Salem-based artist Zak Peters has been redefining concert stage design by incorporating plants as living decor through his service, Play to the Plants. Since its inception in 2021, the venture has gained traction across Greater Boston and Austin, Texas, offering a natural alternative to traditional stage aesthetics often dominated by digital screens and elaborate props.
Peters’s approach involves outfitting venues with an assortment of houseplants and occasionally larger shrubs, selected and rented from local nurseries. His botanical choices vary by event and include species such as orange heliconias, hot pink bougainvillea, and begonias. The plants serve not only as visual accents but also as organic elements that complement the music and atmosphere. Peters credits his upbringing—helping his mother with garden work and benefiting from her role as the head of Nahant’s beautification committee—for fostering his plant-care expertise.
The concept for Play to the Plants originated in Peters’s former home, where he observed cannabis plants thriving in the presence of synthesizer-heavy music. This observation evolved into bringing greenery into live performances, initially through poetry and music livestreams held in his basement. While local Boston venues were initially hesitant to embrace the idea, Peters found a more receptive audience after relocating to Austin in 2021. There, state cannabis regulations prompted a shift to houseplants, and the service quickly became a presence at music festivals such as Austin Psych Fest and Levitation.
Play to the Plants has also provided plant installations for a range of artists and settings, from punk bands like Teenage Bottlerocket performing at Providence’s Alchemy club to psychedelic acts including The Flaming Lips at Austin Psych Fest. Wu-Tang Clan member GZA offered humorous praise for the plant-lined stage during a performance with Inspectah Deck in Austin. The concept carries on in Boston’s music scene following Peters’s return to Salem last year, with recent shows at Deep Cuts and Royale and an upcoming benefit performance scheduled for Aug. 23 at Off Cabot in Beverly. The benefit will support Reilly Somach of the Boston rock band the Rupert Selection, who is undergoing cancer treatment.
Rob Fitzpatrick, cofounder of the Levitation festival, described Peters’s contributions as integral to the event’s identity, noting that the plant installations “transform our stages into living environments,” grounding performances in nature. This connection, Fitzpatrick said, aligns with the longstanding relationship between psychedelic music and the natural world.
Despite maintaining a core team in Austin, Peters plans to return there for upcoming events, including Levitation 2024, where he aims to complement the stage aesthetics of acts like Sleep, Bikini Kill, and the Quebecois math-rock duo Angine de Poitrine.
The Play to the Plants service highlights a growing interest in environmentally conscious, tactile aesthetics within live music, offering an alternative to high-tech spectacle by bringing the natural world directly into the concert experience.