This weekend I watched 78 indie-label artists from almost every conceivable genre playing on five stages over two days at the most scenic of outdoor amphitheaters, Red Rocks, in Morrison, Colorado.Like most music fests in the post–Al Gore era, Monolith prides itself on its green initiatives. Here, a lot of it seems well deserved. Festivalgoers Patek Philippe replica watches could save $25 per two-day ticket with the Green Ticket package, which required only that you arrive in a group of four or eight in one vehicle. The single-stream recycling system (i.e., one big container that you can dump even your plastic cups into) seemed to be well used, and of course the event claimed carbon-neutrality with the purchase of 240 tons’ worth of carbon offsets.
Top this off with a tree-planting event the preceding Friday, and a Web page devoted to backing up all these claims, and it was a festival worthy of the eco-minded young Rocky Mountain crowd.Music-wise, the appeal was obvious. Popping Zenith replica watches between the various stages (three outdoor, and two inside in the slightly crowded theater spaces built into the mountain under the upper pavilion), I was able to go from hard rock to hip-hop to punk to bluegrass to techno at pretty much any given moment. And the crowds followed, from be-dreaded teenagers to forty-something music lovers like my wife and me.The main point of the event was to bring up-and-coming acts not just into the Colorado sunlight but into the limelight, and the organizers did an incredible job of signing up a diverse international lineup.
The first day, we crowded easily to the front of the New Belgium stage to see the Veils, a criminally unknown band from London, Germany, and New Zealand. Lead singer Finn Andrews managed to break two strings on each of his guitars by the end of song three, and played out a short set with sweaty disappointment all over his face—but it was great anyway, and set the tone for a more casual, unpolished, impromptu festival experience. swiss replica watches The only problem was that before the Veils ended, the Foals, a superbly hyper math-rock group from Oxford, England, had already started on the main stage and I had to skip back down the hill to see four songs.
