This folk band trekked across Wales by foot in the name of sustainable touring

Despite walking 1,400 kilometres across Wales in an effort to make their concert tour more environmentally sustainable, both members of Filkin’s Drift say they’ve made it to the end of their journey sans pain or blisters.

“My feet are holding up very well, actually,” Seth Bye, the band’s fiddler, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

“I’ve got no aches and pains despite having walked so far.”

Bye, along with Chris Roberts — the band’s other half — and a third friend set out on the cross-Wales tour by foot in early September. After spending 59 days on the road, playing 50 shows and weathering two storms, the pair finally made their way home on Wednesday.

Tours can be tough on the planet — often requiring fuel-guzzling tour buses or private jets to get artists between stops. Both members of the Birmingham-based folk duo say it’s time those in the music industry rethink how touring is done to make it a more sustainable practice.

“There’s many artists that are doing these massive tours [with] so many vehicles and cars on the road, and we wondered if there was a better way to make music,” Bye said.

‘A bit like big a puzzle’

From concept to execution, the walking tour took about a year of planning, according to Roberts.

“It was a bit like a big puzzle, trying to fill all the gaps and work out how many miles we could do per day,” he said. In the end, the group decided to follow the Wales Coast Path — a scenic foot trail that runs along the coastline of Wales — trekking about 24 kilometres (or 15 miles) each day.

Travelling by foot meant packing light while still trying to plan for the elements. Each band member carried their own instrument on their back, plus some audio equipment, CDs to sell at their gigs and two outfits — one for hiking and one for performances.

“We’ve turned up to some shows, our waterproof stuff soaked through, dripping wet [and we] have 15 minutes to stand under a hand dryer, dry off and then carry on as if nothing happened,” said Bye.

While the weather in Wales is unpredictable at the best of times, Roberts said in September and October it’s especially so.

“You just have to be ready for anything, basically,” he said.

The heatwave that hung around for the first few weeks of their trip gave way to 70-kilometre winds and harsh rain not long after.

Roberts said the Wales Coast Path allowed the group to spot a lot of wildlife — a pod of dolphins, a few baby seals and many kinds of birds — even if the route wasn’t the most direct.

“Every single day, within those 15 miles, there’d be so much that we would see,” he said. “And I think that made me really proud to come from a country that, a, has that, and b, recognizes it and looks after it as well.”

WATCH | Folk duo walk the Wales Coast Path:

Reimagining the band tour

Bye says that concert culture, especially when it comes to big artists, needs to change.

“Sure, we need big venues to play in, but is there a more sustainable way that routes can be planned? And the amount of waste that will go into a concert, can we rethink that and produce things in a more environmentally friendly way?” asked Bye.

In an effort to “act on a more local basis,” Bye and Roberts played a range of venues — from pubs and churches, to art galleries and even a wetland conservation centre.

Rather than playing multiple nights in a row in a large city centre, forcing many fans from smaller towns to travel far distances to see artists play, Bye says tours could be more sustainable if artists played a handful of smaller venues in smaller surrounding towns.

While artists tend to be creative, Roberts says they haven’t translated that out-of-the-box thinking into coming up with new venues to play shows at.

Despite that, Filkin’s Drift’s sets at conservation centres or on farms were highly successful shows, according to Roberts.

“[Music] shouldn’t just be in the concert hall. It should be, you know, in the hearts of communities, wherever that might be.”