Bonnaroo Day 1 by Diane

Thursday, June 12: Bonnaroo officially opened today - and Sustainable Table is here! Helped out by our friends at Food & Water Watch, we set up our booth and welcomed the 80,000-some thousand concertgoers.

Thoughts from day 1 - this festival is big, really big. And there is sooo much going on - from bands playing nonstop on multiple stages to a ferris wheel to a solar stage (all powered by solar power) to a large mushroom water fountain to cool yourself off in.

Our booth is in the Planet Roo section of the festival - which happens to be in the center of everything. Farm Aid's HOMEGROWN campaign is next to us on the left, and Vermont's Carbon Shredders are on our right. (I'm going over to visit with them tomorrow to find out exactly what they do - I'll fill you in.)

Sustainable Table and Food & Water Watch both had a chance to talk for a bit on the Solar Stage, to introduce ourselves and what we do. The Meatrix (all three movies) were also shown twice in the Planet Roo Documentaries tent. (It's playing again tomorrow at 10:45am and 11:30pm, Saturday at 6:15pm and again on Sunday at 12:45pm and 8:30pm.)

One thing I noticed today is that everyone here is so friendly and that there's a feeling of community amongst all the people attending the show. We had quite a few students come up and tell us that a professor of theirs showed The Meatrix to them in class and that the movie really affected how they looked at food (as well as a few teachers). We also had people who'd never seen The Meatrix and who didn't know much about food - but they were interested in learning.

Today was mainly about setting up and getting ourselves situated here - tomorrow, we plan to go out and meet the other nonprofits and environmental folks here at Bonnaroo. So, we'll be back soon with more....

Article Tag(s): Bonnaroo, Sustainable Table, The Meatrix

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