Is Bonnaroo worth all of this?

[bouche]

From the Worst Jobs in Rock and Roll history

4 days of pure waste? Curious because you never really see these reports.

[afro poppa]

its a shame that more people dont realise that someone actually has to pick up the trash eventually...not just at bonnaroo though at all festivals you see people leaving their shit around and mixing regular garbage with recycling all the time

youd think that the people going to these kinds of festivals would be the exact people that wouldn't do those kinds of things...ahh well...all ya can do is clean up after yourself and on your way out of the show grab a couple of cans people have left behind...

[AD]

you'd think that the people going to these kinds of festivals would be the exact people that wouldn't do those kinds of things.

that's quite the stretch dude. you have a wide paintbrush...

the worst i've seen is Sasquatch at the Gorge. Disgusting. Bluesfest in Ottawa gets pretty bad too.

Bonnaroo is in a whole other league, a whole other sport. People are camping for 5 days. I wonder how Glastonbury is after it's done. Perhaps all the trash just gets sucked into the mud and it disappears.

[Guest Low Roller]

I wonder how Glastonbury is after it's done. Perhaps all the trash just gets sucked into the mud and it disappears.

Or simply the British don't notice how much garbage is lying around.

[Blane]

you'd think that the people going to these kinds of festivals would be the exact people that wouldn't do those kinds of things.

that's quite the stretch dude. you have a wide paintbrush...

the worst i've seen is Sasquatch at the Gorge. Disgusting. Bluesfest in Ottawa gets pretty bad too.

Bonnaroo is in a whole other league' date=' a whole other sport. People are camping for 5 days. I wonder how Glastonbury is after it's done. Perhaps all the trash just gets sucked into the mud and it disappears.[/quote']

I'd be inclined to agree with Afro Poppa. Ok not just the people in attendance, but the fest organizers itself.

Take japan's fuji rock fest. 3 days of camping for most people, tens of thousands in attendance (wikipedia says 100,000 people attended in 2005, but that seems overstated to me), and the place is friggin' spotless. People put out their cigarette buts in little trays, there are recycling/garbage depots in appropriate places all over the place that get used. I think Phorbesie could back me on this, but it's a very very clean scene. I chalk it up to organizers taking care about that end of things, and attendants actually giving a shit about the grounds.

Kinda like where's Waldo, FIND THE TRASH...

Edited September 5, 2007 by Guest

[Guest Low Roller]

Lawnchairs!

[Blane]

yeah, at the back and out of the way of the people who want to be up close and therefore opt to stand. The way it SHOULD be!

[Baj]

"People put out their cigarette buts in little trays, there are recycling/garbage depots in appropriate places all over the place that get used." ~Blane~

Thats a great point, that the organizers over here never seem to provide enough clearly marked recycling and garbage, seperate bins. And never enough portalets...

[captainsunshine]

Gathering of the Vibes seemed to do a good job with getting everyone to help out with the garbage/recycling problem. Upon entry to the fest, they gave you as many garbage/recycling bags as you wanted, and constantly had volunteers riding and walking around helping out with the garbage, picking up some and handing out more bags to people.

They also had a saying of "curb your dead" or something to that sort so that when your recycling or garbage bag got full, just take it to the curb and golf carts were always coming around picking them up.

It made for a very clean and positive fest in my opinion.. It even sparked people to help out with seperation of garbage/recycling, even people who normally wouldn't give a shit.. Just because it was so easy to do!

I hate when fests don't even hand you a garbage or recycling bag on the way in!! I usually come armed with a few garbage bags just in case, but the easiest thing for a venue to do is to hand them out freely!

[AD]

bonnaroo hands out trash and recycling bags upon entry, the clean vibes crew is always visible, they run contests for who can pick up the most garbage (with good prizes too)... not sure what the solution is, but the organisers are trying.

[captainsunshine]

That's crazy then..

Some people just go in thinking that "oh, it's someone's job to do this", and leave shit everywhere.. I've definitely heard that being said at many events/festivals..

I don't understand, but I guess I never will understand people like that..

[Guest Low Roller]

In England (or at least in Brighton) parks by my house are always a mess because people come to the park, sit down on the grass, have a beer or two, some chips, and then leave all the bags and empties on the ground when they leave. Drives me batshit when I see that.

The city now invests lots of money to have frequent 'garbage-pickers' and street sweepers going around cleaning up after people.

Throwing stuff on the ground is just part of the culture here, so rather than hit the core issue and change the culture, local governments just throw money at the problem in a reactive way.

The individual people who don't see a need/can't be bothered with picking up their litter that are the biggest problem.

[AD]

gotta take into account that bonnaroo is a 24 hour a day, 5 day long festival. there are 90,000 people there every day, all day. if that was pro-rated to the other festivals people are talking about then maybe it would be a fair / better comparison.

[SmoothedShredder]

I would wager that with a little give or take, the amount of waste the people at Bonnaroo/Bluesfest leave behind at a festival, is about the same as the amount of garbage they would generate into their own cans, if they just stayed at home... what so shocking is that we actually can see it.

Same goes for poop.

[bouche]

I used to work with a guy in Smiths Falls who would hit the Burger King drive-thru and get a couple of cheeseburgers. On the way back to work on the country road, he'd be finished and put all of the garbage back in the BK bag, and toss it out the window.

I'd give him shit and he'd claim that his property taxes pay for the road clean up crew.

Fucking retard.

[hamilton]

I've heard a similar response from some of my students here - the city employs many retired people to pick up trash in the subways and parks, and that if everyone threw all of their trash in the garbage bins it would put the old people, who need the money to live, out of work.

[SmoothedShredder]

Yeah... out of work... picking up trash. Probably the most anticipated job for the elderly.

Maybe if people threw out their own trash they could pay these people to do something else with the money they set aside for them.

[hamilton]

Exactly.

The laziness factor is even worse - I've had people tell me that it is "too burdensome" to carry their garbage - like drink bottles or food wrappers - with them if they can't find a trash can immediately nearby.

Edited September 5, 2007 by Guest

[SmoothedShredder]

Cool. I mean the money can/will be spent somewhere else. It like the glorious jobs in the recycling industry where one will work 40 hour weeks in big buildings sorting out foreign material from Pop Bottles!

No real private company would do this work, cause there's little money to be made by the end product of this process... atleast compared to the cost of producing plastic pellets without having to sort through the trash. The subsidies keep it going.

Now if we just managed to cut our consumption, then the bottles wouldn't end up needing to be sorted, and these cost ineffective companies would go out of business. Leaving more tax money in your pocket, so you could go out and say, buy a peice of art, or go watch a local live band!

Then all those old people from Korea, and the out of work recycling laborers could for a kick ass fusion band, and help to support the customer base for the beer and spirit industry!

Or something along those lines.

[paisley]

always have garbage and recycling bags hanging off the front of my tent, try to pocket any cigarette butts and keep an ashtray on site (roaches go to the gods, or the desperate)... feel like it results in a pretty small footprint

not like I'd preach to anyone about how to do their thing though, is a personal decision

(there's no way I'm feeling sorry for the people cleaning up "Ground-Score City")

[Baj]

(there's no way I'm feeling sorry for the people cleaning up "Ground-Score City")

BINGO,

another great point

they signed up, and got a free ride...

[bouche]

Another reason people should smoke. Less garbage!

[Schwa.]

gotta take into account that bonnaroo is a 24 hour a day, 5 day long festival. there are 90,000 people there every day, all day. if that was pro-rated to the other festivals people are talking about then maybe it would be a fair / better comparison.

I was absolutely awed and amazed at the cleanliness after Burning Man was over. Not one speck of anything on the ground. Nothing at all, not one thread of anything. Inspiring to say the least.....50,000 people for 8 days and no garbage at all....there aren't even any garbage pails to put your shit in so everyone takes out what they took in with no exception.

Awesome!

[AD]

isn't there a bit incinerator there?

that is pretty damn good for a gathering of that size.

[allison]

Why on earth is anyone shocked at how much garbage is accumulated at Bonnaroo...and how long it takes to clean it up?

We all(to generalize) produce alot of garbage,most of us probably atleast one bag per household per week..if not more..plus recycling.It just doesn't register until you think/see it en masse.Anybody know how much household garbage is produced by a city poulation of 900,000 per week?I doubt its far off the Bonnaroo totals and probably far exceeds it.

Burning Man isn't comparable(though Im not sure Schwa was comparing,more just pointing out)because the gathering is underlined by creating an intentional community...which sure as hell isn't the focus of any music festival we are talking about here.

youd think that the people going to these kinds of festivals would be the exact people that wouldn't do those kinds of things

I guess I never will understand people like that..

"People" in both cases meaning fairly AVERAGE people?Excuse my cynicism but the concert/festival going crowd hold no monopoly on higher moral standards...environmental or not,and in my experience talks a good line and seldom acts on it.

Not to say things can't be improved...EVERYWHERE.