'Once Was Enough': Massive Attack Rejected Performing At Coachella 2025

Massive Attack would have been great to see at next April’s Coachella music festival, but they denied the offer, citing the event’s environmental impact.

In a new interview with NME, Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja discussed the UK band’s ongoing commitment to reducing their carbon footprint and minimising the carbon emissions of live music events.

The Unfinished Sympathy act are currently promoting their Act 1.5 festival held in Liverpool, and reflected on their August event in Bristol, which showcased their “new standards of decarbonisation of live music.” Given Massive Attack’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions and Coachella being located in the desert and supposedly the antithesis to everything the band stands for, their position isn’t all that surprising.  

“We said no to Coachella for next year because, again, we’ve been there once [in 2006], and once was enough,” Del Naja began. “It’s in Palm Springs. It’s a golf resort built on a desert, run on a sprinkler system, using public water supplies. Mental. If you want to see something that’s the most ludicrous bit of human behaviour, it’s right there.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Del Naja also shared criticism for artists who hold residencies in Las Vegas, telling NME that Vegas is another “aviation destination” located in the desert.

When he was asked about the Sphere, Del Neja said the music venue is “a brilliant bit of infrastructure in the worst possible place it could be — in the worst setting in the world.”

In June, Massive Attack played their first show in five years.

Massive Attack’s last studio album, Heligoland, was released in 2010. It peaked at #8 in Australia and went Gold in the UK. In 2016, they released the Ritual Spirit EP, and in 2020, they shared the EP Eutopia, which is only available to listen to on the band’s YouTube channel as a series of music videos.

In the EP, the band discussed the need for global change amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, tax havens, and universal basic income. Special guests on Eutopia included Young Fathers, Algiers, and American poet Saul Williams.

Earlier this year, Massive Attack teamed up with Young Fathers and Fontaines D.C. and released the limited-edition vinyl EP, Ceasefire. The EP is a collection of songs that support Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in their emergency operations in Gaza and the West Bank.