You can tell how serious the VanderAa brothers are about zero waste by looking at their YouTube clips or promotional photos – they wear their shirts until they fall off and then, well, they go shirtless.
But the fun-loving and frequently topless multi-instrumentalists, who have been taking the Sunny Coast by storm since arriving from Darwin a year ago, are also totally committed to helping the environment and making the world a better place.
Born and raised in Darwin, brothers Levi and Aaron VanderAa have toured all over the world, but fell in love with the Sunshine Coast and have called it home for over a year.
Performing as VanderAa, Levi and Aaron VanderAa have appeared at festivals such as Splendour in the Grass, Falls Festival, Berlin Travel Festival, Burning Man, and many more across Europe. The name VanderAa is their last name, and it means “of the River Aa” for the part of Holland their family came from.
Levi and Aaron have been using their music to create positive change since they offered free downloads of their EP in exchange for an act of kindness. Since then they’ve collaborated with environmental groups including Sea Shepherd, Greenpeace, Take 3 for the Sea, Clean Coast Collective, Will and Bear, and more. “We want to leave behind a legacy that is in the direction of creating positive change”, says Aaron, “Not leave behind a legacy of rubbish and trash and a carbon footprint”.
With the help of the Sunshine Coast community, VanderAa successfully ran a 250-people concert in September as a ‘zero waste’ event, generating only a handful of waste. Inspired by this success, Aaron and Levi began researching how to make their 500-people Halloween concert both zero-waste and carbon-neutral.
They found the Noosa Environmental Education Hub, who organised a planting of 100 eucalypt trees by students camping at the Mimburi campus of Noosa District High, to restore koala corridors on this conservation site which consists of 300 acres of rolling hills, bordered on the south by Belli Creek, and to the west by the Mary River. Through projects like this, the Noosa EEHub involves the next generation of environmental custodians in protection and restoration of our local ecosystems.
The tree planting took place on November 17, made possible from the profits of VanderAa’s Secret Garden event held in Belli Park this month on a private property, and Aaron VanderAa came along to help out.
“We’re just so stoked to be involved with this planting and to help benefit the community”, he says. “I really recommend that other musicians and anyone running events takes steps to help our environment. I think it’s really important that we all step up and address issues within our community.”
VanderAa plan to continue bringing carbon-offset, zero-waste events to the Sunshine Coast. Head to VanderAa’s Facebook page to see what shows they have coming up, including their two-day New Year’s Eve Secret Garden Experience.
The Noosa Environmental Education Hub has an exciting program planned for schools across the Sunshine Coast in 2021. To find out how your school can get involved visit the website www.noosaeehub.com.au.
