Bonnaroo - model of sustainability by Diane

Sunday, June 15: Bonnaroo is a four-day music and arts festival on farmland in Tennessee, so why would Sustainable Table be interested in being part of what some see as a rock concert for 80,000 people? Sustainability, pure and simple. Bonnaroo is on the forefront of sustainability when it comes to gatherings for large amounts of people, and what they’re doing is on the forefront of the sustainability movement within their field.

To give a little background on the festival, it started in 2001. The promoters were all Phish/Grateful Dead fans, and lived a sustainable lifestyle without really labeling themselves as such. They believed in giving back to the planet, reducing waste and consumption, and in community and being locally based. And that ethic has been with Bonnaroo since Day 1, and it only gets stronger each year.

While at Bonnaroo, we had a chance to speak with Laura Sohn, the sustainability coordinator for the entire event, so she could give us a little background on what the festival has done and what they’re looking to do. Her job is to work with the 12 department heads (who head up around 1000 staff) to ways to reduce waste and consumption, and to make the festival as sustainable and community-based as possible.

To start, Bonnaroo works closely with the local community. They have an employee who works with local officials to make sure the community is on board with what they’re doing. A $1 surcharge on each ticket goes to local nonprofits. All community members get a reduced ticket.

With regard to waste and consumption, Clean Vibes works with the festival to recycle, compost and keep the festival clean and green. We even saw one volunteer walking across a litter-strewn concert lawn, picking up only discarded brown plastic beer bottles, obviously the task he’d been assigned so that the correct recyclables were put together.

Laura also mentioned that they source as much local wood as possible, working with a local mill, and they re-use the wood year after year until it falls apart. The linens they use in the hospitality tents are re-usable. And the furniture used in the tents is used hotel furniture that they use over and over again.

And all concession vendors (not just in Planet Roo, but everywhere) must use biodegradable products. In addition, all the vendors were given a list of local farmers that they could buy items from. Bonnaroo is hoping to source up to 75 percent of all food from local sources in 3-5 years, though they realize that figure might be a bit of a challenge.

And then there’s Planet Roo, which has been part of Bonnaroo for 5 – 6 years. Planet Roo is the environmental section of the festival, where Sustainable Table had a booth, along with other groups like the Carbon Shredders, Oxfam, Rock the Earth, and Peter Gabriel’s Witness campaign. The area consisted of a Solar Stage – yes, run on solar power – that hosted some bands but mainly panel discussions about different aspects of sustainability. Having had a booth in Planet Roo for three years now, we got a little insulated because that section is very sustainable, so we were really happy to hear that all parts of the festival are trying to be as sustainable as possible.

We might speak with a few more people now that the festival is done and bring you more details about Bonnaroo and all they’re doing, especially in regard to food, but now it’s time to get some sleep….

Article Tag(s): sustainable table, bonnaroo, bonnaroo 2008

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