How Your Favorite Musicians Promote Social Change 🌎

Written by: Caroline Walters

So many of our favorite artists are doing everything they can to make the world a better place, and one thing they’re doing is using tours to promote social change! Organizations like HeadCount, Everytown, and even Planned Parenthood are partnering with major tours to help spread the word! ♻️

Coldplay is one band that’s absolutely leading the charge to use tours as a way to promote change! They have a section on their tour website titled “Sustainability,” and it shows the main tenets of their touring initiatives: reduce, reinvent, and restore! They’ve partnered with DHL, a global shipping and logistics company, to reduce their tour’s carbon emissions by over 50% in comparison to their 2016 tour. Not only are they reducing emissions, but they’re also completely powering the show’s production by using solar power, kinetic energy, and sustainable biofuels. The kinetic energy is harnessed from stationary bikes fans can ride and panels on the venue’s floor that convert fans’ jumping into the energy that powers the show! They truly are doing everything they can to provide an amazing show and also help promote change. One of the coolest things they did was plant a tree for every ticket sold on their (sold-out!) tour. 🌳

Another artist that is doing amazing work is Harry Styles! Harry works with Reverb, an organization that promotes environmental sustainability, to reduce the waste that he and his crew might produce. With Reverb, this includes using sustainable cleaning products, giving everyone a reusable mug and water bottle, and even collecting unused toiletries from the hotel they stay in and donating them to shelters in need! Reverb has a booth at his Love on Tour shows that allows fans to donate to Reverb and receive a reusable Nalgene water bottle that they can then fill up for free! This helped eliminate over 34,000 single-use bottles at his shows. Headcount is another voter registration organization that he’s partnered with since the Live on Tour shows. Harry also partners with Everytown, an organization that works to end gun violence. Not only did Harry himself donate $1 million to the non-profit, but they also have a booth at every stop of the Love on Tour shows in America that allows fans to educate themselves on gun violence and find new ways to be engaged. 🩷

Billie Eilish also partnered with Reverb and had some of the same initiatives as Harry! She also had reusable water bottles for the crew with free water refill stations rather than using single-use bottles every day. She also used Reverb to work with venues and make sure that there were vegan entree options at every show on the Happier Than Ever tour! This option saved over 8 million gallons of water throughout the tour. Billie had sustainable merch options at her shows as well! The merch included a recycled vinyl made from scraps of the first pressings and upcycling shirts to ensure she was doing everything she could! 👕

Maggie Rogers works with Headcount, which is an organization that registers individuals to vote and helps them check their registration status! This company is able to set up a booth at every show on her tours and works to empower voters and educate them about what’s going on in their community. Since Headcount was formed in 2004, they’ve registered over 1 million voters, which is incredible! Maggie’s also partnered with Planned Parenthood and ensures they’re able to inform fans about their reproductive rights and health while at her shows. Maggie and Phoebe Bridgers released a cover together in late 2020 and all the proceeds, almost $40,000, directly benefited reproductive rights. 🥰

While she’s currently on tour, Taylor Swift is actively working to help the communities that she stops in! Taylor has always been generous with her money and time, but while on the Eras Tour, she’s making sure to help a local charity in every city she stops in. At her first stop in Glendale, Arizona, she donated to the Arizona Food Bank Network, and her generosity allowed them to provide thousands of families and individuals with food to last them. She did the same with food banks in Las Vegas and Arlington, and it’s safe to assume she’ll be making these donations at every stop of the tour. She’s previously used her money to help fans and organizations in need, but her efforts while on tour are pretty incredible! 💕

If you have a favorite organization that works to promote social change for touring artists, let us know on our Instagram or Twitter. We can’t wait to see how much these artists and companies change the world around us! 🤍

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