From July 13-14, We Hope You Can Play a Role

If you all don't mind, for today's entry, I'd like to broaden the topic of live performance just a bit, in an attempt to get you all on board with Wolf Trap's "Go Green" initiative, which should vastly expand its influence after our upcoming inaugural National Arts and Environment Summit scheduled to take place on July 14, highlighted by a headlining Eco-concert and live performance from Hootie & the Blowfish at 8pm on Sunday the 13th.

For three hours leading up to the Hootie performance beginning at 5:00pm on Sunday afternoon, the entire Wolf Trap staff encourages the general public (not just ticket holders!) to visit our "Green Spot" in the Meadow at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts to help celebrate our park and promote sustainability in a festival setting with a special musical performance by Todd Wright, and organizations raising awareness about environmental action. Reverb, the environmental non-profit organization started by Adam Gardner (singer, lead-guitarist for Guster) and his wife Lauren Sullivan have graciously agreed to work with Wolf Trap on this project in helping to organize and populate our Green Spot with exciting and innovative participants and exhibitions. A list of participating groups is nearing completion, so I'll post details on what types of attractions to expect throughout the next two weeks. Members of Reverb will be on hand to talk about how they are helping to green the entertainment industry.

After perusing the Green Spot, ticket holders will walk over to the Filene Center to experience an evening of music from pop-rock icons Hootie & the Blowfish performing what is to be one of a few remaining live dates before they embark on an indefinite hiatus.

To quote Flight of the Conchords, put your "business socks" on for Monday's convening. In partnership with Americans for the Arts, The Aspen Institute, Reverb, Booz Allen Hamilton, and NPS Climate Friendly Parks Program; Wolf Trap Foundation President and CEO, Terre Jones, will host an intimate gathering of environmental and arts experts, along with government, community, and business leaders at the Corporate Headquarters of Booz Allen Hamilton in McLean, VA. For over six hours, attendees will operate as a collective think tank of sorts, with the end goal of outlining a list of strategies and solutions for fully engaging performing artists and performing arts presenters in environmental stewardship. At 4:00pm on July 14, members of the public can join via videoconferencing to hear the experts recommendations, so register today to join in the webinar by accessing this link. Web attendees are encouraged to bring fresh perspective to the group through individual strategies and solutions that have been met with success in their personal or business life.

Should be an amazing and groundbreaking two days, and we hope you can play a role whether it's just browsing our Green Spot, enjoying the Hootie concert, or participating in the discussion on ways the arts can go green through the wonders of the world wide web.

I'm a little sad about Hootie temporarily parting ways, so for today's video, I've put up their ESPN themed video "Only Wanna Be with You" off their album Cracked Rear View, which incidentally sold a staggering 13 million copies. I think this is one of the greatest videos of all time, but I'm partial because it features golf, Keith Olberman, Dan Patrick, Dan Marino, Fred Couples and other major sports figures and personalities from the mid 90s. It's a guy video :)

Have a great weekend everyone.

Cheers,

Graham