Phish Festival 8: Reducing the Environmental Impact of a Rock Concert

Posted on November 10, 2009 by Nick Chambers in Food+Drink, Living, Sports+Recreation

WaterWheel Foundation tent at Phish Festival 8, Indio, California (photo: Nick Chambers)

In a recent conversation I had at the 3-day Phish Festival 8 with Matt Beck, Touring Director for Phish’s charitable organization, The WaterWheel Foundation, he said something that struck me as incredibly honest and from the heart: “There’s nothing about a rock and roll concert that is sustainable when you really get down to the nuts and bolts of it.”

Mike Gordon of Phish during the acoustic set at Festival 8 (photo: Tim Hurst)

It’s true, rock and roll concerts—especially multiple day festivals with 10’s of thousands of people—are notorious for their environmental footprints.

From the huge cadre of touring buses and crew that need to be flown in from all over the place, to the supply of food, to the disposable water bottle carnage, to the tons of waste sucked out of port-o-potties, to the tens of thousands of fans driving and flying in from points unknown—it would seem that the best thing you could do for the environment would be to never have these festivals in the first place.

But that would be incredibly sad. All of us need entertainment and release from our modern hassles and fast-paced lifestyles—and, in my opinion, there are few things as effective at bringing that release than a rock concert. For that reason, rock concerts and multiple day festivals are never going to go away.

Yet the ironic (and hypocritical?) thing about the environmental impact of a touring band such as Phish is that, typically, the people who go to the shows are some of the same ones who are most in tune with doing better by the environment. In my experience they tend to be educated, 40-and-younger-somethings, who take global warming for a fact and recycle.

Gorgeous produce at the Festival 8 farmer's market (photo: Nick Chambers)

So, if the rock festivals aren’t going to go away and the fans care about the environment, it’s up to the bands and their fans to do as much as possible to minimize the impact of them—and Phish has taken a leading role in this realm. As Mr. Beck said, “We really want to encourage people to minimize their impact. Every step we take is that much closer to an ideal world.”

Biofuels

For starters, Phish has committed to using B20 in all of their tour buses. “It actually wasn’t difficult to find buses that support high blends of biodiesel,” said Beck. “The difficult part was sourcing it. Phish is big enough that it’s not such a problem, but a lot of the smaller bands are having a hard time sourcing biodiesel where they can actually get to places that sell it without going way out of their way.”

As biofuels become more and more accepted and easier to find, the sourcing of them should become less of a problem. But in the meantime, when large organizations such as Phish demand them, it benefits us all.

Food

Recently, Phish has been making it a point to get as much of the backstage catering for their concerts as possible from local and organic sources. According to Mr. Beck, this move stemmed from a desire the limit the “environmental nightmare of trucking vegetables.”

Sign welcoming concert-goers to the farmer's market at Phish Festival 8 (photo: Nick Chambers)

Vendor sign at Festival 8 farmer's market (photo: Nick Chambers)

At Festival 8 this was no exception. In addition to the local and organic backstage catering, fans had a full-on local and (mostly) organic farmer’s market to shop at—and it wasn’t even that outrageously priced.

The market had been set up inside the concert grounds in a high traffic area right next to the general store. This was the first time I have ever seen or heard of a farmer’s market being set up inside a concert venue.

It was organized by the Palm Springs Cultural Center and from what I saw and experienced, the farmer’s market was incredibly popular—you could buy everything from organic coffee and vegetables to dates and bread. And I can’t even tell you how much the crazy green energy drink (made from about 50 different types of seeds, green leafy vegetables and fruits) being sold by one of the vendors saved my butt—that thing roused me quite nicely on those groggy mornings. (continued on page 2)

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