Photo Courtesy Alex Smith of Treehugger.com
Touring bands such as Widespread Panic, Radiohead, Tom Petty, Ben Harper, and Jack Johnson drew a crowd of 150,000 over the course of last weekend in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park for the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival. The Central Park of the West opened its gates on Friday and the stream of concert-goers steadily continued throughout the weekend. Every fan (either consciously or unconsciously) brought their inescapable shadow as well: their eco-footprint. Size, to-be-determined...
There is no doubt in my mind, as well as in Another Planet Entertainment's [APE] (the kind folks hosting/promoting this event), that the ability to bring this monstrous crowd together is innately resource and energy intensive. Bryan Duquette of APE was handed the position of mitigating some and maybe all of the concert's eco-impacts. Environmental goals and action plans were instituted months in advance of the event; making the environmental priority only second to the booking of the acts themselves.
In a pre-concert interview I had with Bryan he stressed the importance of environmental education as one of his top goals for the festival: "not only are we going to show people what their carbon footprint is but at the same time we are going to show people ways they can change at home, in their personal lives". In addition to the iconic green sights at the festival (windmills, solar panels, and electric cars, etc...), APE took it one step further by making these sometimes off-limit sights interactive. Whether it was the solar and wind powered cell phone charging station, touch-screen carbon footprint calculators, and/or a plethora of eco-centric volunteers, concert-goers not only saw green, they lived green. [And I have to say, Valet Parking for Bikes, what a cool sight to see!]
Photo Courtesy Alex Smith of Treehugger.com
Following in the steps of Michigan's Rothbury Music Festival in early July of this year, Outside Lands is helping to shape the future of not only music festivals, but also all large-scale gatherings. This year's Democratic National Convention is even following suit: organic food, alternative energy transportation, and carbon offsetting are all being used to help mitigate the gathering of the masses.
As with almost all large public gatherings, the environmental law of diminishing returns is most certainly in play: it becomes very difficult to internally reduce all environmental impacts.
Enter Carbon Offsets.
While carbon offsetting has become more of a common practice, Outside Lands took it once step further by offsetting the festival's footprint through PG&E's Climate Smart program. These offsets are unique in that they are verified to the most rigorous standards set by the California Climate Action Registry (CCAR). Widespread Panic's John Bell supports such efforts for offsetting is one of many ways "you can exercise your environmental awareness". In addition to offsetting, Bell advocates green-building practices which can be seen through the creation of his and his wife's wellness center in Clarksville, Georgia: complete with recycled tires on the roof and a rain barrel water reclamation system.
In addition to the artists, the fans too appreciated the festival's environmental efforts. Long time festival-goer, Greg Bilson, felt more at ease with his decision to fly to San Francisco "knowing that once he arrived on site the festival would mitigate and minimize its impacts". When asked if the environmentalism portrayed at the festival lived up to publicized expectations, Bilson applauded the end result but felt "that the promoters could have taken an additional step through the reduction of the 40-plus page colorful concert almanac filled with superfluous advertisements"; of which over 60,000 were printed.
All in all, the biggest success could end up being the ability of the festival to divert over 75% of its waste from the landfill to the compost and recycling facilities, made possible by the use of biodegradable cutlery and recyclables. A positive addition to future festivals could be a retrospective public scorecard, rating the eco-friendliness achieved so that promoters are encouraged to follow their goals through to fruition.
I have no doubt in my mind that Bryan and his colleagues from APE achieved the majority, if not all of their eco-goals. After the last chord is strung, it's important that events continue the environmental progressivism and hands-on approach demonstrated by Outside Lands. While some attendees where somewhat skeptical about the promotion of environmentalism as a "green-washing" tool; Widespread Panic's Bell sums it up the best: "the motivating factor doesn't really matter-it doesn't really matter if you are doing it to be cool, to save money, or to feel good about yourself, at the end of the day all that matters is that we are doing something, something for the planet".
Photo Courtesy Alex Smith of Treehugger.com