Festival Fun at Santa Barbara Earth Day

Alameda Park was full of sunshine, booths, live music, green cars, and us at the Earth Day Festival, which took place April 27-28. This past weekend, the Indy staff was out alongside the other 28,000 people the CEC reported to have. Our Independent booth was stocked with stickers, origami, and our Home and Garden issue, and we had a great time connecting with all of our readers who stopped by to say hi!

For Earth Day this year, we focused on ways to reuse and recycle our newspapers. You can reduce waste by sharing our paper with friends and family in our community! You can reuse it for many things — wrapping paper, for cleaning, in compost, etc. — even origami and newspaper roses, like the ones we had at our booth.

The Indy booth was situated in the public square, which gave us the best of both worlds of great music from the main stage while also hearing important updates on climate action. There were talks about gardening and big oil resistance, poetry readings, and discussions on solar power. The public square stage also hosted talks with multiple councilmembers, supervisors, and Senator Monique Limón. 

There were music performances on the main stage from Will Breman, Sophie Holt, Evan Blix, No Simple Highway, False Puppet, and The Last Decade, as well as a performance by World Dance for Humanity on Saturday. Sunday saw Bobby, Fin & Dave; Queentide; The Vonettes; Rastan Campbell; and Cornerstone.

Our staff had a great time exploring the kids’ corner, checking out the green car show, and trying delicious bites at the food court! And when we weren’t handing out our issue or talking with people who came to our booth, we shopped at the eco marketplace and enjoyed some savory sips at the beer and wine garden. 

This isn’t the only event the CEC will be holding. Some upcoming activities at their environmental hub downtown are about advancing sustainable development on May 9, a book signing with Ed Humes on June 6, and the Plastic-Free July Expo on June 27.