Could Outside Lands be the Greenest Music Festival?

The Full Belly Farm farmer's market at 2011's Outside Lands music festival. Photo: Outside Lands/Josh Withers

Other music festivals rose to the eco occasion this year, but in its fourth year, Outside Lands isn’t about to be outdone.

The three-day San Francisco festival, which takes place August 10 through 12 at the legendary Golden Gate Park, has made an effort toward eco-responsibility since its 2008 inception, encouraging festival goers to organize rideshares via websites like Craigslist, SunyRide and 511.

The goal is to virtually eliminate the waste associated with gathering large crowds and enjoy this year’s lineup of Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Jack White, Foo Fighters, Skrillex, Passion Pit and more.

This year, the festival plans to kick it up a notch with a host of green efforts. In 2011, Outside Lands diverted 77 percent of festival waste away from landfills – its most successful waste diversion stats to date.

They hope to raise that number even higher in 2012, asking music lovers to utilize compost bins not only for food, but also the 100 percent compostable plates, cups and utensils sold along with the festival’s food. Local food options will be sold throughout the festival, including a farmer’s market with produce from Full Belly Farm, located in Northern California’s Capay Valley.

As for the things that can’t be composted, Outside Lands is encouraging recycling with an incentive program at the TRASHed Recycling Store. Festival goers can collect cans, bottles and biodegradable cups and exchange them for Outside Lands goodies. Maybe your fellow festival attendees don’t see the need to recycle, but their loss is your gain. The more recyclables you turn in, the better the prizes become.

The festival will also feature a solar-powered stage, refillable water stations and urban gardening workshops. And on August 11, environmentally friendly music junkies will volunteer to clean up the park’s waterfront stretch for the festival’s Ocean Beach Clean Up.