On Sunday, September 18, there was a festival at the Lakefront – the first ever Rock The Green festival. Rock The Green (RTG) was the brainchild of one Lindsay Stevens Gardner, the Founder and Executive Director of the event. A Milwaukee native, she lived for several years in Boulder, CO and San Diego, CA working as a music and events promoter.

She states that those two cities influenced the pro-environment attitude that was the driving force behind RTG. In our interview, she related that she wanted to create an event that promoted an eco-friendly lifestyle, and was able to utilize her network as a music promoter to compile the list of acts that would draw people in from around the city. Milwaukee was chosen for this event because Ms. Stevens Gardner wanted the event to benefit her hometown. There were a number of environmentally friendly things going on at RTG. There was a free bicycle valet, complete with free tune-up service for your bike. With a paid ticket entry, every patron was given a recyclable water bottle that could be refilled for free on the grounds. After the event, they measured how much water was dispensed, and they will figure out how many plastic bottles were saved and not tossed into the garbage.

Veolia environmental services provided numerous bins that had picture labels as to what kind of trash they had in their container. As an added benefit, all of the waste materials – including plates, utensils, and napkins were all compostable, and would be disposed of as such. The portable toilets were all used to collect raw materials, which would be forwarded to the Milorganite Company, to be turned into environmentally friendly fertilizer.

There was a bicycling team on the grounds that were providing power to nearby tents for lighting and music, by hooking up their cycles to generators and batteries. Goodwill sponsored the event by providing tee shirts of all colors and sizes, which RTG printed logo’s onto and sold the shirts to raise money as a merchandising venue. This created a unique set of shirts, in which no two shirts were the same. Food vendors had to fit certain requirements, such as being local, organic, or free range in nature – no preservatives and all of the money went to benefit local and organic farmers.

All of these items, and many more, are directed at one simple goal – to encourage and foster a green lifestyle. The event was not only to entertain and provide a venue for weekend patrons, but also to educate the local population about just how easy it is to reduce our footprint on the planet, and make it a more livable place for everyone. The whole event was centered around the idea of creating a near-zero waste festival, where the community can come together and do something good for each other, and the world as a whole. Ms. Stevens Gardner expressed hopes that similar festivals will pop up in other cities, and already has plans in place for the second annual RTG festival. When asked what she hoped everyone would take away from the event, she replied, “Every little step counts – all those little things add up to one very big thing. Even if you do just one ‘green’ thing a day, it all adds up.”