNE | FEATURE
Tipping the scale
Chris Johnson, Co-Founder and Operations Director
of Shambala Festival, says the current moment is a
turning point for the world’s ‘other’ crisis
Planes are grounded. Cars are
stowed away in garages. World
CO2 emissions, according to the
International Energy Agency, will be
down 8% from 2019.
On paper, it should be a good year
for the world’s ‘other’ existential crisis
– the one that filled newspaper front
pages with pictures of Greta Thunberg
tearfully pleading to the UN, and
inspired climate protests around the
world. The real challenge, however, will
be converting that short-term drop into
meaningful changes in behaviour.
Few are better positioned to do so for
the festival industry than Chris Johnson,
Co-Founder and Operations Director
of Shambala. Shambala is a performing
arts festival known for its strong green
credentials, and Johnson has also led the
way on a number of high-profile projects
including Vision:2025 and Energy
Revolution.
In this interview, Johnson tells Access
why the current moment is critical for
ensuring the survival of the festival
industry not just into 2021, but into the
long-term future as well.
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