I'm packing my bags and heading for sunny Austin, TX, for this year's SXSW conference. Hope to see you there! Email me if you want to meet up: green [at] jambase [dot] com.
As we reported last year, SXSW has been steadily increasing their green commitments with each festival. Green innovations like solar stages, renewable energy credits, and themed parties and panels that help record labels and bands green up their activities made a huge impact last year and will continue on to this year's festival. Here is a video from You Tube that details at a fan's eye view what greening initiatives went on last year and what to expect this year. Check it out:
I'm just returning from Austin, where I had a great time and saw lots of great bands. I did not, however, see much evidence of efforts to green the festivities as a whole. While there may have been some designated green events, the vast majority of showcase and party venues did not even offer recycling. With the amount of trash generated by the tens-of-thousands of industry swillers, this absence of recycling options was distressing.
Sarah, I'm curious to get your impressions of SXSW's level of greeness after the fact.
