Massive Attack, Nile Rodgers and Idles to play M&S Bank Arena to celebrate Liverpool's climate action success

Three special gigs will take place in Liverpool this November to mark today’s announcement at UN Headquarters in New York that Liverpool is the world’s first ‘UN Accelerator City’ for climate action.

Massive Attack, Nile Rodgers and Idles will play liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena this November in a series of concerts entirely powered by 100% renewable energy.

Last month, Act 1.5 hosted their first large-scale climate action accelerator in Bristol that sought to completely reimagine how music events can be staged. The all-day outdoor event headlined by Massive Attack, delivered an unprecedented network of decarbonisation methods across all scopes, and was the first practical phase of work designed with scientists from the renowned Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.

Today, they are announcing ‘Act 1.5 presents…’ a weekend of live music and events. From 28th – 30th November, Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena will host Massive Attack, IDLES and Nile Rodgers.

This unique series of shows are being staged to mark today’s announcement at UN Headquarters in New York that Liverpool is the world’s first ‘UN Accelerator City’ for climate action – an accolade to recognise the project and the city’s commitment to technical innovation and smart regulation to rapidly decarbonise the live music and TV/Film production sectors.

Building on the methods first trialled in Bristol, and continuing their partnership with clean energy provider Ecotricity, ‘Act 1.5 presents…’ will test, operate & adapt a range of measures to dramatically reduce the level of carbon emissions & air pollution that would usually be produced at an event of this scale.

These include:

– A localised presale period for anyone living in the Liverpool City Region from 12.00 Wednesday 25th September.

– An entire event site powered entirely by 100% renewable energy.

– A public transport incentive initiative in partnership with Merseytravel, Avanti West Coast and Trans Pennine Express that will generate a vital reduction in audience travel emissions (where up to 80% of emissions for major live music events are generated)

– A meat free arena

– 100% zero to landfill waste removal

– “Plug & Play” Single Technical set Up shared by each act

– Show to end earlier than standard at 22:00 to allow audiences to use public transport to get home

Music icon Nile Rodgers said:

“Some of the greatest CHIC shows have taken place in Liverpool so I’m thrilled that we are bringing our funk back to the city. We love the people and it’s always a night to remember. However, the circumstances this time are special, as we’re joining forces with our friends in Massive Attack to launch Liverpool’s UN climate action programme across music and film. Our We Are Family Foundation community of global youth changemakers have been sounding the alarm and working in the climate change space for years, as have Massive Attack, and now it’s time for all of the music and film communities to get onboard. Yes, we’re going to have a party at Liverpool Arena, but we’re also going to act!”

The first block release will be available to those that live in the Liverpool City region, with an exclusive 48-hour regional presale taking place between 12:00 on Wednesday 25th September and 12:00 on Friday 27 September.

For these ticket buyers, an additional small but fixed fee will be added to your gig ticket to cover your public transport to the event. This will mean that on the day of your show, you can enjoy unlimited travel on any train, any bus or any ferry on the Merseytravel network – all day – getting you to and from the show.

It’s estimated that 500 cars = 1 train so this unique TAG ticket (Travel and Gig) is a vital part of the experimental nature of these shows: participating in this experiment will keep Merseyside air cleaner for the people that live here, and significantly draw down dangerous greenhouse gases.

If you live within the Liverpool City region, then get tickets here.

In the second block release of tickets, all fans will be able to purchase tickets from 12.00 on Friday 27th September. Offers and incentives on public transport from outside the region – especially rail travel – will be shared with buyers via their ticketing agent.

For general sales (opening at 12:00 on Friday 27th) visit the website here.