海角大神

It鈥檚 almost 2 a.m. at Lightning in a Bottle, a music festival in Bradley, Calif. The Portland, Ore.-based DJ, Emancipator, is playing his last hypnotic beat and the final headliner, Zhu, just finished an intense electronic set. But neither of these will be the last song of the night. That honor goes to the 鈥淐lean Up Song鈥� by Mr. Nigel & Friends and its slight reggae tones that float over the chattering crowd.

Clean up / Clean up / Boys and girls let鈥檚 clean up

Suddenly, heads bow and backs hunch as people scour the ground for empty cups, dirty forks, and ripped festival guides, and drop the trash into landfill, recycling, and compost cans dotted around the festival.

鈥淚t works,鈥� laughs Jesse Shannon, marketing director of Do LaB, the organization that hosts Lightning in a Bottle. 鈥淚t reminds people in a fun and cute way not to leave everything on the dance floor.鈥�

The 鈥淐lean Up Song,鈥� has been a tradition at Lightning in a Bottle since the beginning. It鈥檚 just one of the innovative ways music festivals are trying to reduce their impact on the environment.

Outdoor festivals have been called . A conducted by Burning Man, the annual gathering in the northwestern Nevada desert, estimated that the seven-day event produced聽91 million pounds of carbon emissions, or 1,400 pounds per person. These events literally produce tons of trash, anything from 60 tons at Lightning in a Bottle in 2015 to almost 550 tons聽 in 2017.

There is a tension between these realities and the beliefs of those who run and attend these festivals. They cater to an audience that鈥檚 educated about the environment. Many attendees are concerned about their environmental footprints but still sometimes leave huge amounts of waste in their wake.

, an on-site waste management company for outdoor festivals, calls these people 鈥渉ippie-crits,鈥� a combination of the word 鈥渉ippie鈥� and 鈥渉ypocrite.鈥� Burning Man has a strong 鈥淟eave No Trace鈥� policy. Lightning in a Bottle hosts talks from climate activists and scientists including the and . Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in San Francisco has worked with Clean Vibes to responsibly manage its waste.聽In 2016, the festival diverted 91 percent of all waste from the landfill by encouraging recycling, reuse, and composting.聽

鈥淣o one throws anything away without talking to us,鈥� says Anna Borofsky, co-owner of Clean Vibes.

And under the shadow of the Lovell Telescope, the British science and music festival Bluedot is built on the idea that the Earth is a very fragile speck in space.

鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to have congruence between your ideas and the things you do,鈥� says Teresa Anderson, director of the University of Manchester's Discovery Centre at Jodrell Bank Observatory, home of Bluedot.

These and other music festivals have sustainability procedures in the hopes of addressing their carbon footprint. They use LEDs for all the lighting except on stages. Many offer free water and have banned the sale of plastic bottles. The food vendors are required to serve on compostable plates and silverware. More than 300 volunteers at Lightning in a Bottle spent the days during and after the event knee-deep in dumpsters sorting trash. According to the 2015 Green Report, the festival's 鈥済reen team鈥澛燿iverted 44 percent of trash from landfills to compost or recycling centers. In 2017, diverting 55 percent of its waste.

But the most significant portion of any event鈥檚 carbon footprint is transportation. Lightning in a Bottle and Bluedot both have bus programs to lessen their carbon impact by transporting more guests per vehicle from the surrounding areas. Lightning in a Bottle also charges a $30 fee for single-occupant cars, while all other parking is free to encourage carpooling.

Festivals hope they can affect people鈥檚 attitudes and awareness instead of simply mitigating their own environmental effects.

鈥淧eople [at a festival] are exploring an alternative way of living, and it鈥檚 a good opportunity to reassess your relationship to waste,鈥� Mr. Shannon says. 鈥淲hile camping, there is a unique opportunity to see all the trash you are going to generate in a single weekend because you have to take it all with you. Hopefully [the guests] take some of those strategies and learnings into regular life.鈥�

鈥淚 find that people are in a different state [at music festivals],鈥� says Amanda Ravenhill, executive director of the Buckminster Fuller Institute. 鈥淭hey are more open, reflective, and have the potential for an epiphany that might become a deeper shift.鈥�

At a venue surrounded by nature and awe-inspiring stages made from recycled materials, speakers find they can have a more profound effect than when speaking from a Marriott Courtyard conference room. Since the 1960s, music festivals and outdoor gatherings have taken on a decidedly countercultural flavor. It鈥檚 not surprising, then, that organizers feel the need to address environmental concerns.

鈥淧eople have been gathering for as long as there have been people,鈥� Shannon says. 鈥淪o it鈥檚 not something we are going to stop doing. It鈥檚 more what can we do to reduce the impacts of these gatherings and at the same time have a positive effect. We are confident we are helping people鈥檚 minds expand and change, and that鈥檚 why we do it.鈥�