When twin brothers Blake and Joel Atchison were growing up in Nashville, there was no electronic music scene.
The city is known as an iconic bastion of country music, but back then, the words “Nashville” and “EDM” were rarely used in the same sentence.
The Atchison twins spent their childhood playing in the river and visiting record stores, until they crashed the first Bonnaroo music and arts festival. What they didn’t know was that they would later play a pivotal role in the development of Nashville’s EDM culture as the innovative founders of Deep Tropics.
With a background in sustainability, they always harbored a vision of merging the worlds of environmentalism and music. In college, they studied agriculture, green energy and urban planning and even received an EPA grant to run a biodiesel project that powered Appalachian State buses.
Blake began producing electronic music events in Nashville in 2008 and later created the production company Full Circle presentswhich organizes shows of house music, drum & bass and other subgenres of electronic dance music.
He “Decompress“The party series, which has hosted the likes of John Summit, Justin Martin, J. Worra and others, began around this time. At first, parties were held every month or every six weeks. Now, they are held three times a month.
“Consistency really helps the scene grow,” says Blake Atchison. EDM.com In an exclusive interview, he said: “Now we have multiple options of shows to go to, just like in any normal city. But it wasn't always like that. Even 10 years ago, that was unheard of.”
“I think what makes Nashville really unique and special in terms of the culture here is that there's a dearth of shows and parties in this scene,” she continues. “So I feel like everyone here really appreciates that. I think artists feel that. They're surprised when there's a scene and when there are people who know their music. It's a really cool time in the city.”
Full Circle Presents now puts on between 200 and 300 shows a year. Throughout the process of cultivating an EDM culture in Nashville, one of the biggest obstacles they faced, Blake recalls, was the lack of suitable venues for electronic shows.
“We would go to rock ‘n’ roll venues, bring in additional sound, video walls and lighting, and then have to convince the agent that this was an acceptable venue for their artists to come and play,” Blake explained. “Now, we have venues like The Office and Cannery Hall, with a Void sound system in the small room, a PK Trinity in the main room and The Hennessy sound system in the middle room. It’s amazing to see the growth in production value with the ecosystem of the venues.”
What makes it all worthwhile? Community, the brothers agreed.
“That’s what makes our organization special, that we all have the same mindset and we do this for the love of music and the love of the community,” Blake says with a smile. “Seeing the diversity of Nashville and the richness of the culture, how it’s growing, that’s what motivates us and what makes it worthwhile.”
Austin Friedline
The first ideas for designing a music festival came about in 2016, a time when the city “didn't have a proper electronic music festival,” Blake said. “It came out of a cultural necessity in Nashville.”
Blake and Joel spent a week in the woods of Northern California, talking about everything from talent to sustainability. After a creative brainstorming session and a “chance encounter” with John Hanna, a Nashville DJ and investor, Deep Tropics was born.
“Nashville is the music city, it’s more than just a country town,” Hanna tells us about why Nashville was the perfect location for Deep Tropics. “Country has come to the forefront, but even back in the day, Jimi Hendrix wrote his album here. There have historically been people here who were outsiders to country life. In the last 10 years, with different cultures coming in, we’re starting to see a boom in much more than just country music. We’re excited to help make that happen.”
In addition to bringing a large-scale electronic music festival to Nashville, where a burgeoning scene was now craving a larger event, the team’s goal was to deeply infuse environmentalism into its foundation. Sustainability has always been at the core of Deep Tropics’ vision; now, it’s billed as “North America’s greenest festival.”
Last year, Deep Tropics replaced most of its diesel generators with electric generators and batteries. Its goal for the 2024 festival is to get rid of them entirely and power the event entirely with renewable energy, plus minimal auxiliary grid power.
According to Deep Tropics, the festival team diverts 96% of festival waste from ending up in landfills. They also offset their carbon footprint annually through a massive tree planting initiative.
The key to this eco-friendly success is the festival's meticulous management of resources, the team explained. They only use compostable materials (no single-use plastics) and also reuse as much material as possible, even when it comes to art and décor.
Through a partnership with a recycling company called Terracycle, “impossible items” such as microplastics and cigarette butts can be recovered. Other sustainability initiatives at Deep Tropics include an “infinity cup” program where attendees use a stainless steel clip to reuse their cup throughout the festival.
They also implemented an eco-band program, which offers prizes and benefits nonprofits, as well as helping to plant 10 trees through a partnership with an organization called Trees for the Future. Throughout the year, Deep Tropics also offers opportunities for people to plant trees themselves.
c/o Deep Tropics
“This year, we've done a couple of trips to Project RANCH to give people the opportunity to work on a farm,” Joel Atchison tells us. “That's what we're most excited about, is providing opportunities in our own community. We provide channels for people to connect with other nonprofits that are doing cool things. So in addition to promoting artists, we also promote organizations that are doing amazing things in the community.”
All of the festival's sustainability initiatives are made possible by Blake and Joel's organization, Deep culture.
“Deep Culture supports harm reduction and safety and stands for consent and boundaries,” Joel said. “People really act differently when there’s no trash can on site, no trash everywhere. Our intention, to promote personal growth and holistic wellness within the event, is definitely a distinctive aspect from other festivals.”
Deep Tropics hosts a variety of dynamic workshops and wellness experiences, including ice bath activations, runway shows and clothing swaps, as well as discussions on regenerative agriculture and sustainable fashion.
“We do our best to make sure there are plenty of places where people can relax and educate themselves. We see Deep Tropics as a bridge between partying and purpose,” says Joel. “We push sustainability, wellness, anything that inspires people to connect, build community, or stand for values like consent, equity, human health, and resilience. Those are the ideas we’re definitely trying to get across.”
When asked why it is important for event organisers to promote sustainability, Joel says that music festivals represent special opportunities to connect with people and encourage change.
“There’s a pervasive narrative that we’re separate from nature,” she explained. “When we realise that caring for the Earth is linked to caring for ourselves and our communities, it’s a huge paradigm shift. If there’s no planet, there’s no people. Science has shown that we’re going through a huge social and ecological crisis, so it’s our responsibility. And I think it’s a unique opportunity for festival promoters and event organisers to incorporate that. You’re engaging people at a time when their minds and hearts are perhaps more open than they will be during the rest of the year. So it’s a great opportunity to educate.”
c/o Press
The team shares a long-term vision for the future of Deep Tropics, which they envision expanding into a week-long conference in Nashville, similar to Miami Music Week, SXSW or the iconic Amsterdam Dance Event.
“We want to go beyond this festival model, which is a great example of how to make this weekend event as sustainable and regenerative as possible, and go beyond that, to make Nashville the most sustainable city it can be,” Blake said.
The team is taking a step towards that goal thanks to the Deep Culture project. Sustainability Summitwhich is scheduled to take place on the Thursday before Deep Tropics 2024. The event will also be a convergence of industry professionals and government officials from different sectors, from food and agriculture to infrastructure.
“We really want to showcase regenerative solutions and innovation,” Hanna says. “There are so many great stories to tell. So we’re going to try that at our first annual Sustainability Summit this year and see if we can inspire Nashville.”
The Deep Tropics team has some tips for all those event organisers who want to adopt sustainability in their own shows and festivals.
“You have to get past the mental block of the prohibitive cost and understand the responsibility that we have, and the power and inspiration that the music industry has,” Blake urged. “From a sponsorship perspective, people probably wouldn’t get involved and donate the amount of money that they do if we weren’t doing cutting-edge stuff. I think people are drawn to that on a sponsorship level. With a reusable cup program, there are great organizations that have been doing it for a long time, so it creates a revenue stream for the festival. In turn, they can offset the cost of composting and recycling. It’s a journey and we’re figuring it out as we go, but we’re always willing to share ideas and what we do with other organizations.”
For Joel, the biggest piece of advice is to embrace the power of collaboration.
“Please feel free to contact us,” he said. “We're billing ourselves as the greenest festival in North America, not because we want to be the best, but because we want to inspire people.”
“The message I would like to convey to festival producers is that people care more than they think,” he adds. “By taking these measures, it will inspire a different kind of behaviour. There is no other place that generates as much inspiration as the music industry. So by making a difference at an event, it will inspire many entrepreneurs and the world at large. If we could make the music industry in general more sustainable, I think the whole planet would follow suit.”
Deep Tropics 2024 will take place August 16-17 with performances from RL Grime, Kaskade, Elderbrook, PEEKABOO and many more. Tickets are available now here.
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