Access All Areas June 2020 | Page 16

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. 16