Green Options

Why would some of the nation’s top environmental leaders, activists, and academics be sharing the same stage with some of the most influential and well-known people in music? And why did a sizable portion of the audience consist of unshowered, sleep-deprived, politically active 20 and 30-somethings? In a word, ROTHBURY.

A world record was broken on July 4^th at the inaugural ROTHBURY music festival in Michigan. And no, the record had nothing to do with the world’s stinkiest hippie, or the world’s longest guitar solo. The record-setting happened early on in the four-day festival when a canned food sculpture, designed by Architect John Brittingham and his graduate students at Montana State University, set the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest canned food sculpture.

The four-day ROTHBURY music and camping festival is being promoted as a “cultural assembly; one where music fans, artists and progressive thinkers gather to celebrate much more than music.” It is ROTHBURY’s goal to harness the unique energy of the live music community into a durable social movement toward an important cause: Climate Change and Clean Energy Alternatives.

Featuring a diverse musical line-up including Widespread Panic, Modest Mouse, Trey Anastasio, Dave Mathews Band, Primus, and many, many more - the festival is certain to be one of the best gatherings of the summer.

Well, would you like to go to ROTHBURY: The Music Festival With A Purpose at the Double JJ Ranch in Michigan this weekend, July 3rd - 6th?

I figured as much. And because I’ll be covering the event for the Green Options Media Network, and reporting back all week, I was able to score a few extras that I’d like to share with our readers. But I can’t just give them away, so in 100 words or less, answer the following question:

What is right, and what is wrong, with the environmental movement today?

As has been reported on the Green Options network in the past, enviros and music festivals go together like peanut butter and jelly. The synergy between the two may be no more evident than on July 4th weekend 2008, when the town of Rothbury, Michigan will play host to a “party with a purpose.” The four-day ROTHBURY music and camping festival is being promoted as a “cultural assembly; one where music fans, artists and progressive thinkers gather to celebrate much more than music.” It is Rothbury’s goal to harness the unique energy of the live music community into a durable social movement toward an important cause: Climate Change and Clean Energy Alternatives.

Promoters say that ROTHBURY is committed to producing a near zero-waste concert. The first to tackle a green program of this magnitude at an around-the-clock (camping) concert in the USA.