Greenest Event Tent in the World Debuts at EMU Music Festival

The <a href="http://www.emufestival.com/">Eco Music Festival (or EMU for short)</a> held at 8,000 ft in Snowmass, Colorado recently unveiled what they are calling the greenest event <a href="http://inhabitat.com/u-s-military-developing-solar-powered-tents/">tent </a>in the world. They asked <a href="http://www.neenan.com/">Neenan Company</a>, a design/build firm, for some ideas and after a company-wide competition, the winning design by Ben Sheppard proved to be just the combo of simplicity, functionality, and eco-friendly building materials they were looking for.

Think of the thousands of<a href="http://inhabitat.com/index.php?s=music+festival"> festivals</a> this year and the sheer volume of materials consumed or discarded.

Neenan held a competition with three finalist tent concepts which could be voted for online.

The X Tent easily won for its combination of simplicity, portability, green materials and capacity to be configured into multiple setups.

The simplicity of the design is achieved by how the structure unfolds into a cross for the vertical supports.

They hold up cantilevered beams connected by 10 foot poles which in turn holds the canopy.

Take two X Tents and have them face each other and you have a sizable shelter under the intense Colorado sun.

Stack them side by side and you get a excellent place to<a href="http://inhabitat.com/cartonlab-makes-high-design-kiosks-out-of-humble-cardboard/"> interact</a> with vendors.

The tents take two people about 10 minutes to erect and with wheels set to the base a packed tent needs only one person to cart around.

The most impressive aspect of the design is how only sustainably sourced materials were used in its construction.

The wood members are salvaged <a href="http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05528.html">pine beetle</a> killed trees, locally sourced and milled.

The canopy is reclaimed army parachutes which slip into the poles, and because they are double layered blocks radiant heat from the sun while not blocking all of the light.

Light but strong<a href="http://inhabitat.com/big-bambu-organic-tower-grows-at-the-edge-of-venices-grand-canal/"> bamboo</a> supports poles connect the two frames together. Jute rope is used to tighten the rig tied from end to end to stiffen the tents in the wind.

With a successful under it belt the X Tent looks to make events not only more environmentally sound but more functional.