Sustainability | Roots And Blues Festival

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How You Can Help

Our 2019 Sustainability Director, Scout Merry, our festival management team and our volunteer green team encourage you to support our sustainable practices in nearly every aspect of the Roots n Blues Festival Music Festival.

We seek to work with food and drink vendors that integrate green practices in their operations. Vendors are encouraged to use only recyclable and compostable containers and utensils. The vendors who facilitate green practices are given priority marketing in Festival social media as well as on-site signage.

Hundreds of signs are posted throughout the festival grounds to inform patrons that there are two designated smoking areas in the park during the Festival. Otherwise, smoking is prohibited in the park. Logboat Brewing Company provides TerraCycle cigarette butt receptacles in our smoking areas to prevent patrons from dropping cigarette filters in the grass.

In our efforts to lead by example, all festival staff and volunteer training sessions and materials include messaging about recycling and tips on how to interact with patrons to encourage and expand our green initiatives.

City of Columbia Solid Waste staff collected only 10.61 tons of refuse from our 10,000 guests during the three days of the 2018 Festival. This City department also reported the collection of 5.37 tons of #1-7 plastics, aluminum, glass, paper, corrugated cardboard and boxboard during the three days of festival operations. That’s two full City recycling trucks!

The City of Columbia provides us with 100 recycling bins and the University of Missouri Athletic Department supplements that number in support of our efforts to make recycling easily accessible throughout the Festival grounds.

Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture, a local nonprofit agency, provides daily composting services for food and drink vendors at the Festival.

Culligan Water provides a public filtered drinking water station in vendor row to encourage festival patrons to bring refillable water bottles.

Festival patrons are offered the opportunity to earn a limited edition Festival Green Team t-shirt by filling a standard City of Columbia recycling bag full of cans and cups from the festival grounds.

On the Monday following the Festival, vendors, stages, and tents are removed and the green team’s work expands significantly. The team reported the collection and delivery of twenty pickup truckloads of materials to City of Columbia recycling centers after the Festival.

Get Involved

Interested in joining our Green Team? Looking for a great way to enjoy the festival for free and do your volunteer work the next day?

Become a Volunteer

The health and safety of our community has always

The health and safety of our community has always been our highest priority. Because of this, we have been carefully deliberating whether or not to hold the Roots N Blues Festival in 2020. The exact timing for when it will become safe for us to operate still remains unclear. Today, we have reached the conclusion that it is in the best interest of our staff, volunteers, artists, crews, and patrons that we postpone the Roots N Blues Festival to 2021.
We have been communicating with other entertainment industry professionals across the country about the state of live music events as we all navigate our way through this time of unprecedented uncertainty. In alliance with our fellow festival promoters, we are choosing to postpone our event until a time when it is safe for the return of the communal experience of live music.
We have successfully retained 95% of our planned 2020 lineup for 2021 and are hopeful that the remaining artists will confirm soon. More lineup information will be available later this summer.

We're excited to gather with you for the Roots N Blues Festival on September 24-26, 2021. All passes purchased for the 2020 festival will be honored for the 2021 event and no action is needed on your part. Your wristbands will be shipped to you next summer. We are partnering with Lyte to provide a service for those that are unable to attend the dates in 2021. More information can be found at rootsnbluesfestival.com

The Roots N Blues Festival is unique to the industry, as it is not owned by a larger entity. Instead, it is owned by three middle-class Missourians who recognize the importance of community and what live music contributes to the human experience. Despite a global pandemic, we continue to uphold these values.

Sincerely,
Shay Jasper, Tracy Lane and Jamie Varvaro, owners of Trio Presents,
promoter of the Roots N Blues Festival

Thank you @voxdotcom for this piece on Juneteenth

Thank you @voxdotcom for this piece on Juneteenth and why we must honor and celebrate it each year.
Posted @withregram • @voxdotcom #Juneteenth is a 155-year-old holiday that is celebrated all over the world, but some people are learning more about it this year. Here’s a quick look back at the holiday honoring one of America’s earliest emancipation moments.⁣
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Juneteenth commemorates an important moment in history: It marks the day that thousands of slaves in Texas were informed of their freedom, on June 19, 1865, nearly two and half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The following year, newly freed black people celebrated the first Juneteenth with food, singing, and the reading of spirituals. Now, nearly every state and Washington, DC, have recognized Juneteenth as an official holiday or observance, and the global diaspora has adopted the holiday to recognize emancipation at large.⁣
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Despite Juneteenth’s significance, its history is rarely covered much in US school curricula, and it is not observed as a federal holiday. But this year, calls for Juneteenth to be designated a national holiday have grown stronger amid a climate seeking justice for black lives, and Juneteenth has entered the public spotlight at a swift, unprecedented scale. In any case, whether you are learning about Juneteenth for the first time or have been celebrating it for years, today recognizes a pivotal moment of emancipation — and the traumatic legacy of slavery — in America.⁣
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To read more about the history of Juneteenth, visit the link in bio.

#blackouttuesday

#blackouttuesday

#theshowmustbepaused

#theshowmustbepaused

John Prine always found the words. Tonight, we can

John Prine always found the words. Tonight, we can’t.

We're thrilled to announce that Missouri's own @sh

We're thrilled to announce that Missouri's own @sherylcrow is returning to her roots as a headliner in Columbia, MO for the first time in 21 years!
This nine-time GRAMMY AWARD winning artist will be recognized as the Missouri Roots Songbook honoree at the 2020 Festival for her significant contributions to music history and culture in her home state. This award is an annual tradition to encourage the young people of Missouri to take pride in its incredibly rich music heritage.

Grab your Advanced Admission pass to see Sheryl and many others, Oct 2-4 at the link in our bio! ✨

✨Stay tuned for a headliner announcement on Thur

✨Stay tuned for a headliner announcement on Thursday, friends.

🛑 A message from the Roots N Blues ownership te

🛑 A message from the Roots N Blues ownership team 🛑
The health and wellbeing of our fans, artists, staff and volunteers are our highest priority. We live and work in this community alongside so many of you, and we know you are as eager to learn about our lineup slated for October 2-4, 2020, as we are to share this list of dynamic musicians with you.

In light of recent events, we have decided to cancel the gathering of our local fans for the announcement. While we’re currently exploring alternative methods to be creative with this reveal, we’ll release the official lineup via social media and our website. No matter the format, we’ll get this information to you as promised, March 19.

We look forward to sharing a live music experience with you in October.

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