Each year millions of music lovers travel to various cities to attend their favorite summer music festivals. From the highly touted Glastonbury to the hippie-like Coachella or Woodstock music festival, fans from around the globe gather in one place, usually for a weekend, to enjoy the melodic sounds of their favorite artists. These festivals has have become a summer trademark of sorts, welcoming hundreds of thousands of people into their midst. We can only hope that shedding light upon the necessity of a modern grid can keep up with festival growth.

The five-day Glastonbury Festival, which takes places at Worthy Farm in Somerset, hosts around 177,550 guests per year. Hosting that many festivalgoers in 900-acres can be a challenge, and to some an environmental and energy nightmare. Each year the 18 stages serve as performance platforms to over 300 artists. The amount of energy used annually by the festival is around 30,000 megawatts. That is enough to power six coal plants for a day!

With the smart grid, energy can be used more efficiently. So when 30,000MW of energy is used, the threat of blackouts are minimized. Glastonbury is one of the few annual festivals working to reduce overall energy consumption. Using solar generators and electrical golf carts to transport performers the festival is making an energy conservation statement in the music world.

From energy conservation to smarter thinking
The smart grid enables a variety of benefits for those who are traveling to different music festivals for the summer. For starters, gone are the days when festivals are free, tickets can range from $60 to well over $1000 for complete VIP packages. With smart grid transitions, the direct-bill savings consumers can see annually could save around $600! Those savings could solidify plans to visit your favorite shows this summer.

No matter the city or the country music lovers reside, the cost of traveling to each festival remains high. Driving gas-guzzling vehicles is one way to deplete the spending money meant for the weekend. However, one of the neat things the smart grid can enable is broad-scale vehicle charging. Imagine a future where gas-guzzlers are a thing of the past.

By Taylor Fraser | July 1, 2015