When Music and Baseball Share the Same Field
Myles Smith for Innings Festival 2026, photo by Dusana Risovic
Innings Festival and the Artists Shaping Sustainability at Scale
By late afternoon, the Arizona sun had softened just enough for the crowd to press closer to the stage. Fans in vintage jerseys leaned against the barricade while lines formed near the left field activation, people stepping up to test their arm against an 80 mile per hour pitch. The crowd kicked to life as Congress took the stage.
Innings Festival lives in that overlap. A park with live music layered over baseball culture. Nostalgia and momentum sharing the same air.
Sustainability matters in spaces like this because culture moves through repetition. When thousands of people refill water instead of reaching for plastic bottles, choose plant based meals alongside traditional ballpark staples, or sort their waste without thinking twice, those behaviors travel home with them.
Stepping Onto Bigger Stages
Blink 182 or Innings Festival 2026, photo by Nathan Zucker
Backstage, Congress had just stepped off one of the biggest sets of their career.
“It feels like a dream. Being here at our first real festival, seeing all these people come out and support us, it’s awesome,” drummer Jett Seawell told us just minutes after their set. “I never planned on playing drums professionally. Now I’m on a stage at a sports-themed festival. It’s full circle.”
Jeremy with the band Congress
For Jett, who grew up playing baseball and football, the setting felt especially fitting. Selling out two nights at the Windjammer, nearly 2,500 people total, marked a turning point and playing Innings was an apex moment in their career. Their latest release, Bay Street, signals what comes next.
Common People with Jeremy and Eric
Across the grounds, Common People reflected on how their own climb unfolded gradually..
“It wasn’t some big master plan. Let’s play a show. Let’s record and tour. This festival is our first stop on the tour, so it’s almost like our spring training.”
Following Innings, the band kicks off a 64 day tour with Rainbow Kitten Surprise.
The Backfires told a similar story of persistence.
“Consistency. You just can’t stop. Seeing someone in the crowd wearing your band’s jacket or your debut album title on their back, that’s unreal. You want to keep going.”
After moving to New York, they lived together and committed themselves to writing and playing as often as possible.
Behind the Right Field stage, we spoke with Eve 6 about longevity in music. They began playing together in ninth grade, and their first record followed soon after.
Decades later, their songs still echo through baseball spaces.
“We had a player who used to walk up to ‘Anytime.’ They even requested a recording of it specifically for that purpose.”
Music and sports continue to reinforce each other.
Designing Culture at Scale
As the weekend unfolded, the sustainability efforts woven into the festival became visible.
Tens of thousands gathered in one place. At that scale, systems shape behavior.
Common People framed it clearly.
“The bigger the organization, the more impact you have. If large festivals set the example, more change can happen.”
They described festivals as something larger than a show.
“A festival is kind of like a mini city. There are so many facets of production. Having festivals take initiative to make it a good experience, and a good experience that helps the planet, matters.”
They pointed to operational changes that can compound.
“I notice it in little things like refill stations or recyclable cans, just in terms of how the festival’s run. These days, you don’t see a bunch of plastic bottles. When you multiply that over thousands of fans over the weekend, that’s a lot of plastic and a lot of trash
Those small adjustments scale quickly.
For Congress, the clean grounds in Arizona prompted reflection on home.It was their first time playing in Arizona, and between sets, they noticed how clean the field remained, even with thousands of fans moving across it.
That attention to detail made them think about Charleston.
“In South Carolina, we talk about saving the turtles. If a sea turtle sees a plastic bag, it thinks it’s a jellyfish. Who doesn’t love sea turtles?”
Growing up along the coast also makes preventing waste personal.
“We have a lot of boat days back home. When you park your boat on the beach, pick up your trash. Don’t just bury the cans in the sand. Just be better than that. Without the environment, we wouldn’t have this festival. It’s our world. You gotta keep it clean.”
Large festivals and the music industry depend on healthy spaces. Reducing plastic waste protects the environments that make gatherings like this possible.
The Backfires pushed the sustainability conversation further. They see food as one of the most meaningful levers festivals can pull.
“I think food is a very important focus. A lot of festivals are bringing in local vendors and thinking about how that food is created. That emphasis can make a real difference.”
They apply that thinking internally as well.
“We upcycled an old band tee of ours that we had. The merch company we work with actually has a focus on sustainability, which is part of the reason we chose them.”
Instead of discarding inventory, they reworked it into limited pieces.
At this scale, those decisions ripple outward.
Where Sustainability
Met the Moment
Backfires and Plant Futures
Moving between stages, the infrastructure behind the weekend became clear.
Rock and Recycle stations were positioned throughout the grounds, making waste sorting straightforward. The festival gave out 200+ t-shirts to fans who had filled up 5 gallon bags full of recycling, diverting more than a 1000lbs of waste. Clear water refill stations reduced plastic waste in the Arizona heat. Bike racks filled early. Across the vendor rows, plant based versions of ballpark classics sat alongside traditional staples.
When tens of thousands gather in one place, clear water refill stations and plenty of plant based options help make sustainability at scale feel seamless.
A Park That Felt Like
a Ballgame and a Concert
By Sunday night, the sun dropped behind the park and the lights took over. Fans in jerseys packed the field as Sublime carried the evening forward. Later, Blink-182 closed the weekend, their sound stretching across a park that felt like a ballgame and a concert at once.
As Common People put it, “Sports and music overlap because there’s a communal thing to it. People rally behind their team. People rally behind their band.”
At the Left Field Stage, Former Professional Baseball Player Ryan Dempster commented on how music is entrenched in sports. From “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”, players’ walk-up songs, and the music played throughout the game add to the experience almost as much as the game itself does.
At Innings, sustainability ran through that shared space quietly, built into the structure of the weekend rather than set apart from it.
And before heading back to the stage, each band left us with the same reminder:
Plants are the future. Eat more plants!
