Saturday, October 06, 2007
A+E, Music
Green Scene
Echo Project spotlights bands and environmental awareness
The Flaming Lips play the Echo Project on Friday.
CREDIT: Courtesy of the Echo Project
THE ECHO PROJECT
Oct. 12–14
Bouckaert Farm
At the gate, three-day tickets are $200. Tickets for Saturday and Sunday are $135. Tickets for Sunday only are $85.
Attendees with three-day passes can camp at the festival site in tents or RVs. An RV camping pass is $100. Gates to the parking and camping areas open at 3 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 11. A $20 entry fee is charged on Thursday.
www.the-echoproject.com
By Rachael Mason
For years, Nicolas Bouckaert, 25, imagined a concert taking place on his family’s property along the Chattahoochee River in south Fulton County. For the last 13 months, he’s been working to make his dream a reality. But the Echo Project, which is being held Oct. 12–14 at Bouckaert Farm, is much more than a simple rock show.
The three-day festival features three stages and notable bands like the Killers, the Flaming Lips, Cypress Hill, the Bravery and the Roots, as well as a full roster of local groups.
“Atlanta’s such as big place, and there’s a very strong music scene. I felt it was really the perfect time to go ahead and get something started,” Bouckaert says.
He’s attended festivals such as Bonnaroo in Tennessee and Rock Werchter in Belgium, but the Echo Project is the first event Bouckaert has planned. He’s hoping between 20,000 and 30,000 people attend, but the property can accommodate up to 60,000. Concertgoers can camp on the site.
In addition to three days of music, the Echo Project presents a message of environmental awareness. Alternative energy sources are being used to provide electricity for the carbon-neutral show. Part of each ticket sold will be donated to a tree-planting organization.
“In today’s world, businesses have a social responsibility to do things in as an environmentally friendly way as possible,” Bouckaert says.
Preserving the concert site, reducing litter and waste at the festival and helping to clean up the nearby Chattahoochee River are especially important to him.
Some attendees, and even, performers are using alternative forms of transportation to get to the show. Sam Thacker and his bandmates, who play on Sunday, are traveling in an electric car. “It means I have to learn to drive a stick shift,” Thacker says.
He looks forward to playing with some of his favorite bands, but more importantly, he wants to support environmental responsibility.
“It’s something that really affects everybody,” he says. “It’s something that I’m personally committed to as well.”
Atlanta band the Lord is My Shotgun, known for its activism, is set to perform on Saturday. “We are pretty political in the sense of third-party thinking,” says the band’s Chance Wells. “We’re anti-Democrat and anti-Republican and almost anti-government, at this point, with the way this country is going.”
Walls hopes people who attend the show not only learn more about environmental issues, but also become more proactive in their everyday lives. Still, just attending the Echo Project is a step in the right direction.
“All you have to do is buy a ticket and show up, and you’ve done something,” he says. SP
FRIDAY
12:15 p.m. Dubconscious
12:45 p.m. Butch Walker
1 p.m.Wood Brothers
3:15 p.m. The Polyphonic Spree
4:45 p.m. Snowden
6 p.m. Cypress Hill
7:30 p.m. Les Claypool
8:45 p.m. The Flaming Lips
12:30 a.m. Secret Machines
12:45 a.m. Disco Biscuits
SATURDAY
Noon Scissors for Lefty
1 p.m. Louis XIV
3:30 p.m. Lord is My Shotgun
4:15 p.m. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
6:45 p.m. Thievery Corporation
7 p.m. Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues
8 p.m. Perpetual Groove
8:45 p.m. Common
10:15 p.m. The Killers
Midnight moe.
SUNDAY
12:45 p.m. Afromotive
2 p.m. RJD2
2:45 p.m. Sam Thacker
3:30 p.m. Spoon
4:45 p.m. Umphrey’s McGee
5:30 p.m. The Roots
5:45 p.m. ALO
5:45 p.m. The Bravery
5:45 p.m. The Modern Skirts
7 p.m. Phil Lesh & Friends