This past weekend marked the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. Woodstock always will be remembered as a defining moment of the late 1960s, and as with most anniversaries, it's fun to look back and see how things have changed. Two noted improvements when it comes to such large-scale outdoor concerts are the availability of recycling and access to bottled water.

Today, one of the hallmarks of a successful festival is an efficient recycling system. A great example of this occurred in June, when a new generation of concert-goers filled the town of Manchester, Tenn., for the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. The grounds became, as with Woodstock, a city within itself. Through the cooperation of attendees and the hard work of the "Clean Vibes" crew, more than 65 percent of all waste, by volume, was diverted from landfills. Virgin Festival is yet another great example of how the environment is considered when planning a multi-day, multi-stage event for such a tremendous crowd. In fact, earlier this month at the Virgin Festival in Alberta, Canada, attendees were encouraged to pick up recyclables around the festival grounds and trade them in for "awesome stuff."