Eco-Friendly Details Added to Festival Line Up: Rothbury Kicks Off Third Day of Festivities
By Brian Mccollum, Detroit Free Press
Jul. 5–UPDATED: 6:07 PM
GRANT TOWNSHIP — They’re practically as common as dreadlocks and tie-dye here at Rothbury this weekend: tricolored disposal stations across the festival grounds, dotting the vast fields, lining the campgrounds, tucked into nooks backstage.
Three 50-gallon barrels make up each of the 2,000 stations, known to Rothbury organizers as reclamation centers. That’s a fancy way of saying the places where people ditch their debris, each distinctly marked to guide fans, artists and fest personnel: green for “Compost,” blue for “Recycle,” orange for “Landfill.”
They’ve become the inescapable visual signature of a festival that set out to make itself an environmental milestone. And as the four-day Rothbury reached its third day at the Double JJ Ranch north of Muskegon, organizers were hailing their effort as a sweeping success.
While bands such as Widespread Panic and Drive-By Truckers were filling Rothbury with long hours of earthy rock music, the inaugural festival was busy getting organic in a more traditional sense. Officials said today the event was on track to hit an 80% “diversion rate” — meaning four-fifths of Rothbury refuse was headed for composting and recycling, double the standard at most modern fests.
That included stuff like the cups created from corn — more than half a million of them — and the plates made from sugarcane. They looked like standard disposable trash; in fact, they were meant for the compost barrels, where they eventually were carted backstage for processing.
“Yes, earthworms can eat this,” said a pink-shirted disposal staffer, holding up a one of the seemingly plastic cups.
“We tried to dig deep and not take the easy way,” said Sarah Haynes of the Spitfire Agency, hired as Rothbury’s greening director. “In every decision we made, we asked how can we get to zero waste, or as close to it as possible.”
That means corn-based biodiesel fuel running nearly every generator, and a strict set of rules for visiting vendors.
“An event like Rothbury can plant a flag — here’s an example, here’s a way to take action,” said fest producer Jeremy Stein, who said the green steps had added “slightly more” cost to the festival’s budget.
David Murphy of the band STS9 said Rothbury marks a breakthrough.
“From an artist’s perspective, this is definitely the most cutting-edge festival in America,” said Murphy, who said he’s used to seeing a sea of empty cans and cigarettes at similar events.
Indeed, the grounds in front of Rothbury’s three big stages seemed to be cleaner the most. Still, verdicts were mixed among fest-goers and others.
A volunteer who asked to be identified only as Jay from Colorado, manning a station near the Sherwood Court stage today, said fans were evenly split between eager and ho-hum.
“Half of them are loving it,” he said. “The other half are like, ‘This guy is sitting here making me do this — I don’t really care about it.’”
“Fans are in festival mode. They’re here to have a good time,” said attendee Karlee Cederquist, 20, of Montague. “They’re not really thinking about the eco-friendly part of it.”
But she figured change might come with time.
“Old habits die hard,” she said. “If they keep doing this, if it’s more than a one-time event, I think it’ll start to stick.”
Contact BRIAN McCOLLUM at 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com
UPDATED: 2:23 PM
GRANT TOWNSHIP — Fans pulled themselves up today for a third go at Rothbury, as the music fest rolled into its penultimate day at the Double JJ Ranch north of Muskegon.
Awaiting them tonight at the main stage will be Dave Matthews Band, the biggest popular draw among the show’s 80-plus acts.
The action had stretched well into the wee hours overnight, as the event’s tightly packed campgrounds served as a sleepless party hub for many Rothburyites.
Michigan State Police had made seven total arrests and issued numerous citations as of 1 p.m. today, said 1st Lt. Dave Roesler. Most were for drug infractions, including fest-goers busted with large quantities of marijuana, hallucinogens and prescription narcotics.
Roesler said police are focusing on egregious offenders, including particularly brazen fans who have dared to light joints within eyeshot of state troopers. He described the weekend’s policing mentality as a careful balance: Troopers have not been combing through the massive main-stage crowds actively hunting for small-time violations, for instance.
“You have to manage a festival like this as best you can,” said Roesler, commander of the Grand Haven state police post. “Then it’s up to local officials to decide if it’s something they’re happy having here.”
Some area residents have complained that the fest’s music is louder than they’d anticipated, said Roesler, who said festival officials will drop the main-stage volume today and install decibel meters to keep levels consistent.
UPDATED: July 4, 9:13 PM
GRANT TOWNSHIP — And so Rothbury got its groove on.
A whole bunch of grooves, to be exact, as the festival kicked into full-bore music mode Friday, second of four days for the high-profile new Michigan event.
Thursday had been the moving-in day. This was the housewarming party. Fans hit the festival grounds ready to sink their teeth into Rothbury, and the fest’s music bill accommodated them, stacked with loads of premium talent at the Double JJ Ranch north of Muskegon.
At times it was a logjam, with multiple stages featuring sets from in-demand acts. But too much music was a good sort of dilemma for fans who had made the Rothbury trek — paying at least $244 and often far more — to enjoy this very problem.
That crowd, meanwhile, continued to grow. While most advance-ticket buyers had arrived by Thursday night, Friday’s onsite ticket sales remained “strong and steady,” said spokeswoman Carrie Lombardi, and she expected that to continue today, with headliner Dave Matthews Band on tap. Counts will not be released until early next week, but officials have said attendance could range as high as 50,000.
As bleary eyed campers picked themselves up, early wanderers Friday got a jolt of old-school soul steam with a funky, hollering set from Memphis vocalist Charles Walker and his band the Dynamites. His early-afternoon show marked the debut of the Odeum main stage, which had been idle on Rothbury’s abbreviated Thursday launch.
Reggae stalwarts the Wailers drew crowds to the Odeum stage for an appropriately sunshiny set in early afternoon, while stellar-voiced Bettye Lavette — the only Michigander on the main bill — served a well-received career retrospective before a small but receptive crowd at the Sherwood Court stage
Sam Beam offered pleasant acoustic folk on the Ranch Arena stage, but lost a big chunk of his audience as Snoop Dogg’s main stage set neared at 4:30 p.m.
Drawing the weekend’s biggest crowd yet — what looked to be well over 10,000 — the L.A. rapper provided the first supersized musical moment of the four-day fest, whipping up a fan-pleasing set of syrupy hit raps and a cover of House of Pain’s “Jump Around.” Still, Snoop’s appearance had the odd feel of a novelty set, amid a lineup of artists either more serious or more musically sincere.
Backstage, performers and road personnel chatted and relaxed in the tented artists’ lounge, hugging and slapping hands as this latest convergence of tour routes had old friends crossing paths.
The music continued on Rothbury’s multiple stages. At a jam-packed Sherwood Court, Seattle’s Modest Mouse played an occasionally sloppy 90-minute set of angular indie rock. Thumping bass bled into the band’s surroundings from the main stage several hundred yards away, where 311 was drawing roars for a kinetic funk-ska-rock set that included such hits as “Down.”
On the Double JJ grounds, day two found good vibes and high spirits intact. The Rothbury faithful were graced with another afternoon of sublime weather — temperatures in the mid-70s and lush blue skies — with a cool breeze kicking up as evening set in. It goes without saying that good weather is helpful at any event, but Rothbury so far has enjoyed the sort of sublime conditions that push moods to the next level.
Festival-goers, now acquainted with the site after 24 hours of roaming, seemed content to go where the day took them. Fans squinted into their sunlit cell phones as they pecked out text messages to friends elsewhere on the site, arranging meet-up spots and exchanging tips on hot sets.
With a midnight fireworks display waiting in the wings, it was up to Widespread Panic to provide the sonic oohs and ahhs. Playing the leading role it has frequently played at Bonnaroo, the Georgia band served up two lengthy sets to close out the Odeum stage, flanked by two indispensable high-definition video screens.
As the sun set over the trees in the distance, the crowd settled in to lose itself in what would stretch into three hours of high-wattage grooves. John Bell and company promptly confirmed why they have become the reigning titans of the jam-band world, locking into loose-limbed, rapturous improvisation that took fans through a joyride of sound.
If other corners of Rothbury have been suffused with ’60s vibes, Panic nudged things ahead a decade: Against the timelessly glorious sound of Fender guitars and vintage amps over swirling Hammond organ, Rothbury might as well have been some early ’70s racetrack concert from the post-flower-power era.
It was a fine finale to Rothbury’s main stage debut, sending revelers into the night with the sounds of Jimmy Herring’s sizzling guitar lines still ringing in their ears — and ready to fill them with something new again today.
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