Pickathon is renowned as a pioneering leader in festival sustainability. To get there, we started with a dream.
What if…
What if Pickathon eliminated all plastic?
In 2010, Pickathon became the first major American music festival to make it happen.
- Plastic beer cups were replaced with stainless steel cups that every attendee reused all weekend and took home as a collectible.
- Plastic water bottles were replaced with reusable water bottles.
- Water was made free and abundant.
The result of eliminating plastic was our waste volume went down by over 40%.
We were excited but not 100% satisfied, as we knew the huge volume of compostable dishware at most music festivals ends up in the landfill. This inspired a new dream!
What if Pickathon eliminated all single-use dishware/utensils?
In 2011, Pickathon became the first major American music festival to eliminate all single-use food dishes & utensils, replacing them with reusable bamboo-based dishes + utensils that we wash on-site.
Eliminating single use dishware reduced our waste by an additional 30%.
Covid shut the festival down for two years, but during this time, a new dream was born.
What if we minimized our carbon footprint by using time and natural terrain?
In 2022, Pickathon redesigned the entire festival experience to better fit within the environmental footprint of Pendarvis Farm.
During the day when the sun is burning hot, performances take place in thickly wooded locations to provide a cool shaded experience to the performers and audience.
As the sun goes down and the crowds swell, we move to huge open meadows to finish the day under the stars.
This made Pickathon’s festival experience better in every way, and led to us enshrining one of our three core design principles – Nature is the Best Vibe.
Here’s what else we do every year to keep Pickathon environmentally sustainable:
Recycling & Compost
Pickathon’s recycling and compost team is made up of volunteers who spend most of the festival rounding up everything that can be either recycled or composted.
Solar Energy
Pendarvis Farm hosts a permanent solar array on the roof of the Galaxy Barn. The energy generated during the year offsets 100% of the energy used during the festival in the Galaxy Barn plus a portion of the electricity used by the food and craft vendors.
Transportation
Pickathon financially incentivizes our audience to ride bikes and take mass transportation to Pickathon to minimize the total carbon footprint of Pickathon.
