The O2, which is owned and operated by AEG Europe, has announced a series of new measures to make the world’s most popular music, leisure and entertainment venue even more sustainable for fans, bands and brands.
Coinciding with the venue’s 15th birthday and Billie Eilish bringing her ‘Happier Than Ever’ tour to the venue this month, alongside a cross-campus climate festival Overheated, The O2 will be implementing various changes within the arena to reduce single-use plastic, promote a plant-based menu, and better enable customers to make informed and responsible choices.
Within The O2 arena, together with the venue’s catering partner Levy UK + Ireland, the venue has committed to going 100 per cent vegan on all available food items for the six Billie Eilish shows, with The O2 being the only venue on Eilish’s UK tour to make this commitment. Working with the artist and tour team on their Green Rider, The O2 has gone above and beyond in delivering every requirement and surpassing in certain areas, including a fully vegan food offering available for fans on both the concourses and on suite level, and the removal of non-vegan food items from the menus. Following Eilish’s run, The O2 will continue with a plant-forward philosophy, which will see the concession stand staple ‘beef burger’ being removed from the menu permanently.
Through its partnership with Levy, The O2 arena is also working with Klimato to calculate, communicate and report the climate impact of the food available for fans to purchase, to enable them to make conscious and sustainable choices – a first for a venue of this scale.
This commitment to go fully plant-based for Eilish’s shows at The O2 arena has also been supported by The O2’s venue partners, with drinks sold in the arena by Budweiser Brewing Group and Champagne Lanson already offering vegan products, and Nestlé providing vegan sweets and alternative vegan milks at the NESCAFÉ Azera Coffee Shop.
