Summer of Love's spirit blossoming in green movement
By Little Steven Van Zandt
NEW YORK (Billboard) - This week is the 40th anniversary of the Monterey International Pop Festival. It was the mother of all festivals (the Human Be-In in nearby San Francisco six months earlier would be the grandmother) and would punctuate the Summer of Love and the amazing year of 1967.
Two of the many things we learned that year were that life is short but you could do eternally cool things in that short time. Jimi Hendrix's and Janis Joplin's mainstream public existence would be only three years, Brian Jones' five, and Otis Redding had just six months.
The second thing we learned that year, taught to us by Native American and Eastern philosophy, was no matter how short an individual's life is, the planet continues to function for succeeding generations. And how well it functions depends on how much we screw it up.
So, 40 years later, we finally seem to be getting it.
Reverb, a nonprofit started by Guster's Adam Gardner and his wife, Lauren Sullivan, devotes its time to "greening" concert tours, following Bonnie Raitt's example.
Willie Nelson's biodiesel company (we predict) will influence virtually every tour to travel green within five years.
MusicMatters introduced "carbon offsetting," planting trees and supporting alternative sustainable energy sources equal to your sins of emission.
The Vans Warped tour is using solar-powered sound. Bonnaroo, Coachella and Lollapalooza give prizes for recycling. The Hove Festival in Norway has pledged 100 percent carbon neutrality. The Wakarusa Festival will include a sustainability symposium. And on it goes.
It feels like a paradigm shift, folks -- one of the best ever, and there's no going back. Festivals are now putting into practice what was implicit in the spirit of Monterey.
And maybe we're starting to act like the responsible Human Be-Ins the Indians always hoped we'd become.
(Actor and guitarist "Little" Steven Van Zandt, a founding member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and host of the syndicated radio show "Underground Garage," played Silvio Dante on "The Sopranos," which completed its final season on June 10.)
Reuters/Billboard
