I went to my first green concert yesterday: San Francisco welcome for once an outdoor concert within the Golden Gate Park. The San Francisco's Outside Land Music & Art Festival hosted a dazzling line-up, and over 100,000 people showed up everyday from the Bay Area and elsewhere to listen to a wide variety of music over this late summer week-end.
For a minute I could almost imagine myself in Woodstock decades ago (I was not born yet) as quite a few hippies were dancing around... but as a sign of today's times the crowd did not come there to change the world but to save the planet and maybe make a few bucks along the way (tickets were on sale for $85 per day!).
So what was green about this concert? Well, recycling bins and organic food stands were everywhere of course. The printed programs were made of recycled paper and the park remained immaculate over the three days. The crowd seemed to enjoy and respect the park at the same time. More clean-tech, the four stages hosting the bands were powered by solar. The festival attracted good news coverage in part because of its green theme. Planet Green , the recently launched 24-hour eco-lifestyle media network, was one of the TV channels covering the Outside Land festival.
Anoher first for the city of San Francisco who continues to lead the green movement in the media. With a liberal population tuned early on the risks of global warming and a high density of clean-tech VC funds and entrepreneurs close-by, the mayor is committed to improve the city with the greening project accross the city.
Mayor Newsom launched the Livable City Initiative when the city held the Wold Environment Day in June 2005 with a clear goal in mind: to make San Francisco a world leader in city greening by 2010.Three years later, the city is doing well with many events such as this festival and numerous on-going projects in transportation and city planning. Perhaps the most emblematic endeavor is the important forestation plan to improve the famous streets of San Francisco...
