Music Festival Powered on Clean Energy
Hi, my name is Montana! I'm an avid traveler, event host, and festival-goer!
Over the past two years I've hosted over 100 events from beach ecstatic dances, to underground forest raves, and the majority of them have been run off clean energy.
When run correctly, festivals are safe, fun places to express yourself and be surrounded by an environment of acceptance and support. Sadly, most festivals struggle to make significant strides in terms of sustainable practices.
Within the USA, we've seen some festivals making efforts such as utilizing vegan food trucks, compost toilets, offsetting emissions with trees being planted, and encouraging attendees and artists to carpool or take trains.
But at the end of it all, we aren't addressing one of the biggest sources of pollution: the gas/diesel generators that are powering lighting, sound equipment and other supporting infrastructure,
Until now....
Welcome to Future Spirit Festival, the festival of the FUTURE:
Amid a 200+ acre ranch less than 45 minutes from Boston, will be the setting for a <500-person 2-day camping, arts, and music festival.
Over Memorial Day Weekend you'll find yourself spending more time away from the main stages and exploring activities like sustainability workshops, origami tutorials, comedy skits, open mics, an outdoor movie theater, ecstatic dances, camp games, sound healings, visual performances, yoga, flow artist meetups, silent discos, and so much more! With 4 stages and over 50+ DJs and artists there will be something for everyone! And we hope to power as much of it BY CLEAN ENERGY (solar, wind, kinetic, etc.)
By our current estimates, the minimum power we'd need to run our on-site production completely off renewable energy, would be around 80,000KwH. We've structured our schedule so that we can recharge all the generators before their scheduled use the next day to help use our available energy as efficiently as possible!
The Total estimate for additional equipment comes to around $80,000
Our Donation Goal has been set to cover almost A FOURTH of our power requirements if met. We hope you'll help us exceed that goal to the FULL amount, but this way we can help ensure at least one of the stage's power needs will be met.
We've already invested a large portion of the festival's budget into buying clean electric and solar generators. We are also reaching out to potential partners within the sustainability and portable green power industries for guidance.
One first goal is to partner with a leading clean portable energy company to help sponsor one of the two bigger stages.
Our second goal relies on your help to help cover the costs of some of the remaining generators.
If we achieve this, we can become the first USA festival to have ALL of its on-site production powered by renewable energy (solar and clean electric).
Future Spirit Festival is focused on changing several things about standard festival practices. We are shifting the focus from the attendee's wallets to their individual experience as well as towards better treatment of volunteers and the environment.
Help be a part of this positive change and make a donation today! This is the Future of Festivals!
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If you'd like to see some of the other changes we are making to the festival scene, check out below! Otherwise, thank you for your time and your donation!
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1) Making sure the experience is more than just the music.
Festival attendees can attest that it can feel like a giant case of FOMO sometimes at a festival. Schedule conflicts stink, and sometimes to see the artist you want up close you need to arrive several hours in advance to snag a spot in front of the crowd. Hope you don't need to go to the bathroom for the following hours! So that's why - especially during the earlier hours there will be breaks in the music at main stage. Of course there will still be music playing in the atmosphere in the camps, the marketplace, and other workshops and events happening at the same time, but there will be scheduled breaks of 15-45 minutes while other activities happen. One of the days there will be a tug-of-war game at main stage and another day will be a quick 30 min dodgeball tournament! Other events like sustainability workshops, an icebreaker scavenger hunt, group yoga sessions, and marketplace flash sales will be happening throughout the day and won't require you to sacrifice seeing some of your favorite artists.
2) It's getting HOT out there; GIVE US SOME SHADE!
Water is of the utmost importance, thankfully the majority of festivals get that (but not all), it should be readily available and clean. But what about SHADE? Perhaps you live in an area that's been reaching new highest temperatures every year; it doesn't matter how much water you have, it's still HOT! -- so I'm placing shaded areas at the stages that are hosting events during the early and mid-day hours. Also utilizing the natural existing shaded areas from the surrounding trees of the venue.
3) Is that smoke? No, it isn't. Reducing carbon emissions.
You probably figured this one out since it's the main basis of our fundraiser, but to recap: one of the other reasons I'm glad to be starting with a festival of this size is the increased feasibility to run as much energy as possible off of cleaner resources.
Festivals are sadly huge polluters and for the outlets that are under my control, I plan to utilize clean electric-powered generators. Although it's more costly, I'm adamant about starting at lower than average emissions and pushing towards zero emissions hopefully (with your help) by 2023.
4) What'd you say? WHAT?? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!! Emphasis on safer sound levels
In my experience, it is too often that audio these days is played at an overwhelming volume. While I attest for my personally I do enjoy feeling vibrations from the bass, but I want you to be able to hear the mid and higher frequencies of your favorite songs too, while also not be needing a hearing aid by the final day. I am a big proponent of including silent discos at events so you have the option to enjoy the same audio quality no matter where you stand, can talk to your friends without screaming into their ear, and have a personal control over the music volume; however you desire! Even though we won't be blasting main stage music to category 3 hurricane standards -- professional earplugs are always a smart idea if you choose to stand close to the speakers.
4) Do you want a VIP ticket? You are ALL VIP!
While I believe most VIP benefits aren't worth the 3x costs they usual tack on, my goal is to provide an equally fair and fun experience to everyone. The same amenities and the same price for everyone. You're ALL Very Important People to me.
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Where we are at:
We've acquired our venue, formed the core management team, constructed a site plan, built out an expense report, secured 95% of our artistic lineup, workshop leaders, and sources for major infrastructure. You can check out the lineup on our WEBSITE .
For my friends and family, I hope you know from personal memories how much emphasis I've always placed on festivals providing the right kind of experience to its attendees and caring less about their wallets and more about their hearts.
For the others who read this, I hope my writings here have hit the right chord with you and you see the future I am working towards.
If you desire more information, are curious about other offerings that will be at the event (there are MANY more), or want to donate your time/services, please feel free to reach out to us!