A festival is coming to town. In case the economic depression has erased the notion from mind, a festival is one of those community events where singing, dancing, and tasty foods are aplenty -- sounds fun. The second annual Green Festival is scheduled for this weekend, March 28-29 at the Washington Trade and Convention Center.
With an expected attendance of 30,000, Seattle's Green Festival will host 150 speakers, more than 350 green businesses exhibits and dozens of non-profit and community groups. The event is intended to celebrate and inform the public on the subject of sustainable practices, products, and technologies, according to the festival's website. Some of the country's most innovative green companies will be hosting exhibits showcasing a diverse array of products and causes; organic foods, socially responsible investment, eco-art, and green media, to name only a few. The Festivities will go from 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. Saturday and 11a.m. - 6 p.m. on Sunday. Admission for both days will cost you $15, but a bicycle, bus transfer, student or union identification, or a few gray hairs (seniors over 62 years old) will get you a $5 discount; and the event is free for children under 18.
The festival touts an impressive list of speakers, many of which are Seattle area residents or have local affiliations. Heather Manley, volunteer coordinator for the Seattle festival, expects high attendance at speeches by Amy Goodman, journalist and author who won numerous awards for her coverage of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor; John Perkins, author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man;" and "When Corporations Rule the World" author David Korten. Other speakers include: John de Graff, producer of the PBS documentary "Affluenza" and organizer of the "What's the Economy for, Anyway?" conference in 2007, actor and health care activist Danny Glover and David Mozer, director of the International Bicycle Fund.
Manley encourages people to come and enjoy the "great how-to workshops, interactive kids' activities, delicious organic cuisine, beer and wine... and diverse live music." The festival's Facebook group has hundreds of members and many very positive comments. The festival should be a fun, interesting, and relatively cheap weekend outing, and a great place to meet like minded people and catch up on the latest in green living.