The Emory Wheel (the student newspaper of Emory U, in Atlanta) has an excellent piece on the greening of festivals nationwide online here. If this is student journalism, color me impressed!

The story explores the greening of festivals through Wakarusa and the Echo Project (covered here on my old blog), touching on key aspects including the impact of fan travel, the difficulty of making any event truly green in a non-green society, and the importance of not being too earnest.

Notable quote from a festival-goer: “Just like any other person wants to talk about music, they just want to talk about the environment. They weren’t making me feel like I was a bad person or preaching at me. They made me feel like I could be a part of something bigger.”

Labels: festival, jason, the Echo Project, Wakarusa

While you're soaking up the tunes at Wakarusa, spend some time at this year's Sustainability Symposium, too. Wakarusa has teamed up with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation or BEF (the folks that helped Sub Pop and Kelley Stoltz green up) and New Belgium Brewery to educate concert-goers about sustainability.

From the Bonneville Environmental Foundation: The key theme of this year’s symposium is the conservation and production of energy. Friday evening, June 8th, Jeff Goodell, author of Big Coal, will take center stage to address coal-fired energy. Saturday morning will feature additional speakers including Wes Jackson of The Land Institute, followed by a panel discussion addressing the issues of energy and related environmental impacts including climate change. Additional speakers include Nic Thiesen of the New Belgium Brewing Company, and Pete Ferrell, a fourth generation Kansas rancher whose land hosts wind turbines.

Along with using biodiesel-powered generators to power the sound stages, Wakarusa offset the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the festival with BEF Zephyr Energy Green Tags. This measure furthers the green initiatives Wakarusa has had in place in the past. Strong recycling programs and waste reduction methods like providing incentives for concert-goers to reuse cups have been in place for some time.

The Sustainability Symposium will take place Friday night and Saturday during the day. Check it out! More information is here.

Labels: Bonneville Environmental Foundation, fan resources, festival, renewables, sarah, Wakarusa