[Week 7] Twist & Sprout

And now begins my annual winter break. So conditioned from academia am I that tools are downed effectively and completely until the new year. Traditionally this time has been spent balancing efforts between performance duties, perfecting my Christmas dinner strategy and panicking as I watch the Semester 1 marking mountain form into my first challenge of the new year. More recently this time has become much less academic focussed and instead polluted by private sector expectations on December turnaround times, trying to work out how best to tackle the demanding UK music industry Xmas party / award show circuit and coming to terms with everyone being back at work for the first Monday of the new year rather than the last week of January.

Me at the 2026 LIVE Awards

 This winter break will be different again, not least because I’ve set myself up with a fair bit of reading to do (see Week 6) which will need to be done before I take another pass at the PAF (see Week 5) before I return for the first week of January (skip to Week 8). There is also the fact I need to revise my reading list and incorporate new contexts into my PhD project plans - including the recent announcement that GHG and ISO were aligning around CO2e measurements as well as the MIT Climate Machine – a dual convenience and timeliness for which my PhD is already most grateful. This was not the only planning consideration I’ve needed to incorporate into my PAF preparation, with late 2025 seeing the launch of two major sector-based alliances: the Creative Industries Council and the Cultural Exchange Coalition. Both networks look to offer some great potential in facilitating international knowledge exchange and well as establishing better economic outcomes for the domestic music industry. It will be interesting to see where (and how) the potential outputs from any research could be scaled within these networks to bring greater impact to the projects, and greater visibility to Liverpool’s wider efforts.

If I am to make any kind of summative reflection heading into the holidays after my first semester at LJMU it’s that there is evidently a great opportunity to work within the city to create something unique and universal that might end up raising environmental standards for all. It is also a daunting and complex challenge which will need endorsement from academic, civic and commercial sectors to have any chance of success. The context in which this challenge must be met: a fledgling coalition within the live events sector attempting to unify in the face of multiple market-based pressures, is critical. To my knowledge no academic institution has attempted to establish best practice for sustainable music events, yet the market is already saturated with those who are happy to make those claims unevidenced. Outside of academia the sector is happy to lead the charge, and in many ways that’s what’s driven much of the innovation and improvement that the live event’s industry has seen in recent years. The problem is it’s just not happening quickly enough, with high-end solutions remaining firmly in the hands of the privileged few at the top of the live events industry. A more modern issue that has arisen from the current crop of sector service organisations attempting to establish standards by articulating recommendations via academic affiliations is that they are, to be kind, painfully unworkable. Unlike academia the private sector is about as adept at receiving critique as they are establishing serious science-based credentials. Some point to length of service “we’ve assessed events for 20 years” or scalability “we’re number one with events!” as evidence of their primacy in this field, further underscoring the sector’s lack of maturity in understanding the depth or research or scale of analysis required to facilitate meaningful change in policy.

Perhaps then the upcoming festive break will be a useful exercise for working within the shifting sands of a fragile events ecosystem which is under intense scrutiny from everyone who has been involved (and especially those who have not) with the recent UN Accelerator City activities. Ultimately, I believe any contribution this PhD makes over the next three years will be subsumed under the ultimate question as to whether Liverpool can make something substantial and perpetual from their UN coronation. No one will know until they release the initial documents and findings on January 12^th and I imagine that will form a large part of my new year’s reading as well as several upcoming entries to this record of my work.

For the immediate future I have a far more pressing challenge in terms of diplomacy: we’ve gone for a stuffed turkey breast this year (instead of the full bird) a move that has sent shockwaves rippling through some areas of the family, but ultimately it is a decision in which they have very little say.

If I can survive that radical rupture, then I look forward to the January restart.