Father McKenzie, writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear.
No one comes near.

                                Eleanor Rigby, The Beatles, 1966

If there’s a Green concert and nobody goes, does it make a difference? Check out my video to see.

I went to the Green Apple Festival in Bicentennial Park in Miami on April 20. In the spirit of the eco-friendly mission of the concert, I took public transportation to the event, not an easy task in Miami. I boarded the Metrorail at the University stop, just outside of University of Miami, and took it all the way to Government Center. The entire trip, including time spent waiting for the train, took me about an hour. By four o’clock, I was passing over Bicentennial Park inside the Metromover . From my high vantage point, I could see that the park was mostly empty.

When I got to the gate, I presumed the worst: I had totally blown my story for MTV by showing up to the concert too late. I asked the guard at the gate, who wished not to be named, when the show started. He said around noon. Had I missed it? I asked. No, he said, there was another band about to go on at 4:30. I did a double take of Bicentennial Park. There couldn’t be two hundred people inside, counting the exhibitors. I asked him how many people he had come through the gate so far. He estimated about 110.

Shortly after 4:30, Arrested Development came on stage. There were so few people to see them that I literally walked from the back of the park all the way to the barrier at the stage and shot some of their performance. Even with the music blaring within earshot of the street, the crowd still only grew slightly, maybe to 250 people. I couldn’t believe there was nobody there. The vendor at the quesadilla stand even asked me what I did with all of the people.  What was the cause of this sparseness?

As logic would suggest, I didn’t find very many people to talk to. Just inside the gate were exhibitors for The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association in Florida. The group advocates for an environmentally friendly lifestyle. There appeared to be 20 of them or so at the gate, meaning they made up over 15% of the crowd at the concert. Xianying Wei was one of the exhibitors. “I met about 20 people or so before you came here,” she told me.

Mercy Hernandez is an Executive of The Early Development of Global Education, or The Edge, a group that aims to educate children ages two to five how to recycle, conserve, and preserve in order to help the environment. “We’re really disappointed. We think maybe if we were in California we would have had a lot more people.” So what makes Miami different? Priya Nembhard, another Edge Executive, chimed in. “Maybe it’s apathy, maybe people just aren’t into the Green Movement.” Is apathy really the issue?

Derek Staples is a Dream In Green intern. Dream In Green works with elementary, middle and high school students to teach them how to conserve energy, setup recycling programs, and reduce their carbon footprint. “It seems crazy that people go so far out of their way to go to South Beach and dance parties, but there’s this huge nationwide event with bands everywhere, and we can’t even manage to get more than a couple hundred people at our local event. We had a really hard time accomplishing our goals because there were so few people here.”

But Derek wasn’t so sure that apathy was the culprit. “I was told there was very little marketing, as in the city didn’t talk much about it, there wasn’t much promotion. You have this thing in huge Bicentennial Park and there are absolutely no signs outside for it at all.” I had to agree with him. I hadn’t seen any signs for it on campus, had heard nothing about it on the radio, and saw no advertising at the event, even right outside the gate. In fact, the only sign I saw was right next to the stage.  If I wasn’t going to report on the event, I probably wouldn’t have even known it was there. “Hopefully this is just first year jitters. I hope they get the kinks worked out. It would be a huge disappointment for this not to work.”

Arrested Development performed at the concert for free, their contribution to the event. The band had several hits in the early 90s, and has always featured positive, socially conscious lyrics. I spoke with their lead singer, Speech. “I feel discouraged. I heard that they just didn’t promote it. I don’t think it has nothing to do with us, or even the event. Somebody I talked to earlier said that people didn’t come out because this is about Earth Day. I don’t think that.” But it wasn’t all bad. They delivered a message to somebody, even if the audience was small. “Some people were here. I don’t want to negate the fact that people came. Those people will benefit. I hope next year the event is better promoted and more people come out and become more aware of what’s going on.”

I spoke to a member of the event staff, who directed me to their national office to get info on how the event was promoted. I have emailed them and await a response.

Interestingly, the issue of low attendance and possibly low promotion seems to have been a problem in Miami only. EricaAmerica reported from DC and trevorFmartin reported from Denver, finding huge crowds at their events.

Exhausted and disappointed, I decided to take my public transportation back to campus. As I boarded the Metromover, I could see Menudo take the stage. The crowd was smaller than when I had arrived.

For more, see my video.