Monday, September 7, 2009

Monolith Festival wants to cover West Colfax with trees


On Wednesday, September 9th at 10:00 am, the 3rd-Annual Monolith Festival Reforestation Project will get underway with festival sponsor, Esurance, the direct-to-customer online auto insurance company, and their environmental partner, The Park People of Colorado. This year's tree planting takes place in Denver's Townview Plaza Community, a Rocky Mountain Community development, and aims to revitalize the landscape in this developing Denver neighborhood.

Townview Plaza Community is located in one of Denver's low-canopy neighborhoods. As The Park People's program manager, Kim Yuan-Farrell, explained, "West Colfax's canopy cover is 12.09 percent, and the city's goal for Denver is 18 percent. We're thrilled to be working again with the Monolith Festival and Esurance to help contribute to this much-needed effort. Trees are truly an important resource for all urban dwellers, and a crucial infrastructure investment for all of Denver's neighborhoods, especially the most under-served."

More after the jump.

Joann Lee, Esurance's community relations manager, added, "Urban reforestation, especially in the communities where our customers and associates work and live, has been an important part of Esurance's environmental mission since our company was founded almost 10 years ago. We are proud to work with partners like the Monolith Festival, who understand this aim, and The Park People, who are constantly in the field ensuring that reforestation goals are met."

"The reforestation program has become a much-anticipated week-of-festival tradition for us," said Monolith promoter Josh Baker. "It offers an opportunity for us to give back to the Denver community and helps us practice our teamwork. This program is a very important piece of Monolith's overall festival greening effort, and allows us to extend our positive impact far beyond the festival grounds."

Last year, the Rocky Mountain Communities were involved with the Monolith Festival as recipients of energy retrofits to local resident's homes. The project was part of an additional environmental initiative to reduce the carbon footprint of homes in the Denver area.

Since 2007, the Monolith Festival has been a must-see annual music festival held at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre. This year's edition will take place September 12-13, and such renowned artists as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Mars Volta, Girl Talk, MSTRKRFT, Of Montreal, and Method Man & Redman (among many others) will hit the stage.