Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival announces exciting large scale greening initiatives

The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is proud to announce greening efforts for its 2006 event, to take place June 16-18 in Manchester, Tennessee. The Bonnaroo organization is dedicated to producing a festival that is as environmentally friendly as possible while raising awareness among patrons about green products, technologies and issues. Organizers are taking significant steps toward reducing or eliminating the environmental impact of major facets of the event. Earthchange technologies, an environmental consulting company, is assisting the event with its greening efforts. A full list of environmental initiatives follows.

Bonnaroo’s greening plan includes the use of organic cotton and hemp t-shirts, post-consumer recycled paper, biodegradable concession service items, revolutionary waste management strategies, and cleaner fuel options. In partnership with Tennessee-based company WastAway, Bonnaroo will participate in a revolutionary recycling process that will turn 250 tons of festival garbage into construction material and park benches to be used at future events. The festival will also continue its own extensive recycling and composting program in partnership with Clean Vibes, an organization that has diverted approximately ten percent of the event’s total waste since its inception. This year, Bonnaroo organizers expect to divert over 60 percent of the event’s waste from landfills.

Bonnaroo is also implementing plans to mitigate its predicted impact on global warming. All of the festival’s non-music stage generators will utilize biodiesel fuel, and one such stage (the Solar Stage) will run on solar power alone. In addition, festival partner CLIF Bar will purchase renewable wind energy credits from Native American energy company NativeEnergy, offsetting carbon dioxide emissions created by the festival and completely negating Bonnaroo’s contribution to global warming. Attendees will also be encouraged purchase wind energy credits called ‘Cool Tags’ to make up for emissions produced by their travel. To further involve attendees in greening efforts, the festival will run a contest for “Greenest Campsite.”

Bonnaroo will bring back the popular Planet Roo village within Centeroo, an area dedicated to preserving the environment and promoting healthy living. Non profit organizations, eco-friendly vendors, and Solar Stage performers will gather to educate patrons about what they can do to protect their own health as well as the planet’s. Fans who stop by Planet Roo will have the chance to learn about alternative fuels and energy sources, eat organic food at a waste free restaurant, and hear festival artists discuss topics related to the theme “Social Change through Music.” Representatives from organizations such as Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), StopGlobalWarming.org, Rock The Earth, and World Resources Institute (WRI), will interact with fans and artists to raise awareness about ways to fight global warming in everyday life.

Recognizing that green issues are of paramount importance to the organization, its patrons, and the world at large, Bonnaroo is proud to present an event that is not only a great entertainment experience, but also an example of an environmentally sound gathering that helps our planet remain hospitable to life.

Bonnaroo 2006 Green Initiatives:

• Over 25,000 gallons of biodiesel fuel (B100) to replace diesel for non-music stage generators

• WastAway refuse handling process to recycle over 250 tons of garbage

• Concession food served with biodegradable wraps, plates, cups and cutlery manufactured from a renewable resource

• Festival wide recycling and composting program

• Cool Tags wind credits purchasing (and facilitation of purchases for
  patrons)

• Solar stage and sound system

• Organic cotton and hemp t-shirts

• Tree free posters

• Post-consumer recycled toilet paper for portolets

• Post-consumer recycled paper for all administrative needs

• Aggressively seeking ways to make Bonnaroo 2007 even greener

For more info, please go to http://www.bonnaroo.com/2006