Just walk through the grounds of a music festival and you can see the massive amount of waste that’s left behind when the event is over. Each day of 2015’s Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival resulted in 15 pounds of waste per festival attendee, twice the rate of the average American’s waste production. The main culprit is plastic water bottles, followed by beer cups, wrappers and packaging.
Plastic, as most of us are well aware, is terribly harmful to our environment and, in particular, to our oceans. According to the Oceanic Global Foundation, plastic waste now outnumbers the marine life in some parts of the world six times over. Each year, over one million marine creatures, like sea turtles or birds, die as a result of consuming or getting entangled in plastic. On top of that, 70% of the world’s fish are fully depleted or exploited, and experts expect that all of the world’s coral reefs will be destroyed by 2025 as a result of ocean pollution.
However, one new charitable music festival is changing the tide, and hoping to teach and connect music lovers to ocean conservation. This year on July 20th, nonprofit foundation Oceanic Global is launching their inaugural “conscious festival” Oceanic x Ibiza, the first music festival of its kind to (appropriately) take place on the Mediterranean Sea, surrounded by international party mecca Ibiza. For two days, roughly 2,000 attendees will be able to immerse themselves in music, keynote speeches, and art and technology exhibitions, all focusing on the issue of ocean conservation. Technology plays a key role in Oceanic x Ibiza’s mission, with virtual reality and augmented reality helping to educate attendees about ocean conservation causes. Creative tech company ODYSIA will be developing an AR app that will help connect people to the impactful art installations, as well as to informative data visualizations and animations.
Oceanic x Ibiza is designed to transport participants through the depths of our ocean. Immersive content on-site will juxtapose the natural beauty of our ocean with the destructive impact of plastic and seafood consumption, as well as provide the Oceanic community with engaging solutions for restoring ocean health. “Oceanic Global is thrilled to bring awareness for ocean conservation to the island of Ibiza,” Co-founder Lea d’Auriol said in a press release. “Ibiza has longstanding roots in sustainability and we hope that Oceanic x Ibiza will inspire both locals and visitors alike to take action towards restoring the health of our global oceans and the economy of the local atmosphere.”
Award-winning Bosnian-born DJ Solomun is headlining the festival, which has pledged to donate all proceeds to ocean conservation organizations. The invited speakers, which include actor Adrian Grenier and philanthropist Susan Rockefeller, will be highlighting four main topics of ocean conservation: plastic problems, seafood, localizing efforts in Ibiza, and technology and emerging solutions.
Hats off to Oceanic X Ibiza for taking the initiative and using music and art to help effect change. Hopefully, other festivals will follow in Oceanic x Ibiza’s footsteps, and put the spotlight on sustainability and conservation. After all, how can we have music festivals if there is no clean land to host it?
For more information on Oceanic X Ibiza, head to the Oceanic Global Foundation website.
