Blackoutsabbath 2009

For singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, the 2003 New York blackout wasn’t just an exercise in basic living and old-fashioned face-to-face interaction – it inspired him to create a conceptual grassroots movement that aims to reduce energy use. Wainwright – best known commercially here for his melodramatic contribution to the Moulin Rouge soundtrack – promoted the organisation’s DIY goals with a non-amplified, candlelit concert in March, to be followed by Blackoutsabbath itself, which involves 12 hours of living like it’s 2009 BC (funnily enough, it falls on a Saturday this year).

The movement is still young – Wainwright held the first benefit concert last March in New York followed by an intimate gathering in Berlin in June, where fans were invited to a small candlelit party at the home of Wainwright and his partner Jörn Weisbrodt. ‘I felt like the whole environmental movement was getting a little too glitzy,’ Wainwright told New York magazine last February, ‘but my belief is that it really has to come from the individual.’

Refreshingly, there is no prerequisite cash donation or celeb charity album to buy. The main point is to live lowkey and reflect on your individual carbon footprint. To start out, www.blackoutsabbath.org has a list of steps for interested participants. Plan your day (including food – cooking isn’t an option) around ‘off-the-grid’ activities that are walk-, skate- or bike-friendly. Turn off all appliances and prep yourself with candles. At sunset, make a list of environmentally conscious goals to accomplish for the rest of the year. The idea of going without air-conditioning for 12 hours may seem suicidal to some – we suggest something cool like swimming (au naturel, if possible) or a small party with like-minded friends à la Wainwright/Weisbrodt (rooftops are good, if you have access to them). Holing up in the cinema and watching movies for six hours doesn’t count.

Of course, all of this sounds ridiculously simple to the point of being pedantic – it’s sad to think celebrity endorsement is required for people to pay attention to a straightforward why-didn’t-I-think-of-it-myself cause. Then again, Blackoutsabbath only works if you actually try to stick to your objectives – otherwise it’s just a lot of hot air.