Articles by Sarah van Schagen

Or, how I survived my first camping trip

Find out more about how Bonnaroo is going green.

It was early afternoon on a Friday when I got the call. I had been wrangling commas and scanning The Superficial the news all morning when Grist kahuna maxima Chip Giller asked me if I would go to the Bonnaroo Arts & Music Festival in Tennessee to cover its efforts to eco-ize.

This was exactly the kind of break I'd been waiting for. Giller wanted me -- me! -- to travel across the country and file a real story.

My ego started to swell. Oh yeah, I said to myself. Giller knows that when he needs a real reporter who'll get the job done right, he comes straight to me the staff writer I share an office with. But when that guy can't go, whom does Giller turn to? Ya damn right.

The boss interrupted my mental cheerleading with a serious question. "Are you sure you're up to the challenge?" he asked. Hellz yeah, I told him.

After hanging up, I did a quick skills check. Talking to hot, sweaty musician-types about their eco-interests? Check. Hanging out in the beer tent eating funnel cake? I'll take seconds, thanks. Proudly flashing my all-access media pass in front of all the slobbering plebes? As long as it matched my outfit. Navigating airport security and surviving the middle seat on a transcontinental flight? Bring on the li'l bags of peanuts. Camping for four nights in the middle of summer in Tennessee?

Um, what?

From Poop to Pod

Forest dump If you drop some logs in a national park and no restroom cleaners are around to hear it, does it make a sound? We’ll soon find out, as budget crunches are forcing cutbacks on park luxuries … like clean bathrooms. Said one pooper of a Yosemite restroom, “It looked like nothing had been […]

Legendary music fest Bonnaroo urges fans to go green

Two’s company, 80,000’s a crowd. Photos: Sarah van Schagen.  For most of the year, this 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tenn., provides open, grassy pasture for a herd of cows. But for a short time each summer, the idyllic setting is taken over by a different kind of herd: the tens of thousands of fans who […]

From Iowa to I Owe Ya

Sometimes a basin is just a basin Personally, we don’t see anything unusual about the shape of this Des Moines, Iowa, water detention basin. Nope, not a thing. But apparently, some locals have started saying it looks like — well, you know. That’s bollocks! Photo: Polk County Assessor’s Office. It’s not that easy being red […]