Live music and sustainability: 9 summer festivals to have fun while reducing the impact on the territory

In the summer, music festivals intensify, the squares fill up, the parks become arenas, the beaches are transformed into temporary villages and the cities learn to coexist with stages, queues, food trucks, barriers and glasses left wherever they happen. Meanwhile, attention to the environment is also growing.

Well. As long as sustainability remains a concrete matter. Because a festival, even when it lasts a few days, weighs heavily. According to an analysis by A Greener Future, at European and British festivals, audience travel represents on average 41% of the carbon footprint, while all forms of mobility together amount to 58%; food and drinks are often the second most relevant item, around 35%. The glass matters, therefore. The train too. The sandwich also counts. And the way in which a place is used, crossed, consumed and then left matters a lot.

Fulvio De Rosa, general director of Shining Production, summarizes the work on the summer festivals he coordinates as follows:

The programming was born from a clear principle: enhancing the places that host us without altering their identity.

He talks about contexts such as the Lazzaretto in Bergamo, Piazza Sordello and Palazzo Te in Mantua, the Ivan Graziani Amphitheater in Alghero. Places with a history, therefore with a limit. Then the discussion turns to operational measures: ecological islands, recyclable or reusable materials, polycarbonate glasses with a guarantee system, compostable tableware, water in WAMI cans, evaluation of free dispensers, agreements with Trenord for some events such as the Rugby Sound in Legnano, in addition to the ESG route and the photovoltaic roof of the Live Club in Trezzo sull’Adda.

In this scenario we have chosen some summer events that seem interesting to us for the initiatives put in place, or for the direction they try to take. With a necessary clarification: sustainable should mean measurable, verifiable, improvable. A festival can start well, it can be ahead of others, it can still have enormous margins. The important thing is to stop treating the environment like a scenography.

Dolomiti Blues&Soul Festival, Cadore, 18 July-23 August

The Dolomiti Blues&Soul Festival celebrates its 25th edition in 2026 and returns to bring blues, soul, jazz, funk and roots music to the villages of Alto Cadore, in the heart of the Belluno Dolomites, an area recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. From 18 July to 23 August the program crosses Pieve di Cadore, Laggio, Nebbiù, Valle di Cadore, San Vito, Cibiana, Zoppè, Borca, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Val di Zoldo and Belluno, with Italian and international artists including Lou Marini, Michael Dotson, Sarah Jane Morris, Gianni Vancini, Enrico Crivellaro, Superdownhome and Max Lazzarin.

Here sustainability passes above all through the widespread format and the relationship with the territory. The festival does not concentrate everything in a single large temporary arena, but distributes concerts and meetings between squares, churches, halls, former stations, villages and spaces already rooted in local life. It is a choice that enhances Cadore as a cultural landscape, not just as a postcard backdrop. Music becomes a way to travel through places more slowly, bringing audiences to the villages and keeping the connection with traditions, community and memory alive. Even the solidarity concert in the Baldenich prison, scheduled for August 23rd, broadens the meaning of the festival: culture leaves the tourist circuit and reaches a space where music becomes inclusion.

Lazzaretto Estate, Bergamo, 19 June-25 July

Lazzaretto Estate returns from 19 June to 25 July at the Lazzaretto in Bergamo, with music, comedy, dance, dissemination and live shows. In the program there are Arisa, Enrico Brignano, Daddy G, Davide Van De Sfroos, Loredana Bertè, Elio e le Storie Tese, Gianluca Gotto, Dardust, Stefano Nazzi, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Negrita and the free final party with Giocamifaro and Radio Number One.

Here the environmental issue is quite precise. The food & beverage area is redesigned with local supply chains, selected raw materials and local partners; the entire area is designed with the aim of reducing the impact through the progressive elimination of single-use plastic, compostable or recyclable materials and reusable cups. They are small measures only in appearance, because in a live event the difference often comes from there: less disposable, more reuse, less waste produced at the end of the evening.

There is also another aspect that deserves space: accessibility. The Lazzaretto provides dedicated seats for people with disabilities, free ticket for the companion, Woojer Vest Edge vibrating backpacks for the deaf public, tactile map in Braille made with 3D printing and accreditation via the IMVisible portal. Sustainability, when it stops being a brochure word, also concerns this: who can enter, move, orient themselves, experience the concert without feeling like a tolerated guest.

Rugby Sound Festival, Legnano, 2-18 July

The Rugby Sound Festival reaches its 25th edition and takes place from 2 to 18 July on Isola del Castello di Legnano, in the province of Milan. In the lineup there are Tony Pitony, Madame, I Want to Return to the 90s, Elio e le Storie Tese, Subsonica with Casino Royale and Tära, Finley and Teenage Dream, Salmo with 18K and Zarro Night with Il Pagante. It is a festival born around the sport of rugby and has grown to become one of the most recognizable summer events in the area.

The strongest theme here is mobility. De Rosa himself mentions the possibility of agreements with Trenord to facilitate travel to some festivals, including Rugby Sound. It’s an important step because large musical events have a huge and often underestimated problem: thousands of people arriving and leaving in the same amount of time. If the answer remains only the private car, the impact grows even before the concert begins. A railway agreement alone does not solve everything. But it shifts the reasoning to the right point: getting the public to arrive better, with fewer cars and less chaos around the event location.

Mantua Summer Festival, Mantua, July-September

The Mantova Summer Festival moves between two very recognizable spaces: Piazza Sordello and the Exedra of Palazzo Te. The 2026 programming includes Caparezza, Pet Shop Boys, LP, Jethro Tull, Coez, Mannarino, Fulminacci with Mobrici opening, Paolo Ruffini, Wilco, Luca Carboni, Enrico Brignano, Gianni Morandi and Max Angioni.

Here sustainability comes first of all from the relationship with places. Piazza Sordello is not just any container. Not even Palazzo Te. They are historic spaces, crossed every day by citizens, tourists, workers, families, bicycles, guided tours, normal life. Bringing us inside a festival means finding a balance between entertainment, protection, flows, noise, installations and returning the space to the city.

AstiMusica, Asti, 5-21 July

AstiMusica 2026 brings a series of events to Piazza Alfieri from 5 July, closing on 21 July: Enrico Brignano, Il Volo, Anastacia, Paolo Ruffini with the Compagnia Mayor Von Frinzius, OneRepublic, Litfiba, Salmo, Pooh, Fiorella Mannoia, Giorgia, Bluvertigo, Stefano Nazzi and Morrissey. This is the 29th edition and the third consecutive year in Piazza Alfieri, an open-air stage within the city.

Here too, the choice of a central square can be an advantage, because an urban festival has more possibilities to communicate with public transport, pedestrian routes, local activities and orderly management of access.

Kalemana Festival, Punta Marina Terme, 12-13 September

Kalemana Festival will be held on 12 and 13 September 2026 in Punta Marina Terme, Ravenna, at Club del Sole. It is an event built around yoga, music, sport, wellness, art, spirituality and mindfulness, with a village surrounded by nature and activities on the beach.

It’s one of those festivals that speak directly to the contemporary desire to slow down, breathe, get away from the everyday noise. The marine context, the outdoor activities and the village surrounded by nature make the relationship with the place central: beach, sea, movement, bodies, music and wellness practices enter into the same story. In events of this type, sustainability also involves a form of daily attention, made of lighter movements, more conscious consumption, respect for common spaces and care of the place that hosts the experience.

Evanland, Assisi, 25-26 July

Evanland takes place on 25 and 26 July at the Rocca Maggiore in Assisi, within the Riverock exhibition. It is the festival created by Gio Evan and dedicated to the inner world, awareness, kindness, personal research. A meeting space for those who feel the need to stop, reconnect and share.

The link with sustainability here passes above all through the relationship with the place and the language of care. Evanland was born around awareness, kindness, personal research and connection, and the choice of the Rocca Maggiore in Assisi reinforces this dimension: a historical, open space, full of memory. In a similar context, attention and respect also become a way of temporarily inhabiting the place, leaving it a living part of the experience.

Festambiente, Rispescia, 5-9 August

Festambiente remains one of the most consistent references when it comes to summer events and the environment. The 2026 edition is scheduled from 5 to 9 August in Maremma, in Rispescia, with a program centered on the climate crisis, public policies, local communities and ecological transition. Here sustainability does not come as a side decoration, because the festival was born within the work of Legambiente and for years has tried to bring together culture, music, meetings, workshops, food and good practices.

The site indicates routes linked to the ecofestival, practical information, places and Ecoevents certification. It is a more recognizable formula than others, also because the environment here is not the nice theme of the evening. It is the supporting structure.

Alguer Summer Festival, Alghero, 25 July-23 August

The Alguer Summer Festival takes place from 25 July to 23 August at the Ivan Graziani Amphitheater in Alghero, Sardinia. The fifth edition brings to the stage Tommaso Paradiso, Stefano Nazzi, Litfiba, Fiorella Mannoia, Giorgio Panariello, Claudio Baglioni, Luca Carboni, Blanco, Il Volo, Mannarino, Madame, Marco Masini, Capo Plaza, Fulminacci, K-POP Is Coming, Caparezza and I Want to Return to the 90s.

The festival has an obvious characteristic: it is held in a scenic location, overlooking the Mediterranean, in a city that in summer thrives on the sea, tourism and evening walks. The Ivan Graziani Amphitheater becomes part of the experience, not just a space to set up the stage. Here sustainability also depends on the care with which the public crosses the venue, reaches it and leaves it after the concert. When music and landscape are together in moderation, the territory does not remain in the background.

The most credible summer events, when they talk about sustainability, are not those that declare themselves perfect. They are the ones who agree to be measured. Who say what they do, what is missing, what they will improve. Who understand a simple thing: a stage may last one evening, but the lawn, the square, the sea, the castle and the city remain there the next day.

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