Live From Rothbury Day 2

So here’s what happened:

Heading into the media roundtable with Rothbury’s head Greening Team, I felt like I was going to a concert to see an artist for the first time, having only a very basic and general idea about what it takes to create a sustainable environment let alone a three-day music festival. I was very curious and eager to learn and ask questions that I’ve had ever since all this green talk and eco-consciousness flooded the mainstream media.

Some of my long standing question have revolved around; what is really in it for everyone, who’s making the money, who’s driving the change and in the case of Rothbury’s push to be a eco-conscious festival, I really wondered how the fans are going to respond and whether or not the fans behavior is going to change and how does Rothbury plan to help encourage the mental and behavioral shift of the fans. What follows are Live Exhaust-focused highlights from of an hour long discussion and Q&A.

Since Live Exhaust is all about the live show from the fan perspective, I jumped in and asked the panel what they thought about changing fan behavior. Both STS9 frontman David Murphy and Rothbury Green Chief Sarah Haynes responses were a bit surprising.

When I asked them how they plan to deal with the influencing and changing of fan behavior to make festivals and the music industry more environmentally sustainable, Murphy took much of the blame on himself, as an artist and a member of the music industry, and Haynes explained how she received several emails from fans during the planning stages which forced her to raise the bar on her own expectations for Rothbury’s sustainability standard. It was a discussion packed with opinions that will require more research on my part to get a handle on some of the larger issues, but nonetheless it was a great discussion to spur further understanding and awareness that the whole panel hoped would eventually lead to fan, artist and industry action.

And if you have any thoughts about Rothbury’s or any other festival’s plan to be eco-friendly, please drop a comment or send an email. It’s a big topic that is still overwhelming to think about where I fit in but I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts.

Yesterday, I mentioned that I saw the world’s largest installment of canned goods and as you can (no pun intended, seriously) see by the above picture(it’s a hand giving another hand a canned good), the 45,762 cans donated by fans to the Conscious Alliance earned official Guinness Book World Records status on Friday. Next would be the world’s largest can opener, right? I’ll have to check with Guinness on that one. All joking aside, the art, food and support goes to fight world hunger.

On the music side, it was dynamite day with the personal highlights being the psychedelic rock of the Secret Machines,Dave Matthews Band, the Bhaghra beats of DJ Rekha, and a very interesting experience had while taking in to the Dresdon Dolls, that involves a port-a-potie and a paritally blind set but requires further explanation on a future post.

How are the locals liking the Rothbury invasion, so far? I spoke with a local couple who resides in the neighboring town and who had helped to prepare the festival grounds. When I asked who they were looking forward to seeing perform, Stacy said she was excited to come and see Dave Matthews for the first time and her husband Jack explained how he helped to cut the grass field of the festival grounds we were camping on. In short, as I’ve spoken with festival organizers and other locals about the overall impression and impact of Rothbury on the Rothbury town, the vibe seems to be mixed but it is still early to tell as we had one day to go.

Looking ahead to day three, we’ll have a recap on a back stage green tour that we’ll be going on with the Greening Team this afternoon, which will give a behind the scenes look at Rothbury’s eco-infrastructure. We’ll also wrap up the remaining acts, hopefully I can talk my wife, Colleen, out of seeing Colbie Caillat, but it’s not likely. I hope I’m wrong about Caillat, but that’s not likely either. Thank you Myspace. Thank you You Tube.