Why Tito’s, Southwest and Jack Daniel’s Keep Going Back to Willie Nelson’s ‘Anti-Festival’

Texas-sized sustainability challenges

This year’s festival was powered by roughly 95% solar energy, 5% shore power and no gas-powered generators, Bizer said, which Luck was able to achieve through a partnership with Reverb and Overdrive.

While this represents major progress in sustainability, some barriers are inherent to Luck’s location. The Texas Hill Country doesn’t have the recycling and composting facilities for events like Bonnaroo or Outside Lands. It eliminated “single-use” plastics from the event this year, allowing only bio-based, compostable plastics to be used for food and beverages—acknowledging that without access to industrial composting, it’s all going to landfill.

“Hopefully within the next two to three years, we’ll be fully 100% compostable and recyclable,” Bizer said. “Our goal eventually is to get as close to carbon neutral as possible.”