“It’s a magical realm. For a few days, I’m a nymph-like wood dweller who rolls around in the dirt and talks to strange people.”

For Lauren Kirby, Kansas City, Kan., senior, the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival is more than just great live music. As promotions director for KJHK, Kirby has attended the past two festivals to promote the radio station, but being at the festival meant more than doing her day job. It was a call to nature.

“You get into this hippie mindset where you get a glimpse of the simpler life. You could live off the land. All you need are friends, good music, and a tent to sleep in. It’s a good reminder that life doesn’t always have to be so complicated,” she says.

More than 100 bands will perform outdoors at the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival beginning June 8 at Clinton State Park. Though music is the main draw to the four-day event, Wakarusa differentiates itself from other festivals with its earth-friendly attitude and recreational escapes.

Drugs are also a part of the recreational scene — Kirby says people get “pretty fucked up” — but the festival advertises its more conventional (and legal) forms of recreational activities, such as morning yoga, mountain biking, disc golf, wind surfing, swimming and nature hikes.

It’s not fair to call the festival just a concert, says Brett Mosiman, one of the festival’s directors. “It’s really a four-day vacation of music and Mother Nature,” he says.

Camping at the festival is an additional opportunity to reconnect to nature. Since the festival’s inception in 2004, camping has been a necessary component because there are not enough hotels in Lawrence to accommodate the influx of festival-goers, Mosiman says.

Last year’s sold-out crowd of 15,000 drew people from as far away as Germany and Japan. Mosiman says that 80 percent of ticket sales are from outside the Lawrence and Kansas City areas, and that the majority of out-of-towners turn to camping as their accommodation of choice.

A large crowd of people inhabiting a space for four days usually means a large accumulation of waste, but Wakarusa Festival organizers are committed to minimizing the environmental impact of the event.

Rylan Ortiz, Kansas State University junior, says that he and a team of 30 student volunteers collected about 4,800 pounds of glass, 500 pounds of aluminum, 300 pounds of plastic and 150 pounds of cardboard (almost 3 tons of recyclable waste), at the festival last June.

The volunteers are part of Recycalusa, a recycling program Ortiz created last year. Though some were motivated to exchange their recyclable goods for the free T-shirts offered by the program, Ortiz says the recyclers are all environmentally-conscious.

“People may be at the festival to party and have fun, but people like recycling, too. It’s good for the psyche,” Ortiz says.

For the thousands traveling long distances to the venue, Mosiman says concert-goers have the opportunity to “green” their travel. For the first time, the festival is teaming up with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, a private, non-profit organization that funds environmentally-preferred energy projects. By purchasing a Green Tag, travelers support the use of hydropower and wind power, which help offset carbon dioxide emissions.

At its heart, the festival is about more than the environment, nature or even music. David Barrett has attended numerous national music festivals, such as Bonnaroo, in Tennessee, and 10,000 Lakes, in Michigan, as a festival promoter for his company, TeamB productions. But the Carbondale, Ill., senior, says that some of his most memorable experiences have been at Wakarusa.

“The festival focuses on bringing people together. Everyone comes back late at night and talks about all the different things they did that day around the campfire. For four days, it’s like you have a new family,” he says.

INSIDER’S TICKET TIP

Brett Mosiman, one of the festival’s directors, says that you can save money by buying your ticket at the Bottleneck, shaving off those otherwise obligatory shipping and handling and service fees.

“GREEN YOUR TRAVEL”

Support the use of cleaner power at the festival by purchasing one of the three Green Tags available online at shop.wakarusa.com.

“Near” Green Tag. $4.10

Recommended for those

traveling a distance of

approximately 310 round-trip

miles.

“Far" Green Tag, $11.30

Recommended for those

traveling a distance of

approximately 960

round-trip miles.

"Air" Green Tag, $26.70

Recommended for those who fly to

Wakarusa.

TICKET PRICES. BEFORE MAY 17: $119. AFTER MAY 17: $130. Single-day tickets available May 5.