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The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee featured not only one of the most eclectic line-ups you were likely to find this summer (Sigur Ros! Kanye West! Metallica!), but it was also home to a veritable wonderland of non-profits and green resources aimed at heightening the global consciousness of concert goers. Among those groups was the GRN.  With Stephanie Powell as our intrepid leader, seven interns and volunteers packed into a cramped mini-van with cardboard crabs and a life-size poster of Mark Twain, making the granola-filled 8-hour journey to the Fest. Over 1,750 people stopped by the GRN booth to fill out a postcard asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set numeric limits to Dead Zone-causing pollutants nitrogen and phosphorous.
As politicians make attempts to relax animal waste discharge standards and the corn-based ethanol boom poised to unleash record amounts of nitrogen pollution; it’s important now more than ever to secure a commitment to protect the waters of the United States. New Orleans favorite radio station WWOZ was also out in full force at Bonnaroo to record and broadcast from the “Something Else New Orleans” stage. In addition to memorializing the live performances of artists like the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and the Morning 40 Federation, WWOZ broadcasted a call to text for the coast! Have a cell phone handy? Take a second and text COAST to 77007 to urge the Presidential candidates to make restoring and protecting the Gulf Coast a priority. While Louisiana currently loses coastal wetlands at a rate of a football field every 45 minutes, record temperatures are warming the Gulf of Mexico, ready to fuel an already active hurricane season. Your text will tell the Presidential candidates to prioritize coastal defenses. Thanks to our friends at WWOZ and their live-streaming broadcast to the internet for making our message global!  Be sure to check out our Flickr site and let us know your name if you are featured in our Stop the Dead Zone photo campaign! If you were lucky enough to chat with one of the kind folk from GRN, we’d all like to extend a hearty thank you for both helping stop the Dead Zone and making our experience at Bonnaroo truly a wonderful time. Thanks, ya’ll!
Also, a big thanks to the Planet Roo folks for giving us the opportunity to be at Bonnaroo!
Megan Milliken
Natural Storm Defenses Intern
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