First up, I'll rip off Grist again, in 3 ways.
- Grist is reporting that Ecorazzi is reporting that Al Gore and Kevin Wall are going to have Live Earth 2 on October 5, timed to influence a little last-minute enviropoliticking by our presidential nominees. Apparently, Al may not be running but he still wants to be on TV every fourth October. Given that this election season's crop of politicians haven't even glanced at the environment (again), this can only help. Bonus -- concerts on college campuses!
- Next up, our old pal Sarah von Schagen completely scooped us on the Coachella eco-train, perhaps because only 300 VIPS out of the 65,000 attending got to ride it. Actually, the LA Times did the scooping, but my Google alerts failed me, so now I bring it to you thirdhand. This is a fantastic idea, one that I hope will catch on to other festivals nearish to train tracks, only on a more meaningful scale.
- Sarah also namedrops Rothbury and the Lighting in a Bottle festival. I'll be covering Rothbury in full before, during, and after the event. Lightning in a Bottle is one I hadn't covered before, but their post-event coverage (PDF) is the best I've seen from any festival.
Camping festivals are great, but it turns out that many of the attendees are non-campers who buy the cheapest possible tent and ditch it at the end of the show. This seems to be a bigger problem at the big English camping fests than the US venues I've attended, but it's definitely an issue here, too. Enter MyHab, an outfit that will rent you a hard-sided camping pod that comes set up and is made out of recycled material. All you do is show up, unroll your sleeping bag, and relax. I'm tempted to quit my job and start a US MyHab franchise. Via Springwise.
Random business journal In-Forum Business is reporting that "FACE Inc., producers of WE Fest and the 10,000 Lakes music festivals, has been awarded a $75,000 grant from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to increase recycling at the events held at the Soo Pass Ranch near Detroit Lakes....The funds will be used to develop WE B Green, a recycling program to reduce the amount of landfill waste generated by business operations, vendors and campers at both festivals. " WE Fest is a country fest--nice to see that traditionally red voters can go green, too! On the other hand, 10KLF might be the only nationally-known festival I've seen that doesn't have a single word on its website about greening. I guess they're not into bandwagons.
Bonnaroo's forum has a greening section with occasional activity. A post today alerted me to this solid interview with Anna Borofsky of festival-trash heavyweight Clean Vibes. If you've been to a large festival in the past few years, you've probably seen the Clean Vibes crew doing their thing--they do great work and are one of the oldest festival greening crews around.
The Dawson (Georgia) Times reports that this year's subtly-named Eco-Music Festival will be, er, green. I'm not sure how green holding an event in an animal refuge inaccessible by public transit is, but it appears that their heart, at least, is in the right place. Plus, it's mostly local Atlanta acts, and the whole 96-band, 3-day event is only $30! If you're in that neck of the woods and don't have other plans for Memorial Day weekend, check it out and let us know if it lived up to both the Eco and Music parts of the name. And even if you're not going, make sure you click here with your speakers on to hear an awesome monster-truck style radio spot for this event. Rock-Rock-Rock in the Mountains!
Here's a little video from Quench, which had the coolest logo from the Eco-Music-Fest bands. My internets are moving like molasses today, so I haven't actually watched this thing, but the opening screen looks super promising. Enjoy!