Lollapalooza: More than just music, the fest teams up with great causes

We all know this year’s Lollapalooza lineup is a good one, with Jack White, Black Keys, M83, Santigold and Florence and the Machine topping the bill. But did you know that Lolla supports tons of great causes and dedicates an entire section of the festival called Green Street to eco-friendly orgs, shopping and non-profits so festival-goers get the chance to see what they’re all about?

Whether or not you’ll be in Chicago this weekend soaking in the sounds and sun at Perry Farrell’s annual extravaganza, it’s worth taking a gander at some of the awesome orgs Lollapalooza is featuring this year. And if you’re lucky enough to be there, take some time to stroll down Green Street!

Lolla Cares
Lolla Cares features organizations committed to making this world a better, greener, and healthier place. Guess what? It’s working. In 2010, Lolla Cares organizations were responsible for registering 313 fans to vote, finding two bone marrow matches for cancer patients, and fostering support for clean energy, education, and park projects in the Chicago area. Stop by Lolla Cares in Green Street to learn how you can get involved both during Lollapalooza and in your daily lives.

HeadCount
Our friends at HeadCount will be registering voters at Lolla. The grassroots organization that uses the power of music to register voters and raise political consciousness. Since 2004 they’ve staged voter registration drives at more than 2,000 concerts and signed up over 175,000 voters. Pretty cool!

Love Hope Strength Foundation
This incredible cancer foundation uses music to raise awareness of cancer issues and builds and supports cancer centers around the world through ROCKS events supported by countless musicians including everyone from Jason Mraz to Flight of the Conchords. They also build international marrow databases through its Get on the List campaign.

ONE
Co-founded by U2’s Bono, ONE is a grassroots advocacy and campaigning organization that fights extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa, by raising public awareness and pressuring political leaders to support smart and effective policies and programs that are saving lives, helping to put kids in school and improving futures.

Rock the Vote
Rock the Vote is a non-partisan non-profit whose mission is to engage and build political power for young people in the U.S. Founded 20 years ago at the intersection of popular culture and politics, Rock the Vote is growing its team and its campaigns to support the tidal wave of young people who want to get involved in elections and seize the power of the youth vote to create political and social change.

The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is the leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, it has protected more than 119 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers worldwide and operates more than 100 marine conservation projects globally. Pretty darn impressive!

Urban Habitat Chicago
This unique non-profit demonstrates the viability of sustainable concepts and practices in urban environments through research, education, and hands-on projects. At their Lolla booth, they’ll demonstrate easy, accessible solutions for living greener in an urban environment. Lolla fans will have the chance to get their hands dirty as they demonstrate indoor worm composting and easy ways to start plants from seed. Woot!

Working Bikes
Such a cool concept – Working Bikes gathers used bicycles throughout the Midwest and sends them to non-profit bike projects in S. Africa, Namibia, Angola, Ghana, Uganda, El Salvador, Panama and Haiti. Every year, Working Bikes gives away more than 6,000 used bicycles throughout the world.

Believe it or not, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There will be loads more non-profits including Now Art Take Part and Life Rolls on Foundation as well as sustainable brands like Avatar Imports, which works with a fair trade factory in Kathmandu, Nepal to manufacture products that are created in a safe, healthy environment, by people who are paid an above-average wage.

So take some time out of your busy schedule to check them out!

Visit Lollapalooza’s website for more info.

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