Rain forest epiphany spawns Ecofest 2000

Ecofest 2000 in Sedona, Arizona, is a combination of culture and nature, music and the environment

By Environmental News Network staff

In July 1999, Philip Walker sat on a Costa Rica beach, looking out at the Caribbean Sea. He had just spent six weeks in the rain forest of Central America, an experience that changed his life.

"I don't want to sound crazy or anything, but the rain forest talked to me," he said. "It showed me a new side of myself."

An East Texas native who had been in sales for several years, Walker suddenly realized that he wanted - no, needed - to devote himself to the conservation of nature in any way that he could.

When Walker returned home from his trip to his adopted home of Sedona, Arizona, he gathered a few good friends, sat them down by a burbling brook in the forest and told them about his experience in Costa Rica and the idea that came out of it.

"I wanted to merge my love for concerts with environmental education and conservation," he said.

Walker says his family rarely saw him after he got his driver's license because he was always off to see a favorite band.

Walker translated his environmental epiphany by the sea into the BeneFest Foundation, a nonprofit production company for environmentally educational performing arts events. And on Saturday he and his friends are producing their first music event: the inaugural Sedona Ecofest 2000.

Featuring several top-flight musicians, including blues master B.B. King, Los Lobos and Merle Saunders and the Rainforest Band, Sedona Ecofest 2000 is designed to raise awareness about environmental issues in northern Arizona and beyond.

"It's a dream come true," said Walker. "We cannot deny the fact that we have major environmental problems, but you do not have to be an 'environmentalist' to be concerned. We want to give people a way to do something about it."

The festival will feature a full slate of performances, information booths, activities and food.

Proceeds from the festival will benefit several conservation organizations, including the Save Long Canyon Project, the northern Arizona chapter of the Nature Conservancy, the Resource Center for Environmental Education, the Humane Society of Sedona and the Center For Biological Diversity.

Representatives from these organizations and others will give presentations between musical performances.

The venue for the event is the new Georgia Frontiere Performing Arts Pavilion at Sedona Cultural Park west of downtown Sedona. It is an "eco-friendly concert venue," according to Walker, and the "perfect spot" for Ecofest.

Built into a gentle hillside, the pavilion creates a natural amphitheater while commanding views of the forest and red rock formations of the Red Rock-Secret Mountain Wilderness Area.

Instead of organized seating anchored into the earth, a large grass area invites visitors to spread out blankets for a picnic. All roads and parking lots are unpaved, and low-density lighting cuts down on light pollution. Concertgoers walk on dirt paths through the forest to reach the pavilion.

Surrounded by national forest and famous for its spectacular red rock formations, Native American ruins and world-class recreational activities, Sedona offers a fitting location for an environmental cause.

"Sedona is such a beautiful place to make people aware of the environment," said Jeff Teele, secretary of BeneFest.

"Sedona, Arizona is the best place in the Southwest to have this type of show because of why people come to Sedona and what it stands for," said Walker.

Copyright 2000, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved

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Sedona Ecofest 2000
B.B. King
Los Lobos
Merle Saunders and the Rainforest Band
Save Long Canyon Project
Nature Conservancy
Resource Center for Environmental Education
Humane Society of Sedona
Center For Biological Diversity
Sedona Cultural Park
Red Rock-Secret Mountain Wilderness Area

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