A five-year old tradition of supporting local and national charities will be celebrated at Infiniti Downs on "Giving Tuesday," when the organizers of the LOCKN' festival will present checks totalling $37,210 to 17 non-profit organizations where were part of the festival's PARTICIPATION ROW social action village.
Starting back in 2013, LOCKN' created Participation Row by teaming up with a non-profit organization called
HEADCOUNT that promotes civic and community participation through live music events. Since its debut, Participation Row has raised over $190,000 for LOCKN's selected charities, and spurred LOCKN' patrons to take over 30,000 socially-conscious actions.
Following its success at LOCKN', HeadCount expanded the initiative to other festivals and concert tours, including the Grateful Dead's 50th Anniversary reunion concerts in 2015 and subsequent tours by Dead & Company In all, more than $1.4 million has been raised for charities through Participation Row, and nearly 100,000 actions have been taken.
At LOCKN', Participation Row has hosted or supported a total of 37 different organizations. This year, 17 charities participated, nine of whom are Virginia-based or represented by local chapters. Each will receive a minimum of $1,122.70.
The organizations also benefited from the opportunity to engage directly with festival attendees. Fans visiting Participation Row are prompted to take simple actions to support each cause. Anyone who takes four actions is then entered into a free drawing for a D'ANGELICO guitar signed by the LOCKN' headliners, and receive other treats like a free scoop of BEN & JERRY'S ice cream or a trial subscription to the streaming service QELLO. This year, LOCKN' attendees took at least 8,924 of these actions.
The fundraising component comes from a variety of sources including memorabilia auctions that HeadCount organizes at each event. This year's auction featured a D'Angelico guitar signed by approximately two dozen LOCKN' performers including Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Brandi Carlile, Warren Haynes, members of Widespread Panic, Umphrey's McGee and The String Cheese Incident It fetched $15,000..
Fans donated another $20,000 to the Heal Charlottesville Fund, a project of the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, via a text-to-donate program featured on the festival's free webcast.
Klean Kanteen donated an additional $5,500 to Participation Row charities through sales of LOCKN'-branded, environmentally-friendly water bottles. Plus, LOCKN' attendees donated over 4,000 pounds of food to Nelson County Food Pantry, via a Participation Row food drive staged by Conscious Alliance. The Pantry also receives a share of the auction proceeds.
Other 2017 beneficiaries include Virginia-based organizations Lynchburg Humane Society, Wintergreen Adaptive Sports, North Branch School, Wild Virginia, Park School, Crozet Tunnel Foundation, RecycleLife, and the Virginia Industrial Hemp Coalition. United Plant Savers, Factory Farming Awareness Coalition, Giving Hope Foundation, Moms Clean Air Force, Love Hope Strength, and HeadCount also will receive donations.
2018 LOCKN' LUMNI Weekend Passes (8/24-26) and Festival Passes (8/23-26) go on sale on November 24th. Artists will be announced in early 2018. For regular updates and more, please visit www.locknfestival.com.
