Wakarusa Boogie Blog: Day One

Thursday, June 7, 2007

A Chat with Justin Levy of Conscious Alliance

MB: It’s great to see you guys out here at Wakarusa! Can you please tell us a little about the work that Conscious Alliance is doing?

JL: Conscious Alliance is a non-profit that hosts food drives all over the country. We work with the music industry to redirect the abundance of food that exists in the United States. We are working to educate people on hunger issues and give them an outlet to redirect that abundance of food, particularly the youth. So all of the food we collect this weekend goes to the local food bank. And with the money that we raise, we buy food and deliver it to Native American reservations around the U.S., some of the poorest communities in the United States. So we really appreciate everyone that comes out and supports us and the whole music community.

MB: In what ways can people help out? Food donations, cash donations…?

JL: Participants of the festival can bring ten non-perishable food items or contribute a monetary donation in exchange for a free event poster. It’s [the Wakarusa poster] done by Gary Houston this year. Artists donate their artwork to us and we exchange posters for food.

MB: So if an artist wanted to donate their artwork to Conscious Alliance, should they contact you through the website?

JL: Yeah, they can contribute their art by getting in touch with our art director. We have different posters going up for a bunch of different events, so we work with a lot of different artists.

MB: What other music festivals will you guys be at so that people can keep an eye out for you?

JL: We are going to Bonnaroo, Sonic Bloom, the Taos Solar Music Festival, and ReGeneration in Asheville, North Carolina. Then we will head to All Good, and 10,000 Lakes. And we will be at all of the String Cheese shows this summer.

MB: Awesome! Now on a personal note, is there any band here that you are really looking forward to seeing here at Wakarusa?

JL: I’m looking forward to seeing Pnuma Trio. They are big supporters of us. We appreciate all of the bands that support us!

If you are headed to any of the aforementioned shows or festivals, don’t forget your ten non-perishable food items for Conscious Alliance. You can find out more about Conscious Alliance and how you can help in the MoBoogie Charity Spotlight by clicking here.