As has been the case in May every year for the past 12 years, Rock the Earth’s annual Summer Education & Outreach Tour is scheduled to kick off on Memorial Day weekend. This year, our touring team will once again be bringing environmental education and activation efforts to the Summer Camp Music Festival in Chillicothe, Illonois. Featuring amazing talent this year including moe., Umphrey’s McGee, Widespread Panic and the Infamous Stringdusters, Summer Camp never disappoints as our first stop on our tour. In addition to our regular environmental education & outreach efforts, we’ll once again be hosting a mobile-device recycling drive and leading a discussion on Social Change Through Music with Floodwood.
Meanwhile, our DC/Baltimore team will be kicking off their summer season at bluegrass-heavy DelFest in Cumberland, Maryland. In addition to gracious hosts the Del McCoury Band, Old Crowe Medicine Show, Railroad Earth, Trampled by Turtles, Lake Street Dive, Greensky Bluegrass and many other bluegrass and/or Americana bands will bring the string instruments (and fans) out in droves. And finally, in Colorado that same weekend, we’ll be heading into Colorado’s Central Mountains to activate fans on our new campaign to expand federal protection for the area’s amazing landscape while educating fans at Campout for the Cause along the banks of the Colorado River at Rancho del Rio in Bond. Featuring Elephant Revival, Gregory Alan Isakov, Fruition, the Shook Twins and others, this consciousness-raising festival for local charities will be a positive addition to our holiday weekend plans.
Once we get past the juggernaut that is the holiday weekend, our touring team will make their way south to reunite with our old friends the Dave Matthews Band for a couple of shows, where we’ll once again be a featured nonprofit in the Reverb green village. We then head to Wakarusa in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas for several days of fun and music by bands such as Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals, Major Lazer, The Roots, Thievery Corporation, STS9 and others.
One of our annual highlights each year is Bonnaroo. Featuring Billy Joel, Mumford & Sons, Kendrick Lamar, My Morning Jacket and many others, Rock the Earth will once again head up the environmental programming with our Social Change Through Music sessions on the Solar Stage and with Green Screens Presented by Rock the Earth in the Cinema Tent. This year we’ll be collaborating with Adam Gardner (Guster/Reverb), members of Dawes, Gregory Alan Isakov, and Hurray for the Riff Raff, as well as screening noted environmental documentaries Merchants of Doubt and holding the world premier of filmmaker Jon Bowermaster’s new film After the Spill. Stop by the Rock the Earth photo booth to take home your very own rockin’ Bonnaroo souvenir. We’ll also be collaborating with the Sierra Club on the official Bonnaroo postcard campaign, taking our involvement in the festival to a new level. Through this action we are tasked with getting 10,000 postcards to President Obama signed, demanding that he and US representatives attending the World Climate Summit in Paris this December take the lead in setting forth an aggressive and clear plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Post-Bonnaroo, we’ll return to the northeastern part of the country to reunite with our friends Rodrigo y Gabriela where we’ll be activating their fans on a number of pressing environmental issues.
Meanwhile, our national activation doesn’t stop. With a new regional intern in the Capital region, you can count on our work increasing in Baltimore and Washington, DC while we continue to activate audiences at shows in the NYC, Chicago and Colorado regions. It’s going to be a busy summer – we’re just getting started!