Australian indie favourites Lime Cordiale have announced a new climate-focused live music event, unveiling the inaugural Lime Green Festival, a one-day, off-grid festival designed to place environmental action at the centre of the live music experience.
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Set to take place on April 18 at Point Malcolm Reserve in Semaphore, Adelaide, the festival is being presented in partnership with Chugg Music and supported by the South Australian Government and City of Charles Sturt. According to organisers, Lime Green is being developed as a 100% off-grid event, with the goal of significantly reducing the environmental footprint typically associated with large-scale live music festivals.
Lime Cordiale brothers Oli and Louis Leimbach said the project emerged from years of questioning the environmental impact of touring and live events.
“From the accelerating loss of polar ice to the devastating algal blooms currently choking the South Australian coast, it is impossible to ignore that our climate is at a breaking point,” the duo said in a statement. “For the last five years, we’ve wrestled with a deep, personal dilemma as environmentalists: Is our touring contributing to the problem? Does it still make sense in a world that’s hurting?”
They added that the answer, for them, was not to stop touring, but to change how it is done.
Lime Green Festival is being positioned as both a music event and a community-driven platform, incorporating live performances alongside talks, workshops and interactive activations focused on regenerative practices and climate innovation. Organisers say the festival is intended to explore how live events can operate more sustainably, particularly in regional and coastal locations.
A major focus of the event will be its power infrastructure, with plans to run the main stage off-grid through a partnership with Aggreko, using industrial-scale mobile batteries backed by vegetable-oil generators. Additional initiatives include eliminating single-use plastics, prioritising re-use systems, offering renewable catering solutions, and encouraging low-emission transport options for attendees.
Food and beverage vendors will be curated to prioritise local, organic and carbon-neutral operators, with surplus food donated to charities and free drinking water available on site.
The Lime Green Festival line-up will be headlined by Lime Cordiale alongside The Dreggs, aleksiah and PASH, with an additional slot reserved for a triple j Unearthed winner. Further performance opportunities will be offered to emerging local artists through partnerships with the City of Charles Sturt and the band directly.
Formed in 2009, Lime Cordiale have released multiple albums, received 12 ARIA nominations and two wins, and toured extensively across Australia and internationally. The band said Lime Green builds on environmental initiatives they have already integrated into their touring model over recent years.
The festival will also incorporate the Solar Slice initiative, led by FEAT, which directs $1 from every ticket sold toward climate and nature-based projects. Funds raised from Lime Green will support a South Australian community-led response to the ongoing algal bloom affecting the state’s coastline.
South Australian Minister for Tourism Zoe Bettison described the festival as “a significant step forward for the arts industry and our planet,” while Minister for Climate, Environment and Water Lucy Hood said the initiative aligns with the state’s leadership in renewable energy and support for coastal communities.
Oli and Louis Leimbach said they see Lime Green as an evolving experiment rather than a finished solution.
“This is a genuine attempt to discover what is possible,” they said. “We aren’t claiming to be perfect; we will make mistakes along the way, but we are trying. We’re inviting you to be part of this experiment.”
Presale tickets for Lime Green Festival go on sale at 9 a.m. AEDT on Wednesday, Jan. 21, with general tickets available from 9 a.m. AEDT on Friday, Jan. 23. The event is licensed and all-ages.
