Music festival cuts garbage to a minimum

Jeff Green | Aug 05, 2015

The Blue Skies Music Festival is known for its variety of music, tie-dyed everything, and workshops about subjects such as Appalachian music, Yoga Nidra (sleeping yoga), Thai head massage, and making ice cream.

But this year, in addition to stand-out performances by Swing (fresh from the closing ceremonies at the Pan Am games), folkie Karen Savoca, East Coaster fiddler and guitarist Tim Chaisson, funksters with message Digging Roots, folk/bluegrass veteran Shari Ulrich, and the inimitable Washboard Hank, the festival was all about garbage.

Zero garbage that is. After years of efforts to encourage composting and recycling, working with the Central Frontenac Waste Management Department and Bill Everett from Bee Sanitation, the festival decided this year that it would offer only comprehensive recycling and composting collection. Campers and day visitors to the festival were called upon to minimize their waste and bring whatever could not be recycled home with them. The garbage-free policy extended beyond visitors to the festival, which prepares food for festival goers and performers, and operates a main stage and workshop areas for up to 2,000 people.

“This year I picked up two bags of garbage from Blue Skies,” said Bill Everett. “When I first started working with them they already had recycling in place, but there were 350 bags of garbage as well. They've really done well.”

Everett will be back later this week to pick up recycling, and all liquor and beer containers were collected and returned for refund to benefit the Guatemala Stove Project. There will be a lot of compost as well, but the garbage is down to the amount a family could produce in a week in pre-recycling days.

“The Township of Central Frontenac, like most municipalities, has a waste disposal problem. For as long as I've done recycling and garbage at Blue Skies the township has been worried about landfill space, looking for ways to divert waste from landfills and pricing landfill usage appropriately,” said Matt ???, who convinced the rest of the festival organizers that the zero garbage policy should be put in place.

He explained the Central Frontenac recycling rules to the festival organizers and visitors and offered some tips as well, and waited to see what would happen.

“It helps us all to become more aware of the simple things we can do to reduce our impact in our day-to-day lives,” he said.

By going from 350 bags “over the hill” to just two, the Blue Skies Festival is now part of the solution to Central Frontenac Township's waste issue.