BLOND:ISH's New Initiative "Stay'ge Positive" Wants to Cut Down on Plastic in the Music Industry

Vivie-Ann Bakos, the producer and DJ known as BLOND:ISH, knows her way around festivals, having played Burning Man and Coachella. And she’s noticed just how much plastic goes to waste—cups, straws, water bottles are all single-use items and typically not recycled. The lockdown of 2020 prevented over 570 million pounds of them from being thrown out.

Now, BLOND:ISH has spearheaded Bye Bye Plastic, a new team dedicated to ridding the music industry of single-use plastic by 2025. So far, 1,500 artists have adopted the foundation’s sustainability-enhancing Eco-Rider. Now they’ve announced a new mentorship program called Stay’ge Positive. Beginning Monday, May 3, Stay’ge Positive will offer climate action workshops and training classes run by eight experts from within the dance-music sphere.

There are two levels. The Greener Sounds Workshop is a one-hour info session, available for free, of “Thought-starter strategies and eco-resilience insights.” The Stay’ge Positive courses, meanwhile, which are paid ($471/399€), will take place over four weeks, with both live and pre-recorded lessons. The instructors include BLOND:ISH (of course), Soul Clap, Reroot, Harold Friedl, and The Secret Inspirer. 

The program is already getting good responses from artists who’ve signed up. In a statement, the Amsterdam duo Parallells said: “It’s inspiring to see ByeBye Plastic always proposing initiatives, such Stay’ge Positive, to reduce our footprints, and spread uplifting messages and actions towards reconciliation and respect to mother earth. We need to warm the cooling hearts of humankind towards nature."

 Registration for the classes can be done here.