Lime Cordiale on Music, Sustainability and Their New Festival, Lime Green
Lime Cordiale are bringing more than just tunes to South Australia in April — they’re bringing an entire vibe. Brothers Oli and Louis Leimbach are launching Lime Green, a new festival, where music meets sustainability in the best possible way. Think off-grid stages, killer local talent, and a festival that’s as conscious as it is electric.
Set against the scenic backdrop of Point Malcolm Reserve in Semaphore on April 18, 2026, Lime Green will feature Lime Cordiale, along with The Dreggs, Adelaide favourites Aleksiah and PASH, and a Triple J Unearthed High winner. It’s a line-up that promises to fuse music, community, and culture with a serious eco-friendly heartbeat.
We sat down with Oli Leimbach this week to talk everything from the band’s new music and influences to their green initiatives and, of course, the festival that’s putting sustainability front and centre. Lime Green isn’t just a day of music — it’s a statement, and these guys are leading the charge.
For anyone who hasn’t heard a Lime Cordiale song, how would you describe your music?
It’s pretty tricky for us to describe our own music. We have a lot of soul influences, surf rock influences. In the early days, we started playing reggae, but then we loved super pop music, classical and jazz. So we try to bring all of that in, and I think having a bit of a classical background and being wind players when we were younger, it brings in a lot of those influences, as well.
So I don’t really like just calling us an indie rock or indie pop band, myself. We get described as a whole lot of things.
Going on that, are there any artists who influence your music at the moment?
It’s always changing. We’re in the middle of recording our fourth album, and at the very beginning, there were influences of certain things that were coming out, like Jungle and people like Raye. There’s also Geese, from New York, who are popular at the moment, and you listen to all of that, and that is really inspiring — so it’s always changing. Even probably for the first time since high school, I’ve been getting into some heavier stuff like Turnstile. Then we go back to what we’ve been listening to for a while, and might listen to some Amy Winehouse. We’re pulling influence from a whole bunch of places.
What is your favourite song to perform live?
Often the new ones. So songs from our new album, like Cold Treatment and Enough Of The Sweet Talk. I mean, I guess they’re the ones I sing, instead of the ones Louis sings, but nah, there’s ones like Love Is Off The Table — that’s really fun, Louis and I get to whip out the saxophone and the trumpet. At the same time, for some reason, the most popular one is our song, Inappropriate Behaviour — everyone loves to go on the shoulders for that one. I don’t know what it is about that song, but that’s always awesome to see from the stage.
When things get busy or overwhelming, what helps you both to reset creatively?
Probably just recharging the batteries, you know? Some people can just power through, but I think we like to get out into nature and probably just go surfing to recharge, and then you sort of come back firing.
When we were a bit younger, I think we’d like to let our hair down by drinking and going out all night, but now it’s more sophisticated. We play so many shows in a year, so you have to keep it sustainable with your health and things like that. It’s nice to get outside and get active. Boring shit, haha.
Do you boys have a pre-show ritual?
We like to hype eachother up. Louis, he sings pretty hard each night, so he’s got these crazy vocal warm-ups and exercises he does. I do them as well, but not so much. Then, it really depends on where we are — it’s nice to have a good day out in the city. Like, if you’re somewhere like Amsterdam, it’s pretty hard not to forget about the gig when you’re wandering around in bars and restaurants. No specific pre-show ritual, besides just warming up and getting ready. But we have been known to walk off the streets right onto the stage before as well.
Image: Provided
Going into Lime Green. Did you guys always have dreams of starting your own festival?
Yeah. We did have our own festival booked, which COVID-19 cancelled a while back. This one’s a bit different because it’s got a whole new ambition to it. During COVID, Louis and I were on our farm, so that whole period, we got really involved in farming in a responsible, regenerative way, and we got really localised and domesticated, in a way.
Then, when COVID restrictions were lifted, and you had to make up for all of your touring, we realised how heavy our carbon footprint was. So, since then, we’ve been striving to pull it back. At one point, we were like, Should we stop touring? But at another point, we thought, maybe we can be a carbon-neutral band, then you realise, well, you can’t really do world tours and be carbon-neutral.
It’s been all about trying to tackle things from the ground up and redesign the narrative and traditions that have been put in place for so long.
What acts of sustainability do you try to do whilst on tour?
Up until now, we’ve tried to look at every aspect. With something like merchandise, that’s an easy one for bands starting out who maybe haven’t got heaps of money. Think about where it’s getting made. Is it full of micro-plastics or does it use a lot of energy and water? Is it cotton, or can you go with hemp?
Can you communicate with the venue you're playing at and see if they are running off renewable energy or have any interest in changing? People will change if everyone is requesting it.
One of the coolest things that I feel like we’ve done is that we’ve always gone with the same bus company in Europe. We found another bus company that can run its buses on biodiesel, essentially like vegetable oil. So we contacted our old bus company and said hey look, we’re going to move because we want this sustainable bus. But because they wanted to keep our business, they decided to invest in their own bus running on biodiesel. It felt really cool that they changed to meet our demands and keep our business.
We didn’t have to do much, but it shows that the consumer has power. We drove around Europe in that biodiesel bus, which was awesome! We’ve also tried the battery power route, but we’ve never managed to power everything up, until this one coming up.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken bringing Lime Green to life?
Financial risk, really. Putting on a festival is pretty hard at the moment, and if you are trying to do it in a green way, everything is a bit harder. Everything takes more thought, more time and more money.
How can fans help to make live shows and concerts greener?
I think the biggest carbon footprint for a show comes from all those people travelling to the gig. That is the simplest way, just think about how you’re getting there. Other than that, it’s just consumption and demand. So, really thinking about what you are consuming. Some venues don’t have plastic cups, and they’ve got good recycling systems, so if you’re supporting that when it’s available and turning it down when it’s not, then that is really important.
How do you want people to feel walking away from Lime Green?
The music industry is quite stuck in its ways. People don’t really want to change, so it’s hard to go up against a lot of these old dogs who’ve been dominating the industry.
If we’re able to do it ourselves in this industry, then I hope it inspires others to do it in their workplace, at school, or at home. All you have to do is go to your boss and be like, “Hey, what is our climate statement, or what are the things we’re doing? Can we put solar panels on the roof, or have a better recycling system at the school? Can we get rid of our gas heater?” There are tons of things each person can do to just change their own little space around them.
A few quick-fire questions to wrap up the interview. Firstly, what song or album is currently in your daily rotation?
I have recently gone back to listening to a bunch of old Radiohead, as you go into the deep dives on YouTube, you realise, Oh, this is why these guys are so big, because they’re absolute geniuses. The new Geese album that’s been blowing up is an interesting listen. It took me a while to understand what the hell is going on, but that is really cool.
Awesome! What’s the last great film you saw?
It must have been an early screening, but I just saw Marty Supreme the night before, and that was cool. I wasn’t expecting it to be so fun. It’s mad, I loved it.
And obviously, you both are coming down to South Australia in April for your festival, Lime Green. Do you have any favourite spots you like to visit when you’re in SA?
I love to visit the coast. You guys have some amazing beaches and coastlines. If I’m not going that way, I go up to the wineries. This time I’m interested in seeing it because of the algal bloom, which is devastating, and I find it so hard to believe, and it’s so hidden under the ocean, what’s going on. I want to check it out, even though it’ll be heartbreaking. We’ll be supporting that with this festival as well. Some funds will be going into supporting the regeneration.
Lime Green Festival will take place on April 18, 2026, at Point Malcom Reserve, Semaphore, Adelaide, SA.
TICKETS
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General tickets on sale 9:00 AM AEDT Friday 23 January 2026
Tickets and info from limegreenfestival.com