| 072 | Earth Day Festival | 2009-04-20 |
Barefoot in the Park. Kids. Music. Hoola Hoops. Vendors. Kettle Corn. Earth Child. Earth Day.
What a great celebration! Over ten thousand people (Metro Parks count) attended the eight annual Nashville Earth Day Festival. Highlights of the services were the "ReCycle Your Cycle" program and "MEDS" (Manage extra drugs safely) - rather than flushed down the drain.
Then naturally there was a plethora of booths with lots of Earth Day ideas. There were green companies and organizations and then there were other companies that surprised me by there presence and support - for example: Wal-Mart. Maybe Wal-Mart is changing it’s ways. Nah. They were displaying and giving away the green products they carried in their stores (the table wasn’t very big!). I am sure the Festival benefitted from Wal-Mart’s support, but their presence seemed almost contradictory to me. Maybe I am just a little biased or misinformed. I know they are tryin gto improve their image.
On to the rest... the music was great and in general, people were having fun, the way Earth Day should be. When I was walking the loop looking at the booths, there was a jazz band playing in the background and another band was performing in the bandstand (I believe it was Jeremy Lister). As I was looking for new things, there were some great looking electric bikes and vehicles, but probably the highlight of the festival to me was the new hybrid buses Nashville has bought. The buses looked impressive and they burn 33% less fuel!
Because of family circumstances I was only able to visit the Festival for a short time. As I rode away, bikes were being dropped off to be recycled. Scores of people were making their way to the grounds, excited to participate in the event. Traffic on West End caused by the event was almost at a stand still as cars maneuvered looking for parking. Earth Day was good and to a lot of people.