THE ASPEN TIMES – February 16, 2011
Posted on February 16, 2011, at 4:11 pm
ENTERTAINMENT, ENVIRONMENT MIX AT NEW FESTIVAL IN SNOWMASS
SNOWMASS VILLAGE — Michelin Hall makes clear that the primary purpose of the EMU Eco-Music Festival, which will debut early this summer, in Snowmass Village, is entertainment and enjoyment. “What’s really behind this is to produce an amazing time for Fourth of July weekend. That’s the heart of it,” Hall said from his office in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood.
But while Hall and his partners in the festival present music, parties, yoga and a capture-the-flag tournament, they don’t intend to give a cursory glance at the environmental impacts of the four-day event. EMU expects to go beyond the usual steps of recycle receptacles and litter patrol. The festival team is using EMU, which runs June 30 through July 3 in its inaugural run, to explore ways of making the festival experience — and not just the EMU event — a more environmentally friendly endeavor.
“As producers, we’re looking at every piece of it — waste to bottles to tickets to port-a-potties to fencing,” said Hall, who is making his first venture into creating a large-scale music festival. (His marketing company, Theatre Mama, specializes in events — it has worked with Cirque de Soleil — and social media.) “We’re really dissecting it and using this platform to motivate and stimulate our vendors, like the people who provide the tickets and port-a-potties, to ask questions about their process. And maybe to have them say, ‘I’ll plant a tree for every ticket we sell.’”
Hall said the festival producers — including Alyse Pask, who owns a Miami marketing company that works regularly with the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen; and Timothy Wooster, a partner in Theatre Mama and the owner of a software company — are working with outside companies on several green initiatives that will be announced a few weeks ahead. Hall did specify one project that was in the works: EMU is in talks with a valley architectural firm — he declined to say which one — on the tents for the festival.
“We’re looking at the structure of a tent, if we can make it totally green,” he said. “Can we make it out of all organic materials? How can you make it smaller and easier to store? How can you make it easily shippable? Can you donate it to another country where it’s needed?”
Hall added that EMU is looking to use local vendors “as much as possible.” The festival has hired Josh Behrman, the events coordinator for Snowmass Village who is behind such festivals as the Snowmass Chili & Brewfest, as its operations manager.
EMU — which has signed on with Snowmass Village for a two-year run, though Hall said he expects it to become a long-standing event — will also present an exhibitors village featuring 25 of “the most innovative and inventive companies.” While he was not yet ready to identify the exhibitors, he said he had recently seen a clock that is powered by water, and a flying, solar-powered car — examples of the kinds of products he would like to feature.
“We’re looking to provide some stimulation, so when people walk into the festival, they are inspired by what they see,” he said.
The EMU team took time considering what kind of environment would be most suitable for the festival. They kicked around college campuses, football fields, botanical gardens, and even a Virginia farm owned by Hall’s family. They narrowed the focus to ski areas based on the closeness to nature, the abundance of space and the existing infrastructure. They visited Vail, Breckenridge and Beaver Creek before settling on Snowmass.
“It was because of the people,” Hall said. “Everyone who lived there was just so into the nature. The consciousness was already high. Maybe if we went to Virginia, we’d still have to be telling them about turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth.”
On the entertainment side, EMU has not announced any of the mainstage acts. Hall noted that the festival wanted to bring in acts that will be new to the area. The first concert in the Snowmass Free Music Series, on Thursday, June 30, will serve as the kick-off to EMU. The next day will feature activities — hiking, biking, an uphill race and capture-the-flag — designed to get people onto the mountain, as well as a Sunset Social with live music at Base Village. Saturday will have the headline music acts on the Fanny Hill stage, and the festival closes Sunday with a pool party.
Hall said the festival is allowed to sell 6,000 tickets per day. The first 500 people who sign on to EMU’s Facebook site (facebook.com/emufestival) will be entered into a drawing for free tickets.
Hall expects EMU to attract people looking for entertainment over the Fourth of July weekend. But he also hopes to send them home with a heightened consciousness about the environment.
“You come away from a Metallica concert with more metal in your blood,” he said. “With this, hopefully you walk away with more green in your blood.”