Music festivals across the country are going green … but losing green in the process.
By the numbers, green festivals can be both encouraging and discouraging. Jeremy Stein, one of the producers of Rothbury, which took place over the July 4 weekend, said that by composting waste, using recyclable materials for concessions and taking other basic measures, the festival was able to prevent 94 percent of the garbage from its central concert area from entering a landfill. (Fifty-five percent of the waste from the camping grounds was diverted, he said.)
But doing so is not cheap. Rothbury lost money in its first year, and Mr. Stein said that the investment required to make a festival environmentally friendly could be a big strain on its budget. “These are huge gambles,” he said. “Porta-potties alone could be from $150,000 to $300,000, and that’s just one line item.”
Hm, that stinks …
