The plan to keep the Eastern Prom clean during the Mumford & Sons show (video)

I’ve been writing a lot about this upcoming Aug. 4 Mumford & Sons show lately — the truth is, while it’s similar to Portland’s July 4th fireworks celebration in terms of its draw, it’s in many ways different than anything that neighborhood has ever seen before.

(Read more about the event here, here, here, and here.)

Last night, I posted a story about the preparations for the show, including the news that the band plans to pay a personal visit to the best decorated home in the area of their show. As I and attendees of a Munjoy Hill forum last night learned, there’s a lot to pulling one of these festival dates off.

It’ll be nine hours long and feature two stages, as well as several vendors of food and tour merchandise. It’ll be transformative for one big day, and parts of two or three others. Festival organizers hope that the festival will showcase all that Portland has to offer, and of the 15,000 to 20,000 people who pour into the city directly or indirectly because of the concert, many will eat at restaurants, stay in hotels and plan future vacations here.

Festival organizers also hope that the festival won’t leave the Eastern Promenade a wasteland of concert ruins, with trash scattered across the popular park area for days afterward.

Well, Portland Solid Waste Manager Troy Moon is leading an aggressive trash and recycling control effort focused on the location. In the following video, he explains much of what that plan entails, borrowing from the city’s standard Fourth of July strategies employed in that same neighborhood, but adding new elements in response to the unique circumstances of a nine-hour musical fest. Give it a watch:

Seth Koenig

About Seth Koenig

Seth has nearly a decade of professional journalism experience and writes about the greater Portland region.