Ok. So there is a packing list. With things still semi-fresh in people’s minds. Is there a cleaning-up/post-festival packing up list for suggestions?
Outside of making sure to do your garbage, compost, & recycling every day, I don’t have much to add.
Well, maybe start to pack up Friday night so you don’t have so much to pack up on Saturday and Sunday.
I was going to post this in the thread titled “It was really awesome when”, but might be more appropriate here:
Isn’t it great when it’s Wed/Thurs/Friday and you realize there are STILL 2-4 more days left!
Packing up on Friday/Saturday or even Sunday is akin to the inverse of above:
Don’t you (generally) hate it when the event staff (for any show, not just bluegrass) says “OK people, festival/show is over … time to leave the venue/parking_lot/campground”!
^ Why voluntarily get into that mode?!? I understand everyone “deals” in their own way (and sometimes logistics are the reality of the day), but if I don’t even have a single thought (of leaving) enter my mind until maybe just before the last encore I know I’m where I need to be.
We all tried to keep a regimen of cleaning up all garbage, recycling, and compost every morning for the ten days of festival. It really helped to have that discipline!
Then there was the "wash your own *(^#$+@! dishes! That didn’t work so well. Something to work on for next year. It is so important for folks to have their own eating utensils and drinking cups on hand, the reduction in trips to the compost/recycling dumpster are noticeable. If you plan on eating at a neighbors camp bring your own dishes! We promise to have dish washing and sanitizing facilities on hand for you after every breakfast and dinner.
I started packing up the kitchen right after dinner on Sunday and began doing a general clean up while grooving to the excellent tunes coming from the stage. It helped immensely, especially considering the snowstorm Sunday night. I’m proud to say that Camp Run a Muck was completely packed out and ready to roll by about 11am Monday. That freed us up to help our neighbors with the pack out.
Also a big thanks to the Planet for keeping the Recycling, Garbage, and Compost dumpsters in place through Monday :medal Having the volunteer staff on hand to help educate and keep the veterans from getting lazy with the sorting thing was a huge and welcome addition. Much diversion from the landfill happened because of those super volunteers simply being present. A bit of peer pressure also helped with the few camps who made the choice to haul the “bar” away rather than leaving it to the landfill 
:cheers
All in all I feel that we all made great strides this year to make the pack out a fun and productive experience. The snow really helped IMHO… I could not stop giggling about all that white stuff on the day before the first day of summer!
:peace
:thumbsup TENT #1 ROCKS the MUCK! :thumbsup
Run-a Muck is an impressive feat/feast of Festivaaaal! Thanks for leading the way. :cheers
That’s long been one of my favorite moments…that moment on Wednesday when you suddenly look at each other and say, “Hey, isn’t there some sort of concert this weekend? Maybe we should go!” :lol
I agree…but we did need to start to break things down Sunday. With me working Monday morning, I needed to get Tessa & the kiddos as close to 'ready" as possible. I’m feeling pretty good that they were ready to pull out at 11:00 Monday.
I found a metal landscaping rake useful for making sure we got everyone’s bottle caps and (ugh) cigarette butts…honestly people, smoke if you want to, but don’t blow it in my face and don’t leave your butts in my camp :mad
We also did our trash/recycle/compost daily. Actually we’d compost more than once a day…we kept a little tabletop composter that we could carry over and dump. And we “packed it out”. We probably brough home as much garbage as we left behind. We tried to keep one trash bag for the “non-nasty” trash which we could load up and toss in the trailer for the drive home.
heh. as swander can attest, I was pretty close to the last one leaving Monday so packing up that early definitely did not happen. It is great being there for a week and then thinking, isn’t there a festival sometime soon? one of these years I’ll stay for the week after too.
:thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup
This is a most excellent thought…at least half a week more…even one day more!
I don’t think about packing up until I’m doing it. :huh Loading my car with snow was very memorable! :rolleyes Thank Dog we stopped in Orvis for drying out/soaking before another thousand miles. Prob saved 300 lbs. of water weight in the Pilot. FANTASTIC WEEK!