Perhaps as a side-effect of the beautiful weather, spring in the District boasts an impressive collection of outdoor music festivals. And this year welcomes a brand new, highly anticipated addition to the annual repertoire—the Sweetgreen-sponsored Sweetlife Festival on May 1, 2011, aptly described as “a festival with a conscience.”
With its humble beginnings in a parking lot behind the DuPont Sweetgreen, Sweetlife’s organizers are thrilled to be holding this year’s event in a much more accommodating venue, Maryland’s Merriweather Post Pavilion. Located smack in the middle of the 40-acre Symphony Woods, this venue creates an appropriately green atmosphere for the environmentally-focused festival.
To do justice to the stellar location, Sweetlife boasts an outstanding lineup of performers. The Strokes, who recently released their comeback album Angles and whom Sweetgreen co-founder Jonathan Neman (MSB ‘07) described as “one of our all-time favorite bands,” are the headliners. Rounding out the lineup are such varying acts as mashup master Girl Talk, American rapper Lupe Fiasco, and electronic revolutionaries Crystal Castles. VIP admission, which brings the ticket price from $55 to $100, will get guests smaller backstage performances by local artists, in addition to backstage passes and a voucher for all the Sweetgreen products you want.
But while its lineup grabs the attention of any music lover, Sweetlife is more than a concert—it’s a “celebration of flavorful music, wholesome food, and thoughtful living.”
Sweetlife is a lifestyle expansion of the Sweetgreen brand, so the Sweetlife Festival is working to promote not only music, but also healthy living and sustainability. To achieve this, Sweetgreen is partnering with the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation, which was formed by celebrity chef Oliver to fight obesity and promote healthier eating habits. All of the proceeds from the event will be donated to the foundation.
The Sweetlife Festival will also support organic food and farming by hosting a farmers’ market at the event, selling the produce of local growers alongside their standard salads and fro-yo. Sweetlife will also be a carbon-free event, thanks to collaboration with green energy groups like Clean Currents.
Neman summed up Sweetgreen’s mission in hosting this event on the blog The Vinyl District: “This festival is bringing us one step closer to realizing our vision for the ‘sweet life.’ We’re excited to bring an event like this to Washington D.C., and to bring together two of the most important aspects of the sweet life: sustainable food and live music.”
Consequently, with a carbon-free conscience and food that is sure to be as organic as the festival’s music, the Sweetlife Festival 2011 has all the right ingredients for a delightful event.
