Just when you thought this year’s festival season was nearly over, a few festivals with green awareness goals remain.  The Project 30-90 Green Art and Music Festival on Saturday, September 5th in New Orleans is one.   As they outline on their Green page, they have an eye on many of the key elements required to minimize the environmental impact of a music festival including the challenges with power, trash, transportation and merchandise.  Additionally, they have an education goal and are including educational and non-profit organizations in their vendor village.   Music festivals have the power to raise awareness and provide music fans with the information they need to live “more green” lives.

From the Project 30-90 site:

Project 30-90 is an environmentally conscious music festival being held in New Orleans on September 5, 2009. Our stages will be run on solar and wind turbine power, we’ll offer paperless green tickets, recycling, carbon offsets and more. Put simply, we are going to rock your world and leave no carbon footprint behind.

Project 30-90 Founder Don Kelly speaks on who and how he selected the bands that are playing at the inaugural 30-90 Festival:

The Saturday music line-up starts at 3pm…

[Read more →]

With an estimated attendance of 10,000+ on the Woodstock 40th Anniversary weekend, the Green Music Fest in Chicago aims to be a blast while also showcasing environmentally friendly products and services.  Taking place on Saturday August 15th and Sunday August 16th in Chicago’s Eckhart Park (1330 W. Chicago Avenue).

Vendors will be exclusively green or eco-friendly, whether selling crafts made with recycled materials or techie gadgets made with green components.

The City of Chicago Department of Environment’s Chicago Center for Green Technology is sponsoring the green section of the event with an estimated 60-plus green vendors.  Tickets are still available, so visit the official site for more details.

The weekend of August 15, 2009 marks the 40th anniversary of the 1969 Woodstock Music and Arts Festival.  There were plans to host a free anniversary event New York City’s Prospect Park and Berlin’s former Templehof Airport, but due to lack of sponsorship and funding they just could not pull it off.

In an age of mega festivals, many of which are making efforts to be green (see previous posts on Green Music Alliance), it is too bad that this one could not happen.  With locations in two very populated cities the organizers would have tackled one of festivals biggest green challenges — getting the people to the grounds.

You can read up quite a bit about the anniversary and where the original artists are today on Treehugger.  CBSNews also has a full feature section with videos and photo galleries.

Article courtesy of Planetwize.

What do steel, rubber factories, mechanics, gas pumps, freeways, and Detroit have in common? They all play a part in the ‘technological lock-in’ – as the academics say – of a less-than-green American car culture.

The music business, it seems, is locked in to huge stages, bright lights, semi-trucks, tour busses, jewel cases, power-hungry analog equipment and, perhaps most challenging, millions and millions of miles driven by fans to catch the show.

The notoriously resistant-to-change industry, however, is greening up, as more bands and fans take action to reduce their impact. [Read more →]

The BuFest Green Music Festival is scheduled for May 30 & 31, 2009 with tickets on sale starting February 10th. Over 50 artists are expected to perform including Reel Big Fish, Unwritten Law, Eve 6, MXPX, Butch Walker, Meiko, The Dreaming and more.  The Green Living Expo is one of the BuFest sponsors.

BuFest™ strives to insure we have zero impact upon the environment. In addition to biodegradable and recycled supplies, BuFest™ uses the most technologically advanced generators and materials to make certain we have the lowest carbon output possible. We support The Green Living Expo’s held throughout the nation as a way to educate the public about ways they can “Go Green.”

Coachella with its great 2009 lineup is scheduled for April 17, 18 and 19th.  3-day passes are $269 and single day passes $99.   To reduce the environmental impact of this event Coachella encourges you to use PickupPal to arrange a carpool or donate seats in your car.  Also, they provide recycling via their 10 for 1 program where attendees receive a free bottle of water for every 10 they bring to recycle.  They are teaming up with Global Inheritance for this service and Coachella will have their TRASHed recycling program again this year.

The remaining The Greener Festival Awards for 2008 have been announced. Eight more English festivals including The Big Chill, Bestival, Summer Sundae Weekender, Shambala, Reading, Leeds, Waveform and End of the Road along with Scotland ’s Hydro Connect, Ireland ’s Electric Picnic, Portugal ’s Boom, Southbound in Australia and the Rothbury Festival in the USA have joined the illustrious list of winners for the 2008 Greener Festival Award.  The first eighteen UK and International festivals were announced earlier in the summer. In the UK, recipients of the leading eco-award included Latitude, the Glastonbury Festival, the Camden Green Fair and the Cambridge Folk Festival. In the US, the Bonnaroo Festival was singled out as a ‘beacon of [Read more →]

The 2008 Live Earth Concert will be hosted in Mumbai, India on December 7, 2008.

“Live Earth’s mission is to cultivate grassroots and worldwide awareness of and solutions for environmental issues that affect us all. Awareness activates change and important issues deserve a global platform,” said Kevin Wall, founder of Live Earth. “That’s why the stage for Live Earth India will host some of the biggest artists from India to the U.S. and beyond, while we bring India to the world. And the world has a lot to learn from traditional Indian culture about sustainability.”

“India will be among the leading powers of the global economy in the coming decades,” said Gore. “As a democracy that is looked up to by many nations, especially for its commitment to inclusive growth for its diverse peoples, India has a major role to play in leadership by example for the climate crisis and sustainable development. Kevin and I are honored to bring Live Earth to India.”

Keeping in line with their green message the event will follow the “Green Policy” established in the original Live Earth event:

The Live Earth production team will implement the Live Earth Green Event Guidelines developed for the first Live Earth Concerts for a Climate in Crisis which took place on 07.07.07. The Guidelines address the major areas of impact of live events, including recycling, food and beverages, packaging, transportation, energy, water usage, and the event site itself. From power generation at the concert to garbage generated by concert goers, Live Earth will seek to design out waste and continue to be the model for future live entertainment, while bringing new sustainable event production techniques to India.

Learn more on the Live Earth Site.