Since Woodstock, music festivals have been huge crowd pleasers, allowing fans to condense the experience of a dozen concerts, along with the chance to meet artists and maybe enjoy some adult (occassionally illegal) activities, into a few exhilarating days.
But while the music festival’s purpose is the same, much has changed since Woodstock.
First of all, the frequency of festivals has multiplied. Though Woodstock attracted half a million at its peak, it only lasted a few days in one place.
Nowadays there are several mega festivals, plus dozens of smaller ones across the country.
These events seem to be eco-disasters: they guzzle huge amounts of energy to power instruments, speakers and light displays, generate heaps of waste and create tons of emissions from fans traveling from far and wide.
However, festival organizers are wising up to their impact and trying to please the planet along with music fanatics.
Many festivals now use sustainable energy sources like wind, solar or bio-diesel. Outside Lands in San Francisco featured the largest solar-powered stage in the country in 2013. Over the three-day event, the stage avoided the CO2 emissions equivalent to the carbon released in burning 216 gallons of gasoline. Bonnaroo became the first festival with a permanent solar array, which can generate the equivalent of 20 percent of Bonnaroo’s power consumption each year.
Festivals are minimizing waste through the old three R’s mantra: reduce, reuse, recycle. Several have added compost and recycling bins next to trashcans. At Outside Lands, all of the food containers and utensils are compostable and biodegradable. In 2012 the festival reported a 75 percent diversion rate with 87 tons of compost and recycling.
A major benefit of pairing environmentalism with music is making the movement more fun. One of the most innovative projects is Outside Land’s “Clean Vibes Trading Post.” It rewards concertgoers for collecting cans, bottles and other material with prizes such as organic clothing, band merchandise and food vouchers.
