Climate protest with piano: This is how Leipzig fights against CO2 emissions!

Climate protest with piano: This is how Leipzig fights against CO2 emissions!

As part of the 2025 Bach Festival, which begins in Leipzig today, the challenges of climate change and the need for sustainable thinking have come into focus. Leipzig climate groups have planned a creative protest campaign that draws attention to the high climate load due to the arrival of the numerous festival goers. Last year, a piano wing with motor power was moved through the city because the police classified the pushing with muscle strength as too dangerous. This campaign is to be continued this year.

The Bachfest is an international festival in which around 40% of guests come from abroad. A considerable part of the more than 100,000 guests travels from far away, which results in a high CO2 load. In order to counteract this problem, the Bachwald project was launched. This is a reforestation initiative on Lake Störmthaler, where a former tipping grounds have been reforested since 2022. So far, 15 hectares of forest have been planted, and a total of 18 hectares are financed by the project.

The climate pass and its meaning

Another step to improve the CO2 balance is the introduction of the climate pass that replaces the former festival Card. With the purchase of a climate pass, the price of which is staggered after the arrival route and is between 15 and 110 euros, trees are planted in the Bachwald, which contributes to the compensation of CO2 emissions. So far, income of 25,000 euros has been achieved through the sale of the climate pass, which flow directly into the Bachwald and not to the festival budget. The festival itself has a high awareness of its CO2 footprint, especially in view of the average travel distances from international guests who are around 840 km for Europe and even at 8.773 km outside of Europe.

A newly planted tree stores around 200 kg of CO2 in the first 20 years, while fully fully grown trees can bind between 12 and 29 kg of CO2 annually, depending on the tree species. The climate pass "world" enables buyers to plant 22 trees that can contribute to reducing their own CO2 emissions over a period of 20 years. This approach is also supported by specific events, such as the climate concert that will take place on June 20th.

planned protest action

On June 13, 2024, a group of activists organized a protest campaign on the millennium field in Lindenau. It is planned that a piano will be pushed with muscle strength while music is played by Bach. The route leads via Karl-Heine-Straße to the Sachsenbrücke, where a special music session takes place, which symbolically visualizes the global warming of the recent decades due to the impressive "warming stripes".

After the performance on the Sachsenbrücke, a protest in the city center is organized to the Leipzig marketplace. The arrival there is planned for 6 p.m., followed by an official program design from 6:30 p.m. Contacts with the Bridges Chamber Orchestra for the musical framework from 7 p.m. there are already an impressive experience. This initiative not only addresses Bach's music, but also the urgent ecological questions that shape our age.