Sounds Like A Plan

'Leadership' – with guest Melvin Benn, Festival Republic 

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Episode notes

Melvin Benn – festival boss of Reading & Leeds, Latitude and many more – knows how to throw a party. For a long time he's also been a  committed environmentalist – having measured his festivals' carbon footprint for more than a decade, he's also employed a sustainability manager at his company for more than 10 years. 

He joins our hosts Fay Milton and Greg Cochrane to discuss his views on audience travel, foreign festivals and the difficult questions around event sponsorship, plus why he doesn't want to "burden" young music fans with climate anxiety. He also talks about "electrifying" his festivals, and introducing greener initiatives around things like food.

Melvin's contribution has been significant – his leadership has helped shape the sustainability policy of one of the world's largest concert promoters, Live Nation. And as that statement says: "we have a responsibility to preserve the live music experience for generations to come."

Before we go, we'll also leave you with our weekly recommendations. Thanks for listening. 

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Sounds Like A Plan series 1 is supported by Bulb – the green energy company. Listeners of the podcast can take advantage of £50 credit when they switch to Bulb's renewable energy, via this link.

https://join.bulb.co.uk/refer/soundslikeaplan

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This episode's recommendations:

Fay's recommendation

Ecolibrium app

https://ecolibrium.earth/introducing-the-ecolibrium-travel-log-app/

Greg's recommendation

Signals Amidst The Noise newsletter

https://globaloptimism.com/newsletters/signals-amidst-the-noise-april-6/

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Useful links:

Instagram – @soundslikeaplanpodcast

Fay Milton

Twitter – @faymilton

Instagram – @faymilton

Greg Cochrane

Twitter – @Gregcochrane

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