By Juan Daniel Correa – for Clean Energy and Creative Music from Colombia
There are experiences that transcend. Festivals that are not only enjoyed, but also felt as a collective moment of transformation. Such was the Estéreo Picnic 2025 Festival.
A space where music met, once again, with sustainability. Where art and environmental commitment ceased to be parallel discourses to merge into the same emotion. Where a different world ceased to be a slogan to become, for a few days, a real possibility.
Broadcasting from Clean Energy and Creative Music of Colombia, this note arises from territories that I have traveled for years, and that today are connected: take it as a bridge between music and sustainability. Art -and this festival is a beautiful proof of that- has the ability to touch our souls and mobilize us. FEP 2025 didn’t just move me. It engaged me even more.
🌍 A historic step for Colombia
The big news, just weeks before the curtain opened, was that the Estéreo Picnic Festival, in its 2024 edition, marked a milestone for Colombia: it offset its carbon footprint. More than 2,400 tons of CO₂, generated by artists, production, assembly, transportation and attendees, were measured and offset with certified credits, in a process audited by ICONTEC and supported by international standards.
This achievement was possible thanks to the joint work of Páramo Impacta -the team that leads the sustainable vision of Páramo Presenta events- and Creatividad en Acción, the sustainable communications agency that I direct, in charge of building bridges, articulating alliances and giving visibility to the processes that make it possible for sustainability to stop being a promise and become a concrete action.
The compensation was made through The Community Forests, an alliance between Yauto, Carbo Sostenible and Terra Commodities, which promotes conservation projects led by indigenous communities in Caquetá and the Amazon. It is the Andoque, Huitoto and Muinane peoples who, for generations, have been protecting the forest and keeping it standing. Today, thanks to carbon credits, these territories are not only conserved: they generate real resources to strengthen health, access to water, housing, education and productive projects in harmony with the ecosystem. It is a bet for life, in which communities not only preserve their territory, but also advance in the realization of their own life plans.
🎥 A video, made by the great Niko Jacob, which told this story, was projected on the festival screens:
From the dance floor to the deepest jungle: this is how sustainability is lived when it is created with respect, nurtured with roots and built as a team. Together we are making profound art and protecting what matters most: life on the planet.
🌱 2025: we are still on that path
For this 2025 edition, we are also working to achieve carbon footprint offsetting. The measurement process is currently underway, and once completed, we hope to share more good news.
The commitment is firm. And it is based on a deep conviction: we believe in Environmental Economics as a way to build real, sustainable and shared solutions. We do not follow extreme environmentalism, nor do we embrace fanaticism that paralyzes. We know – with our feet on the ground – that events like this generate an impact. But that is precisely why we compensate for it: because it is possible to do it responsibly, with technical rigor and social sense.
And we do it where it matters most: in vital territories for the planet and its communities. In the Colombian Amazon, in Caquetá and the Amazon, where the true Guardians of the Forest live. There, each carbon credit is not just a number: it is an opportunity to conserve the ecosystem, strengthen community life and sustain a model that breathes balance.
We are not talking about perfect worlds here. We are talking about different worlds; possible worlds. Worlds where the city, artists, music, biodiversity and communities win. Worlds where sustainability is not a concept, but an ongoing practice. Worlds that are also ours.
🎶 The FEP is also music, and what music it is!
And moving on to the musical level -that which touches our deepest fibers and which, in the end, is what summons us- I share, among many sensations and emotions, some moments that I lived and that still resonate. Beyond the fan in me, the FEP 2025 was, musically, a true wonder. This was something that surprised me, moved me and made me vibrate:
Benson Boone was one of the most impressive I’ve seen in years. Not only does he sing with brutal force emulating Freddie Mercury, but he bounces, connects and thrills.
Olivia Rodrigo gave her all on stage. A powerful, emotional show, full of connection. Bogota gave her back her whole soul, and she -as she expressed with genuine surprise- was perhaps the most impacted by the energy of this city. It is enough to take a look at the networks to see the thousand and one sensations that her presentation left. Here we share one, at random, as a testimony of that unforgettable night:
Empire of the Sun took us far. Far away. Even beyond this world. It was a one-hour show, complete from beginning to end: powerful, overflowing, visually hypnotic. One of those shows that shake you, with all the good -and uncomfortable- that deep art brings. That which does not always have moral considerations, nor seeks to please everyone.
I was waiting for him a decade ago. I still had in my memory his previous presentation at FEP 2015, the one I experienced together with Charles King, “el palenquero fino”, a legend of Colombian champeta, with whom I have shared stage and road, as manager, for more than twenty years -and with whom, by the way, we have already played at FEP twice, the last one in 2018. It’s about time to come back.
I remember that, on that first time, after a tremendous show, the singer – at that time with short blond hair – closed the night by breaking his guitar, Hendrix or Cobain style, and Charles was deeply offended. Charles was deeply offended, and he wasn’t the only one. Why would someone who makes his living from music, who makes his instrument an extension of his soul, destroy it like that? It took me years to process it.
And this time, in 2025, history repeated itself, but elevated to a higher power. Luke Steele, now with long black hair past his shoulders, put on a blistering show of costumes, staging and theatricality. He closed with a guitar countermarked with phrases like “Flow Colombia”… and broke it again. Ovation for some. Snub for others. That’s art. So are artists.
And what do we say about sustainability? Perhaps we could imagine campaigns where, every time an artist breaks a guitar, three, five or ten are donated to young people in need. But the gesture should not become an incentive, but a symbol of something else. I don’t know.
What I do know is that this -all this- is part of what we call a different world. An imperfect world, yes, but profoundly real. And deeply ours.
Image taken from Dod Magazine
And more:
Justin Timberlake brought an impressive band, very good sound, a lot of style. Undoubtedly a pleasant surprise.
Astropical, the new project of Bomba Stéreo and Rawayana, very sábroso. It has stayed in the heart.
Beck, beautiful. Classic. Legandary. A show that reconfirms why some artists never go out of style.
Teddy Swims, Bacano! Close, generous on stage.
Alanis Morissette, Powerful! A voice that continues to cross generations.
Arde Bogotá, interesting. I barely caught up with them, but the little I saw left a trace.
Tool, overwhelming! Pure sonic and visual journey.
Justice, luminous and powerful.
And Rüfüs Du Sol, enveloping. Difficult to get them out of the body and soul. With them I close this section, with a wonderful concert from other latitudes – Joshua Tree – that makes us dream and leaves us dreaming of the dream of a living FEP:
This is just some of what remained with me. Because, in the end, everyone lived their own FEP. In a different world, what is most abundant are different visions. And that is also part of the magic.
A constellation of sounds, genres and generations. Everyone put together their own emotional lineup. Mine, undoubtedly, stays forever.
♻️ Sustainability can also be danced
The Estéreo Picnic Festival continues to take decisive steps towards sustainability. And you can feel it. It is noticeable. And it is appreciated. Because beyond the compensation -which is also underway for this edition-, what we saw was a festival that does not pretend to be perfect, but increasingly conscious. A festival that walks, that transits. As the word indicates: in transition (as energetics should also be). Without dogmas, without absolutes. But with steps that count. And with steps that add up.
I visited several of the 135 environmental points of the festival, and it was inspiring to see the work of the eco guardians: they informed, guided, motivated. I saw attendees separating waste correctly, without anyone forcing them, simply because they understood. That is the sustainability that remains: the one that is learned, not the one that is imposed.
I used one of the reusable cups, and I noticed the effort to recover those of past editions to give them new life. This idea of re-circulating objects, of giving them a new cycle instead of throwing them away, is consistent with everything we promote at Clean Energy.
I especially appreciated a simple but significant action: the separate toilets for men and women. A gesture that may seem minor, but that brings peace of mind -especially to women- and speaks of care, respect, of details that also build wellbeing.
And when I arrived at the Páramo Impacta Village, in addition to finding environmental education alive, ideas circulating and conversations that leave a mark, I felt something important for me and for Energía Limpia: there was solar generation. A small installation, yes, but powerful. A clear sign of where we can go.
It is a concrete, firm advance. Hopefully in future editions it will be expanded. May it inspire to measure, to improve, to optimize. To imagine a FEP that, step by step, moves towards the use of clean energy and adopts energy efficiency practices that make the festival not only a festival, but also a model.
It’s not about appearing sustainable. It’s about being sustainable. On the move. In action. And with joy.
✨ The power of bringing two worlds together.
For me, this festival was much more than a production or a cause. It was the opportunity to bring together again two worlds that define me: music and sustainability.
Two languages that embrace each other when there is purpose. That are enhanced when there is sensitivity. And that transform us when they meet.
🌎 A different world, increasingly ours
A different world is not a fantasy. It is this. It is today. It’s every step we take to make things better. Not perfect. Better.
From Clean Energy and Creative Music of Colombia, we celebrate what was achieved in 2024. We accompany what is being done in 2025. And we bet on what is to come: more art, more territory, more life.
Thanks to those who made it possible.
Thanks to those who lived it with emotion and commitment.
Thanks to those who believe -like me- that a festival can be more than just music.
It can also be a seed.
An action.
A shared history.
A different world that we are already creating.
Long live music, long live sustainability and long live Festival Estéreo Picnic!
