Ride Sharing

Looking to share a ride and carpool to the festival? Visit our High Sierra Ride Board and connect with someone in your area!

Recycling
Once again, High Sierra is excited to be working with Clean Vibes, a company formed and dedicated to responsible on-site waste management of outdoor festivals and events. For the thirteenth year, Clean Vibes will be onsite helping to ensure that we as a community recycle as much of the waste produced on site as possible. With the help of the festival goers, Clean Vibes will divert tens of thousands of pounds of recyclables from the landfill. In 2012, this amounted to 42,920 lbs of waste recycled and 6,900 lbs composted!

In order for Clean Vibes to do the best possible job, they need your help! When arriving, each vehicle will be given two bags: one for trash and one for recycling. Any glass, aluminum, and plastic beverage containers can be recycled. You can carry your bags to the nearest dumpster or collection station, and use the collection stations around the venue which will be regularly maintained by Clean Vibes volunteers and staff. You can also help Clean Vibes sweep the concert field at the conclusion of each night's shows on the Grandstand and Big Meadow stages. Think before you throw - and the material in the recycling dumpster will be spared from the landfill! While enjoying this beautiful site, please help Clean Vibes cultivate cleanliness and ensure that we as a community leave nothing but footprints this weekend. More information will be available in the High Sierra program guide, and you can also visit the Clean Vibes website.

Interested in volunteering with Clean Vibes?
Clean Vibes is always looking for folks who are interested in volunteering during and after the festival. Volunteers are needed during the festival to help service the collection containers throughout the site, keep the grounds clean, and sort recycling. Volunteers are also needed for the post event cleanup – working on the Monday and Tuesday after the event to help ensure that we leave the fairgrounds cleaner than we found it. More info here.

Leave No Trace
With thousands of people camping on the fairgrounds, it is vitally important for HSMF fans to embrace the "Leave No Trace" camping philosophy. The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics has put together some tips on greening your campsite, available for download here. Once you've got your green game plan together, consider participating in the green campsite challenge (details below)!

Participate in the Leave No Trace Red, White, Blue and GREEN! Campsite Challenge

How Do I Participate?
First, arriving to the festival in as green a fashion as possible is part of the equation (hike, bike, public transit, carpool). Other than that, it's all about how green your camp is (greening tips available for download here). Anyone camping on the fairgrounds (i.e. not at Mill Creek, the RV Annex, etc) is invited to nominate their own campsite or a neighbor's campsite.
1) Submit a campsite entry form, including a sketch of your campsite at the Leave No Trace booth in Music Meadow.
2) Stop by the Leave No Trace booth each day to view all the campsite entries. Campsite finalists will be chosen daily by staff and Festivarians.
3) High Sierra and Leave No Trace will select the grand prize winner on Sunday afternoon. The winner will be announced from the Grandstand Stage on Sunday evening, as well as in our post-fest eNewsletter and on highsierramusic.com.

How Do I Win?
It's simple. Just enter your campsite and each day we will randomly select one campsite as a finalist. Finalists will then be judged on three criteria:
• Cleanliness. Are you repackaging the food you bring? Are you keeping a tidy campsite? Are items secure and not susceptible to wind gusts? Are you safely disposing of cigarette butts?
• Sustainability. Are you separating your recyclables, compostables, and then placing them in the correct bins at the campsite waste stations? Are you reusing products (cups, utensils, water bottles, bags) instead of trashing them? Are you using any alternative energy sources to power your campsite? Did you bike or carpool to the festival; are you offsetting carbon emissions using wind credits or carbon offsets? Will you pack out as much as possible when leaving? Did you do anything to reduce your home's energy while attending the festival?
• Creativity. Does your campsite have a theme? Are you utilizing any unique and innovative camping techniques?

What Do I Win?
Prizes for daily finalists include: HSMF gear, Late Night tickets, and Leave No Trace memberships
Grand prize: Coleman camping gear. Tents, backpacks, sleeping bags and other awesome prizes for your next camp out!

Composting
Since 2007, we have had a composting program, partnering with local Plumas county farmers to keep organic scrap by-products created by our food vendors, caterers, and hospitality staff out of the landfill. In 2010, with the help of local farmers, the Plumas Rural Services Community Connections program, and Clean Vibes we successfully expanded our composting efforts festival-wide. In 2012, we partnered with World Centric to continue expanding our composting operation. Many thanks to World Centric and our friends at Clean Vibes for helping to divert food scraps and compostable products to the Northern Recycling commercial composting facility in Zamora, CA. We composted 6,900 lbs of waste in 2012!