Last Saturday, April 30, environmentally conscious music fans, vendors and bands gathered on the alumni green for the fourth annual PSU Earth Jam. The event, sponsored by PSU’s environmental organization, Common Ground, was a celebration of musical environmental sustainability that focused on supporting a healthy earth. This year’s headliner was the band Roots of Creation, who rocked the fans on the Alumni Green alongside other artists that included Big Love Monster, Mauce, Pretty Corpses, and Matt & Chris, all of whom came out to support the globally conscious cause.
“It’s what we’re all into and we’ve been into this for a while,” said Roots of Creation drummer Mike Chadinha, who mentioned that he was an Environmental Science major at Franklin Pierce College after the concert.
“We like to do events that support causes like this all the time; it’s our way of giving back with our music,” he continued.
The power generated from any musical festival can be detrimental to the environment, which is why Common Ground chose to power the entire musical portion of the event with a solar paneled bus provided by the company Sunweaver, who has been a part of PSU’s Earth Jam since its inception. Sunweaver travels around the northeast to provide power for events like Earth Jam with their solar powered solutions.
However, Common Ground did not stop their environmental efforts there. Signage for the events were constructed out of used cardboard boxes and all of the vendors were businesses within the community that carried locally made eco-friendly products.
“We revamped the whole Earth Jam process. Last year we only had seven vendors; this year we had thirty vendors. All were from New Hampshire and all were local and eco-friendly,” said Common Ground President, Leanne O’Connor.
Additional improvements included an activities center that hosted events such as face painting and a paint wall. There was also a tie-dye booth presented by PACE (in which organic cotton T-shirts were used) and a drum circle to round out the experience on the sunny last day of April.
O’Connor feels that the event is one that was able to get the whole community involved: “We try to make this as big of a community event as possible,” she said. “Everybody had a pretty positive response.”
The bands played to a gradually increasing crowd throughout the day and seemed to be enjoyed by all.
“All the bands have been really good,” said PSU senior Tyler Censerio during Mauce’s 6:00 PM set. “They all really fit in with the vibes of the day.”
By the end of Roots of Creation’s set, everybody seemed to be in agreement with Censerio, as they called for an encore at the stage set up in front of the HUB.
While finding this year’s event a major success, O’Connor feels that the event can be even better than it currently is: “Every year we try to look at what we can do better,” she said a couple days after the event. “I think we would like to get more people involved with the activities center, work on the music and just try to make it bigger. We want to make it just like spring fling, but have it be an eco-friendly version.”
With the support from the community and the excitement from the event’s attendees, a bright future for Earth Jam seems almost certain.