Sustainability

We're passionate about reducing our collective impact!

Waste Management

We are proud to work with WeGenerative to coordinate our waste management efforts on site. Waste sorting, recycling, landfill diversion, and education are just some of their super powers. With their help, we diverted over 5000 lbs of our trash from landfill last May (View May 2023 diversion report). Fun fact: our food scraps go to a local farm. We look forward to working together to beat these numbers this October!

How can you help?

  • Sort your trash into our labeled waste receptacles, you’ll notice at each station we have signage telling you what goes where.
  • Sort any trash at camp as best you can, bonus points for dropping sorted trash off at the Transfer Station in Day Parking.
  • Volunteer: You can sign up to volunteer with the sustainability team via our Work Exchange page. You’ll get a festival ticket, meals and our endless appreciation for your efforts.

Thank you for helping us leave the desert even better than we found it!

trash pirates joshua tree california music festival

Reusable Cup Program

We’re always looking for ways to reduce our environmental impact and send less trash to landfill. In coordination with our Sustainability Team, WeGenerative, we piloted a reusable cup program at the bar in May 2023, and have expanded that program to all our vendors for October 2023. Attendees may reuse these cups as much as they would like during the festival, and can be turned in at any of our 30+ specially marked bin locations. 

No more printed programs

Since 2020, we have eliminated the need for paper programs by increasing the number of information stations around the festival grounds. You’ll only ever be but a short distance from all the info you need to guide you day to night through music acts, workshops, yoga and random acts of mindfulness! And, as always, all of that info is available on our website, on your phone, in your pocket. We hope you’re as excited as we are about eliminating the landfill that is created by the programs.

camping music festival
joshua tree california music festival

Reusable dishware program

Since May 2020, we have implemented a BYO reusable dishware policy for all staff because we believe it’s up to us to set a shining example! We are moving towards implementing a reusable dishware program for our vendors by the end of 2022 with the goal of completely removing the need for single use dishware at the festival.

Reducing plastic waste

We’re a proud supporter of the BYOBottle Campaign which engages artists, venues, festivals and fans to reduce plastic waste in the music industry by promoting reusable water bottles and water refill stations at music events. We have always had FREE water on site for attendees. We encourage attendees, artists and crew to utilize REUSABLE containers for all beverages. High quality water bottles and cups are available at our merch booth – show some JTMF love and reduce your footprint for the win!

go green music fest

Re-purposed building materials

Look around the festival site and you’ll notice that we’ve got a passion for repurposing. From barn wood and garage doors to car gears and bike chains, we love giving salvaged objects new life and think they add special character to the festival site. Our Beer Garden bar, built by local artist Guy Green, is constructed entirely from gathered timbers, bottles and local clay. Earthen benches in the Music Bowl and Sanctuary were made with local earth and collected bottles. Satellite dishes and water tanks become shade structures, second hand garage doors become roofs and we utilize paint that would otherwise be thrown away. Materials typically have several reincarnations at JTMF – a sheet of plywood that was part of someone’s shed becomes a table, which eventually gets cut up and used for signs.