Live Earth: Is It Really Possible To Have An Eco-friendly Festival?

So we all have our ideas about what is considered "eco-friendly."

Being a strong environmental enthusiast myself, this buzznet forum question grabbed my attention...

"LIVE EARTH: IS IT REALLY POSSIBLE TO HAVE AN ECO-FRIENDLY FESTIVAL?"

Oftentimes, events will be put on to promote environmentally-friendly causes. Yet, with the resources used to execute the event or festival, are these festivals really doing more harm than good?

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Well, that depends on just how hard you try. There's alot more to it than just the festival itself. It's partly in how people choose to travel to get there, what they have to do in life to afford the tickets, all that stuff.
But the festival itself, organization is everything. The bigger and more commercial, the less environmentally friendly. Trash is the number one problem. Seems like lots of folks who do alot of traveling tend to drop off all their acumulated trash at each gathering they attend. Recycling stations help TREMENDOUSLY with this and things like aluminum can be sold to help defray some expenses. People also tend to leave a lot of STUFF behind. But there again, recycling is the key. We once had a musical gathering of about 3000 people. The bands DONATED their time, the guests donated food and labor (parking lot crew, trash crew, cooking crew....) ALL trash was recycled and what couldn't be was hauled out by volunteers. People arrived and left with cars FULL of riders. But those people left a lot of STUFF behind. Even tho there was NO CHARGE for the whole week, we ended up with almost $600.00 worth of sleeping bags, blankets, towels, tents, pots and pans.........

Actual damage to the land can be kept to a minimum with vigilance and mother nature is very forgiving. I think she LOVES music...

And, when people come together in a joyous atmosphere to listen to some uplifting tunes and have a great time, that's worth a lot. Yes, a festival, organized and run the right way does MUCH more good in the greater scheme of things than the relatively small amount of harm it might do to the environment.

 

We don't have to lose our sense of community and spirit at the expense of treading lightly on the Earth.

To me, living in alignment with nature is about getting closer to joy and happiness, not denying it.

I would highly recommend everyone watch this video of Environmental Activist Extraordinaire Julia Butterfly Hill, and look at zero-trash event that has been the model for many green events to follow in this video..this video gives me chills - http://photos.imageevent.com/shutternut/sacredconnectionsfinal/SacredConnectWebStream.mov

And ALSO, the ULTIMATE GUIDE TO GREEN EVENTS if you just ask for it! What a service ! - http://www.circleoflife.org/action/greening_events.htm