"Green" Music Festival Gives Back to the Community

The Rothbury Music Festival, dubbed as a sustainable camping festival celebrating music, art and action took place July 3 - 6, 2008 in the small, one-traffic-light town of Rothbury, Michigan. The festival, an event conceived by the promoters at Madison House Publicity and AEG Entertainment, was first announced publicly in November of 2007; at the time however, the only details released was the fact that the festival would be taking place at The Double JJ Ranch.

In February 2008, the initial lineup of the Rothbury Music Festival was released, and included such big name acts as The Dave Matthews Band, Snoop Dogg, Primus, John Mayer, Widespread Panic, Phil Lesh & Friends, 311 and more. Modeled after the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival which takes place every year in Manchester, Tennessee, Rothbury would design their festival around an environmentally friendly theme, and would make every effort to offset the event's contribution to global warming in a variety of ways.

After all, with nearly 40,000 people driving and flying in from all parts of the country and even the world, the carbon footprint would obviously be enormous, and completely against everything the festival is about. Concert goers were offered "green" tickets; a portion of the proceeds would go towards investing in wind farms to produce renewable energy, planting trees and more. Furthermore, on behalf of the Rothbury Music Festival, Shelby High School received a full solar panel system that was installed by Black Rock Solar.

But the Rothbury Music Festival's contribution to the environment and the local neighborhoods didn't stop there. There was also a canned food drive held, with limited print posters offered in exchange for just a few non-perishable food items. During the festival all of the donated goods were on display in a canned food sculpture; after the fest was done everything was donated to local homeless shelters and rescue missions.

Once the festival was over, promoters gave Montague High School 15 Gibson guitars and a $2,500 voucher to be used for additional musical equipment for their jazz band. Students at Shelby High School also received a similar donation for their jazz band.

But the Rothbury Music Festival certainly wasn't a good time for all. Michigan State Police report 18 arrests, most on drug related offenses, and there were also two deaths on festival grounds, both involving drug overdoses. Though the deaths occurred on the same day (Sunday - the last day of the festival), the cases were unrelated. Though the future of the Rothbury Music Festival is shaky to say the least, patrons of this year's festival are eager and more than ready to return to the Double JJ Ranch in Rothbury, Michigan.