I’ve decided to take this occasion to finally introduce myself on this blog. Indeed, this buy-nothing project is a family affair. There is more than one of us contributing to this endeavour, although my better half has very much taken the initiative and lead to make sure this thing sticks. She is the environmental engine with endless enthusiasm that keeps us ticking along. I’ve tried my hand at making toothpaste, but my bicycle maintenance skills have certainly fallen well behind her sewing productivity.
So what of the occasion that finally solicits my first contribution? It seems fitting that following our fourth visit to this fantastic festival, I should file a post. The Hillside Festival is a three-day music festival that takes place annually in July at Guelph Lake Conservation Area in Southwestern Ontario. The diverse, top-notch music presented at this unique festival should in no way be downplayed; however, Hillside goes beyond the music to encompass a sense community and consciousness that serves as a noteworthy model for what is possible. The Hillside community has grown up from its early days at an area park in Guelph more than 25 years ago to a full-blown music extravaganza that is run by an army of more than a thousand volunteers. You won’t find any corporate concessions or ads at Hillside. Aside from the logos of some local brews and the purveyors of very tasty food served up on site, you’d be hard pressed to find much in the way of a profit motive save the eclectic artisans offering their wares and the guys running the honey wagons, keeping the port-a-potties clean. Hillside takes its environmental impact very seriously and has undertaken extensive initiatives to lessen it. From reusable dishes washed by those ubiquitous volunteers, to the plentiful refreshing water dispensed free of charge from a large tanker, this festival proves what is possible.
And possibility is the point of this project. It is not about perfection. It is about embracing the possibility of living more in tune with our natural world. Our challenge is finding alternate ways of doing things to lessen our impact. Hillside encourages us by demonstrating solutions to this challenge. The Festival is not about denying oneself in the name of eco-consciousness, but rather living it up responsibly. Hillside’s solutions serve as a refreshing and courageous counterpoint to most other large-scale events where tap water is bottled in indestructible plastic for your convenience and beer cups overflow from garbage bins. The wasteful alternative was highlighted for me during a recent visit to check out the Jays at the Rogers Centre, where sometimes living it up includes a few beers. Not surprisingly, this posed a challenge to the project. I was left to scavenge a used cup from my friend with the hope that he didn’t have a cold and that this would qualify as less impactful. The problem was that the bartender refused to refill a used cup, despite the fact that the keg was tapped and she was pouring from cans! Yes, we reached a fine level of absurdity as we were not only wasting energy to recycle a can, but now we must pour it into a brand new cup too. Now to some this may seem a small detail hardly worth the trouble. To me, who has a serious eco-anxiety surrounding waste, particularly of the spatial kind, this small detail needs to be multiplied by all the beer patrons that night, this year, and at all the other sporting events around North America. This ridiculous waste doesn’t have to be. Hillside is an example of what’s possible.
Hillside is a shining light for what is means to care about the planet. It was great to spend a weekend at a place where you were encouraged to bring your own dishes, rather than scoffed at. You were required to reuse your beer cup (had to be purchased for $2), rather than feeling slight embarrassment for trying. And that is a key message for me from Hillside: we’re not the only ones. It’s okay to take these things seriously. In fact, I suspect future generations will appreciate it. So it’s time for me to hold my head a little higher when I take my reuseable container to pick up pizza slices; being the change is good. Thanks for making it fun, Hillside! See you next year.
