Green Team – Looking for leaders and volunteers!

Since the success of our greening initiatives in 2007 and 2008, the Peterborough Folk Festival is looking for more ways to refine our plans and reduce our ecological footprint. Our Green Team leaders in the past have done terrific work, and we’re looking for new volunteers to step into their shoes and lead our greening initiatives in 2009.

Would you like to join the Green Team? We’re looking for general volunteers to help with dish-washing, collecting and selling water and bottles, monitoring compost and recycling, and other general tasks as well as a leader for 2009. Email pffvolunteers@gmail.com for more information on how you can help the PFF. Volunteers get nifty perks, like a pretty terrific t-shirt and volunteer party.

Greening the Festival

For many years, the PFF have reduced our ecological impact by utilizing solar energy to power one of our daytime stages. In the past two years, Generation Solar have joined us as a sponsor, providing Solar energy for our daytime main stage. We’re both proud and excited to welcome Generatio Solar to our roster of fabulous sponsors!

The rest of the 2009 Peterborough Folk Festival is bullfrogpowered with 100% green electricity. This means that Bullfrog Power will inject carbon-free green power onto the Ontario electricity grid to match the amount of electricity used by this event, just as it does for thousands of homes and hundreds of businesses in the province.Bullfrog’s green power is sourced exclusively from wind power and low-impact hydro producers who meet or exceed the federal fgovernment’s EcoLogo standard for renewable energy.

We’ve also opted for Jerico bamboo t-shirts , printed by our good friends at Renegade Apparel – an eco-friendly, naturally sustainable material manufactured in Toronto and screen-printed right here in town. Beautiful, sustainable, and anti-bacterial – all the thigns we strive for at the festival! Remember to bring $20 to spring for one of these beautiful shirts!

No Plastic Water Bottles!

We took a bold step in 2008 and deicded to ban plastic water bottles from the park. It was pretty successful, but needs a bit of tweaking and a little more patrolling before we get everyone up to speed on this initiative. We’re also hoping in 2009 to make the move to municipal water.
In their place, we had several options for thirsty water-drinkers:
- Lug-A-Mug: Bring your own bottle, jug or jar, pay $2, recieve a durable PFF sticker to put on your jar, and refill all day.
- Buy A Jar: Forgot your reusable bottle at home? No problem! Pay $2 for one of our recycled jars, and refill all day.
- Stainless Steel: The PFF is pleased to offer stainless teel water bottles for sale at the festival, imprinted with the lovely new PFF logo. Pick yours up at the Emporium on Saturday, August 23!
- Buy your beer mug: The festival is pleased to offer reusable beer mugs at our brand-new beer tent. Do your part to help the environment while enjoying your beer!

Reusable Dishes

Returning – and expanding! – in 2009 is the reusable dish station in the park. On your way to grab a tasty meal from our delicious food vendors, snag a plate and cutlery from the Green Team booth. When you’ve finished your meal, return the plate and cutlery to the booth, and it will be washed and ready for re-use by our fabulous volunteer dish-washing team. Do you have plastic or melamine plates to donate? Please contact pffvolunteers@gmail.com

Generation Solar Stage

For many years, the PFF have reduced our ecological impact by utilizing solar energy to power one of our daytime stages. This year, Generation Solar have joined us as a sponsor, providing Solar energy for our daytime main stage. We’re both proud and excited to welcome Generatio Solar to our roster of fabulous sponsors!

Walk – Bike – Skate – Roll – Canoe – Bus

There are plenty of environmentally-friendly options for getting to the PFF. The park is in the heart of downtown Peterborough, accessible via bus routes, the Rotary Traill, and the Mighty Otonabee River. Leave the car at home – it’s better for your health, and for the planet!

We’re hoping to have bike parking in 2009 to facilitate those who choose this friendly way to travel – we know it was a bit dificult lat year! Are you interested in helping coordiante the effort? Come on out and volunteer – you love the festival, and you can make it better!

Got suggestions for the folk festival? Call (705) 874-6796 or email ptbofolkfest@gmail.com