Recycling rocks!
That line may be a bit cheesy, but it sums up the future of music festivals. With every festival season that passes, organizers realize more and more that they have the power to spread awareness, whether it’s by encouraging festival-goers to rock out to a low-profile band or to use animal-safe Mohawk gel from a recyclable bottle.
Their first goal, of course, is the music. But with new bands starting up every day, it’s impossible for festival organizers to listen to all of them; it’s even more impossible for each artist to enjoy the limelight. Nonetheless, every bit of exposure helps fledgling bands.
“Our band played at a small, local festival and our fan base probably doubled,” said second-year undeclared student Kevin Farzad.
Even big festivals try to help new artists like Farzad. Lollapalooza, held in July in Chicago’s Grant Park, found a way to support new artists with its Last Band Standing competition. The top two winners joined the Lollapalooza lineup, earning the same treatment as any other artist.
“We knew we had some great opportunities to offer bands,” said Lisa Hickey, the event’s marketing director.
The annual Vans Warped Tour also gives lesser-known bands a shot.
“A lot of times I’ll get demos or I’ll check something out on MySpace … and I’ll want to put them on one of the shows,” said Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman. “I just want people walking out saying “˜I saw an amazing band today, and I didn’t even know who they were.'”
It’s natural that music festivals continue to emphasize the future of music by nurturing new artists. But in recent years, they are becoming particularly aware of both their impact on and accountability to the environment.
“There’s just been a lot more focus on this across many different businesses and … we’re no exception. We need to take responsibility, and we need to make sure we’re doing our part to make as little impact on the park and on the city as possible,” Hickey said.
From Warped Tour’s use of over 5000 gallons of biofuels a day to Lollapalooza’s ban on Styrofoam on park grounds, festivals have definitely stepped up their environmental initiatives, eroding some of the stereotypes that portray large festivals in a negative light.
“These kinds of settings tend to consume a lot of energy and lead to lots of wasted bottles, so it’s pretty cool that they’re trying to green themselves,” said Brian Kentosh, a second-year aerospace engineering student.
Other festivals use incentives in order to lessen their impact. The Pitchfork Music Festival, for example, offers promotional swag in exchange for recyclable materials. Pitchfork Media publisher Chris Kaskie first noticed the gifts at European music festivals and brought it home to Chicago for this year’s festival. Along with this incentive, Pitchfork also takes advantage of hybrid vehicles from Zipcar for all of its festival transportation.
The festival works toward a shared ideal with each successive year. For Lyman, doing his part for the environment meant showing up for every day of Warped Tour.
He learned the importance of this task the hard way when he took four days off in 1996.
“There was a revolt against the promoter for some T-shirt prices. One of the guys lit the fireworks and set a toilet on fire, and one of the guys on the tour pushed the Port-a-potty in the river, which really didn’t fly with the mayor, who won his election on cleaning up the river,” Lyman said.
But more and more, festival organizers favor audience education over babysitting. Lollapalooza continues to advance the green movement and encourages its artists to do the same, but the festival hasn’t stopped there. It will dedicate part of the park ““ fittingly dubbed “Green Street” ““ to educating the audience on the benefits of being eco-friendly.
The education goes well beyond Green Street and even the environment. Rock the Vote will appear at some festivals in an effort to encourage voter registration in an underrepresented age group.
However, the underlying theme continues to be the music, since it’s through the music that festivals can continue to raise the volume on both important social issues and up-and-coming bands in search of new fans.
“We put the music first and create an environment for the artists and the crowd that promotes just a fun time. … So it really ends up being a place for both artists and fans to experience music first and foremost before anything else,” Kaskie said.