The Homegrown Music Festival takes place in late July at Byrd’s Adventure Center on the Mulberry River in Ozark, Arkansas. Homegrown is focused on bringing music from near and far to an audience in a responsible way. Our goal is to completely eliminate single use plastics. We had our inaugural year in 2016 and an overall success. We are currently working on ways to make 2017 even better and are looking for one or two sustainability capstone students to work on any of the following:
Food
- Help develop a clear, concise guide to vending at Homegrown, to include standards, what to expect, and tips on achieving and maintaining standards. This guide could be used to develop contract that must be signed by all participating vendors. Due mid-March 2017.
- How can the average festival food vendor adhere to sustainable standards in a cost effective way? Research reputable companies, tips on transforming into a more sustainable operation.
- Develop systems on campsite compost collection. In 2016 food scraps were only collected from main stage area.
Energy
- Identify ways to encourage carpooling to decrease carbon footprint of folks traveling to the festival.
- Explore potential for solar energy.
Information/Marketing
- Develop playbook for sustainable mass gatherings that could be applied to other events. Due mid-April.
- How to market and educate without sounding like an Earth Day festival; Sustainable solution to large scale signage such as banners. Plan of action by December, with follow-through throughout the spring.
Ideal students will be familiar with festival culture in order to help translate known sustainable practices into a festival setting or recognize specific festival issues that can be addressed with sustainable solutions.
No on-site work or travel is required. Regular in town meetings will be scheduled and required; these can take place on campus if needed.
Work on this project will be unpaid, however each participating student will receive two full event passes to HGMF2017 upon completion of project and social media/website mentions.
Any interested students should send questions or brief proposal on what they are interested in helping with to Jessica Sumner: contact@homegrownfestival-ar.com.