By: Erika Stevens
Tecmark Inc.

Live outdoor music is one of the many perks of summertime. I have been to other festivals in the past but this year I traveled to Chicago for my first Lollapalooza. Before we even arrived at Grant Park the first day I was anticipating all of the tweeting, foursquaring and facebooking I was going to participate in to connect with other festival goers and possibly earn rewards (in this case free stuff!). On Foursquare in particular there were giveaways when you were the first of a number of people to check-in to a stage. I had my eyes on VIP passes but sadly because of the horrible cell coverage my phone barely worked the entire weekend and I was forced to find another way to earn my free stuff. Luckily Lollapalooza had the Rock & Recycle program.

My husband and I were confused at first on Friday night when we saw festival goers walking around with green trash bags collecting cans. It turns out that a part of Lollapalooza’s greening initiatives is to reward festival goers that fill a bag of recyclables with a t-shirt and a chance to win a bike. On the last day of Lollapalooza we decided the t-shirt was worth the effort and got a bag. The morning was a hard sell since not many people were drinking but by the afternoon we were getting somewhere. Not wanting to further explore the life of garbage collecting, I chose to lounge and listen to The Cars while my husband filled the last ¾ of the bag. I was surprised to see how many people participated in the Rock & Recycle, but it does follow the classic idea of incenting people with collect X amount of this and get something for free.

Rewarding people for making smart decisions is something a number of companies have been exploring such as Recyclebank, energy companies, and startups like Bolder. Rock & Recycle is just one of the initiatives by Capital Sports and Entertainment who run the revamped Lollapalooza as well as Austin City Limits. Along with refillable water stations and encouraging people to travel to the festival by train or carpooling they are committed to offsetting the damage that can be done with a gathering of this size. There were also compost stations, socially conscious companies and a farmers market in an area called Green Street at Lollapalooza.