Colorado goes green with first annual EMU Music Festival

Coloradans and people from around the world can take part in filling their responsibilities to helping the environment while partying it up during Colorado’s inaugural EMU Festival. Located in the mountain town of Snowmass, surrounded by white snow-capped peaks and lime-green aspens, this eco-music festival kicks off its first year with some of the hottest bands from around the country. Featuring performances by jam band and Colorado favorite, Leftover Salmon, The Disco Biscuits, Tea Leaf Green and L.A.’s resident DJ Aaron Colbert, the musical line-up showcases music to ignite your inner dancing-fever.

This four-day long festival takes place from Thursday, June 30 through Sunday, July 3.

EMU Music Festival pledges its eco-values while giving crazed concert-goers the opportunity to escape the city heat in the most exciting new festival in the area. The EMU Music Festivals producers and founders Michelin Hall, Alyse Pask and Timothy Wooster said they’ve developed an event that will help make Colorado a trend-setter in the efforts to save our planet.

“After talking with the other producers about what it was we were most passionate about, we decided that it all came down to our responsibility to the environment,” Hall said. “We came up with the EMU Music Festival so we could offer a direct tie-in to give back to the environment.”

Every element of the festival is eco-friendly. The tents are being locally designed for environmental sustainability, a tree will be  planted for every ticket sold and the bottles and utensils will be 100 percent biodegradable.

Hall said that he and the other festival producers have the goal of leaving an eco-legacy. The main concept is to help everyone, including the festivals vendors and partners, to take steps towards becoming green.

“As opposed to other festivals, we started from a green edict up front. If it’s not 100 percent sustainable and eco-friendly, we would prefer it not to be a part of this festival,” Hall said. “(Being eco) is in our DNA. We never questioned not doing it completely eco-friendly.” While understanding that an event committing itself to being 100 percent eco-friendly is costly, Hall believes that we can no longer use money as an excuse.

Just by planting the trees for the ticket sales, festival attendees will be doing their part to offset 1.2 million pounds of CO2.

“For us, as producers, we wanted to say if you simply come, show up, and don’t do anything but buy your ticket and party your pants off, you are helping the environment and doing good,” said Hall.

Along with the fact that there is a killer music line-up and the opportunity to give back to the environment, this music fest takes place in the beautiful mountain town of Snowmass, which Hall said is LGBT friendly.

“Whether you’re gay, purple or an immigrant, nobody seems to care. (Snowmass) is a totally open place with a very open mentality. It’s all about having a great time.”

Hall said that festival producers have no plans to become a Bonnaroo or Coachella festival. “We want to keep it small,” he said. “As we are trying to become a zero-waste site, we’ve limited it to 6,000 people.” So, if you’re interested, buy tickets now. Because Hall said that they do expect to sell-out.

Alongside the outdoor activities which includes guided hikes, bicycle treks and yoga sessions, this festival offers pool and hot-tub parties on the ski slopes, after-parties, music, dancing and all around mountain fun that caters to a diverse audience. For more information on the weekend’s events, along with accomodation information and to purchase tickets, visit www.emufestival.com or to see what makes EMU eco, visit www.emufestival.com/eco.

EMU Music Festival is offering a special discount ticket for Saturday, July 2. Get your ticket for $55, offer valid from June 21 through June 29.