Aug. 20 | Lake Tahoe Community College | South Lake Tahoe
As the man behind the curtain of Bass Camp, Lake Tahoe Reggae Festival and Bluegrass and Beyond, Paul Reder has been organizing musical festivals in the Tahoe Sierra for years. His desire to give back to the community led him to partner with Matt Levitt of Tahoe Blue Vodka and Parker Alexander of Tahoe Heartbeat apparel company to create Tahoe Heartbeat Festival, an all-ages event to benefit Tahoe Fund.
“I’ve always been a fan of what they do,” says Reder. “I love the lake cleanups. I’m a scuba diver myself, so I appreciate all the efforts they’ve done to remove trash. Hopefully, we’ve created a legacy event to go on beyond our years and do something special for the lake.”
To be as green as possible, the festival will offer complimentary bike valet service, electric bus shuttles and zero plastic. Their approach is being modelled after California Roots, a longtime leader in festival sustainability.
“We want the community to embrace and support this so we can come back in years to come. We hope everyone sees the value in what we’re doing.”
–Paul Reder
An eclectic, socially conscious lineup will feature electronic music duo Thievery Corporation, South Carolinian singer-songwriter Trevor Hall, Latin hip-hop sextet Ozomatli and Sacramento surf rockers Arden Park Roots.
“We want the community to embrace and support this so we can come back in years to come,” says Reder. “We hope everyone sees the value in what we’re doing.”
Music for the environment
A percentage of each ticket sale, in addition to onsite fundraising at the festival, will go toward local nonprofit Tahoe Fund, established in 2010 as a source of capital for environmental projects around the Lake Tahoe Basin.
Tahoe Fund’s current projects include a $100,000-matching-contribution campaign to construct a park in the Ski Run neighborhood of South Lake Tahoe. The project was designed with the help of Friends of Ski Run, who invited children from Bijou Community School to sketch their vision for the park.
“There isn’t another park for a half-mile around and over 1,000 kids live in that neighborhood,” says Tahoe Fund CEO Amy Berry.
Another exciting project is the construction of the Meeks Ridge Trail on the West Shore. Right now, people in Meeks Bay have to drive to trailheads to get in longer hikes or bike rides. Tahoe Area Mountain Bike Association is working to change that with a 4.5-mile, multi-use connector to the recently rerouted Lost Lake Trail, which features some of the best granite-slab riding in the basin.
From there, users can head north to General Creek Trail to create a 12-mile loop on the West Shore with panoramic views of Lake Tahoe, Meeks Meadow and Desolation Wilderness. A $50,000-matching campaign will allow paid crews to camp for up to eight days at a time while constructing the rugged, upper section of the trail.
Tahoe Fund recently provided $100,000 toward a collaborative effort with the U.S. Forest Service and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency to remove 17 acres of invasive plants in the Taylor and Tallac creeks and marshes. This area has one of the highest concentrations of invasive species anywhere in the lake, including the notorious Eurasian watermilfoil. Left unchecked, these plants can devastate the local ecosystem and recreational resources. As part of a $3.5-million effort to restore one of the last natural wetlands in the basin, bottom barriers are being installed in the marshes to starve the plants of sunshine and eradicate them.
“We’re so happy,” says Berry. “We’re just overwhelmed when businesses think about how they can support the work we are doing to improve Lake Tahoe’s environment. It’s wonderful that they are thinking about the environmental impacts of events like this and making sure this is an environmentally friendly music festival. I hope it’s a great day and people really get to enjoy the music. And I hope people are inspired to help support the work of the Tahoe Fund, so we can get more projects like this done all around the lake.”
Along with live music, the festival will also include a vendor village, and food and beverage trucks. | tahoeheartbeatfestival.com
