Music / idles
IDLES take Queen Square: will these be Bristol’s greenest ever gigs?
Tens of thousands of people are getting ready to jump and stomp their way through Queen Square at the IDLES concerts on Friday and Saturday but, what you may not know, is that there’s more to this concert setup than meets the eye.
IDLES, an English punk band often referred to as “Bristol’s favourite sons“, will be playing both days in the city centre, supported by SOFT PLAY, Lambrini Girls and SICARIA on Friday and The Voidz, hinds, SCALER, Grove and Tash LC on Saturday.
15,000 people are expected to attend each day, with 500 members of staff providing support across both dates.
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30,000 people are expected at attend across the two IDLES gigs
Scott O’Neill is a managing director for Communion One, a major events promoter company, and has been organising events in Bristol for over 20 years. He told us why this weekend’s concert set-up is so special.
The venue is eco-friendly, Scott said: “The main contributor to the carbon footprint of an outdoor event is audience travel.
“To help contribute to the eco-friendly site, we’ve not advertised parking as we’re a 15-minute walk from Temple Meads and we’re a few minutes’ walk from the bus station.
“The site is 100 per cent battery powered; we can connect the batteries to the national grid so they can be charged overnight.
“The only fuel being burned on site is some of the Cherry Pickers and Buggies, which are using hydrogenated vegetable oil instead of diesel or petrol.”
As well as the eco-friendly setup, each IDLES ticket has an additional £1.50 charge that will be put back into the park to restore any damage made to the grass.
Additionally, all toilet waste on the site will be connected to the main sewage connection here, so any toilet waste can be emptied directly into the main sewage. This saves the job of the toilets having to be emptied every day by big waste lorries.
Portaloo waste can be plugged into the main sewage connection
Scott added that the band and their team have been heavily involved in choosing the lineup for Friday and Saturday’s gigs and were very keen on keeping the food and drink local.
The vast majority of food and drink suppliers across the two nights will be Bristol-based and the safety management companies are all based on Queen Square.
500 members of staff will provide support across both dates
A lot of planning has gone into holding these concerts at Queen Square, with Communion One speaking with the council “off and on for five years”.
Scott added: “The first drawings we did on this were two or three years ago, but it’s been at least a year of fine-tuning.
“It’s very important to us to keep the impact on the residents as small as possible.”
After all that planning, what is Scott looking forward to most?
Scott laughed and said, “seeing 15,000 people a night going crazy over their hometown heroes”.
All photos: Izzy Watt
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