Ultra Music Festival is set to reach a historic milestone at its 2026 edition, as its award-winning sustainability program Mission: Home prepares to deliver the first large-scale festival stage in the United States powered without any onsite greenhouse gas emissions. The groundbreaking initiative will debut next week at the festival’s RESISTANCE Cove Stage, marking a major evolution in live event production.
In an industry where diesel generators remain the standard, Ultra Music Festival is turning to innovative battery technology. The RESISTANCE Cove Stage will run on Showpower’s SmartGrid™ Battery System, charged באמצעות existing grid infrastructure to eliminate onsite emissions entirely. Designed specifically for large-scale festivals, the system ensures full reliability across audio, lighting, and visual production. Showpower has previously deployed similar solutions on a global scale, including powering 86 stadium shows across 16 countries for Coldplay.
“Each year, we push ourselves to think bigger, and this next chapter reflects how collaboration, innovation, and culture are coming together to create lasting impact,” said Vivian Belzaguy Hunter, Sustainability Director at Ultra Music Festival.
The initiative forms part of REVERB’s Music Decarbonization Project, a program launched to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuel-powered production. For more than two decades, REVERB has partnered with artists and festivals to reduce environmental impact, positioning projects like this as a blueprint for the industry.
“Ultra’s deployment is exactly the kind of forward-thinking action the industry needs,” said Adam Gardner. “By partnering with Showpower to bring battery-powered technology to a major electronic festival, Ultra is proving that climate solutions can enhance live music production.”
The RESISTANCE Cove Stage marks the next phase in Ultra’s ongoing transition toward cleaner energy. In 2025, the festival collaborated with CES Power and Showpower to shift multiple stages—including UMF Radio, Oasis, and the Live Stage—to grid power, significantly reducing fossil fuel usage. With the addition of battery-powered technology in 2026, four of the festival’s stages will now operate without generators, meaning the majority of Ultra’s stages are officially onsite emission-free.
The SmartGrid system will be supported onsite by CES Power, which manages temporary power distribution and integrates the battery technology into the festival’s existing infrastructure. This collaboration follows years of data collection and planning, with both companies working closely to optimize energy efficiency and reduce carbon output across the event.
“For the past six years, Showpower’s team has worked closely with Ultra and CES Power to develop intelligent and sustainable power solutions as part of Mission: Home,” said Paul Schurink. “This year, Ultra’s RESISTANCE Cove Stage provides the greatest opportunity to do that, replacing a generator with a battery system charged by grid power.”
The expansion of emission-free stages continues the rapid momentum of Mission: Home, which has become one of the most recognized sustainability programs in global festival culture. In 2025, Ultra Music Festival earned the prestigious “Greener Festival” certification from A Greener Future and was the only U.S. festival nominated for an International AGF Award. The festival was also named to IQ Magazine’s 2025 Green Guardians list, alongside artists like Coldplay and Massive Attack.
Since launching in 2019, Mission: Home has delivered measurable impact, educating more than 8.2 million people worldwide, diverting nearly 400,000 pounds of waste from landfills, and redistributing over 84,000 pounds of food and supplies to the local community. The program has expanded from 20 initiatives in its first year to more than 60 by 2025.
New additions for 2026 include a reusable souvenir cup pilot supported by Red Bull and the “Mission: Home Cleanup Countdown” in partnership with Clean Vibes. The initiative will encourage fans to assist cleanup crews after performances, offering exclusive Ultra merchandise to participants who collect and return waste within a timed window.
“Mission: Home has grown into something much bigger than a sustainability program… it’s become a powerful platform for inspiring action, building community, and showing what’s possible at scale,” added Vivian Belzaguy Hunter.
As Mission: Home enters its sixth year, Ultra Music Festival continues to demonstrate that large-scale electronic events can lead the way in environmental responsibility. With innovations like emission-free stages and community-driven initiatives, the festival is helping redefine what the future of live music can look like—both on and off the dancefloor.