Earthdance

I'm in the process of writing a letter to Earthdance.  I encourage others that were bothered by the lack of earth friendly infrastructure (recycling, compost, etc.) to do the same.  

The festival was full of great music and beautiful people smiling, dancing, laughing, sharing, being free and bringing the best out in each other. The festival reinforced my belief that humans are naturally inclined to kindness, sharing, touch, community, expression and are only socially trained to conform, be closed off and separate. Everyone let their light shine and helped to bring out the light and love in others. All it takes sometimes is a simple touch, smile or a few kind words.  It was my first time attending Earthdance and I was fortunate to have a volunteer position at the ice booth.  I had the opportunity to interact with hundreds of people walking by the booth each day.  Every single person, even when tired, was kind, sincere and joyful.  

I have attended festivals all over the world and was excited to be part of a musical event that also had a social and environmental conscience.  Unfortunately, Earthdance greatly disappointed my expectations.  The festival made some major mistakes that were inconsistent with the "earth" oriented message it was trying to spread.  On the first day I noticed how few recycling bins there were around the site.  I imagined it was because the recycling crew was still getting set up.  At lunch time I went to staff catering for some food.  My happy mood was quickly turned around when I saw that hundreds of cans and bottles were being discarded into the trash.  I spoke with a staff member and was told rudely (the only rude person I encountered all weekend) that the festival wasn't recycling.  Then I looked in a dumpster nearby and it was full of cardboard.  I began to cry.  

Here was Earthdance, a festival with "Earth" in its name, showing no regard for the Earth and its resource.  Here was Earthdance, a festival 30 miles away from San Francisco, one of the greenest and most socially conscious cities in the world, making no attempt to recycle, let alone compost.  Here was Earthdance, a veteran festival, celebrating its 15th year, not having the basics figured out.  Here was Earthdance, a festival hosting indigenous elders who spoke of valuing our resources and taking care of Mother Earth, establishing no infrastructure for staff or fans to do the right thing.  My blood was boiling and my heart was sad.  Earthdance, in the scramble to launch a festival in a new location had made a disgusting error completely out of line of what it seeks to create.  With this in mind, I believe that the positive outcomes created from the festival were overshadowed by the festival's hypocritical lack of regard for our resources and the earth.

On the website Earthdance claims, "The Earthdance festival strives to implement greening policies wherever possible. This includes on-site recycling and sorting of trash, the use of eco-dinnerware by our vendors, etc."  As far as I can tell, this is a lie.  The festival lied to fans, partners, sponsors and media by making this claim.  Although it would have been easily made possible, the festival did not invest in on-site recycling or sorting of trash.  And while it is great to see eco-dinnerware being used by vendors, it made absolutely no difference because all the trash, recycling and eco-ware wound up in the same trash bin.  

I was told by a few festival employees that the town or some other entity would be sorting through the trash.  That is an unacceptable response.  A festival moves into town for one weekend and creates a massive amount of waste.  It is unacceptable for a festival, especially one that is aiming to be socially and environmentally conscious to put the responsibility of sorting through hundreds of disgusting bags of trash.  That sorting can easily be done on site by simply having three bins at all locations - one for trash, one for compost and one for recycling.  Bonnaroo, High Sierra, and Outside Lands, just to name a few, have this figured out.  Bonnaroo is even able to compost on their property.  I guarantee if Earthdance made an effort, the festival could find a nearby farmer that would be happy to take the festival's compost.  That's what was done at High Sierra this past year.

Hiring Clean Vibes might be an added cost for the festival but Earthdance should not be an added cost to the environment.  With Clean Vibes on site massive amounts of waste will be diverted from a landfill and everyone can leave the festival feeling uplifted from the music and also from knowing their festival experience left a small footprint.  Fans like me shouldn't have to spend my time picking recycling out of the trash.  High Sierra is equally as fun and 500% more conscious about the earth.  They hire clean vibes, compost and recycle.  Earth Dance should do the same if it hopes to have me and my friends back next year.

I couldn't agree more with Meia M.'s review. I had a very similar feeling and also would suggest High Sierra Music Festival over Earthdance any day.

We got there from Santa Cruz around 7PM on the first night and all the camping had filled up so we had to camp next to our car in the dirt parking lot. Not only were we out of the tent city, far away from the festival but they parked the port-o-potty shit trucks next to us and would empty the port-o-potties at least 4 times a day. It was the worst thing EVER. The scent of hundreds of people's shit wafting through our campsite for a good 10 minutes, 4 times a day.

I hated how all the music stopped around midnight when I was used to HSMF where music goes to 4am every night. The dirt paths were pretty bunk and the stages were mediocre. I didn't even attempt to take a shower because the lines were outrageous.

Over all this festival was really bad compared to High Sierra. I swore I would never ever go back again. I saw the line-up for this year though and am considering going again. I'm thinking things might have went better if we got to camp in the festival? I don't know, it was pretty bad.

I just came back from Earthdance 2009. It was my first time at this venue. I would maybe consider coming back due to the great bands and fantastic mission concept. But, I felt the price was stiff for the amenities. I am a girl who enjoys camping and music festivals and I don't mind getting dirty. However, I have never encountered a more dirty location and I have been all over urban and rural developing countries! I ended up with a fever and food poisoning one evening. I believe this was due to the insanitary situation. If you are unsure about attending a camping music festival for the first time I would not attend this event. Go to High Sierra Music Festival where there are bathrooms, ample showers, organized parking,longer music lineup, more aware patrons,etc.

I was really looking forward to the concept/mission of Earthdance but, the overall experience was a let down. I was hoping to find a collective consciousness and people who were earth friendly. However, the scene was different. I am used to festivals where people are fairly mellow and know how to party with respect to their neighbors. For me, I enjoy tent cities and the community aspect. I hope other areas were nicer than my city. I was so happy to leave early on sunday. I would hate to try to leave at the same time as others, it was a mad house of packed in people. It took over one hour to exit campground via car. I cannot count the number of people begging for my wristband for their scams on the way out.

Pros:
- Activist alley for non-profits to attend ( $150 for 3 day booth for a non-profit)
- Documentary film area
- Cool techno dome with large projection visuals
- Small stages for close interaction with performers.
- Nice decorative touches ( large yoga area, huge colorful tapestries, very large drum circle area)
-Great bands such as STS9, Galactic, Delhi to Dublin, Devil Makes Three, etc.
- Many camping choices including by river and family camping
- Staff was very helpful when I complained about being blocked in by another car in the parking area.

Cons:
- Abnormally high levels of dust exposure.Expansive clouds of dirt due to dirt stages ( even for main stage) Frequently traveled paths were not watered down in camps. Not so great when everyone is lighting up, can you say fire hazard ? I would bring a decent face mask if I went again to avoid coughing up dirt all weekend.
- Porta-potties only, cleaning was infrequent. These were the dirtiest bathrooms I have ever encountered and several hours would pass before toilet paper was refilled ( For example, toilet paper ran out at 10pm on saturday and refills did not appear until the following morning)
-6 shower stalls for all Earthdance patrons. (3 for women) This led to hour waiting times and 3 minute showers. No privacy and shower time was monitored by a staff member ( to cut down waiting time, which was a pro and a con)
-No online program list. Bio's only for main stage acts in hard copy program materials. Limited info overall on website. Would have been nice to see a camp map prior to going
- For a festival dedicated to world peace I would like to see more non-music events
- For $175 at High Sierra I got an extra day of music, longer sets with big bands such as Galactic and STS9. At Earthdance 2009 Galactic played a 1.5 hour set only. At HS their set was at least twice that.