3:15pm | When we hear words like "sustainability" and "green," perhaps we think of gray water systems, tote bags made from recycled hemp or bicycles made from reclaimed construction products. At the annual Green Long Beach! Festival, taking place tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on The Promenade between Broadway and Third Street, you'll discover an amazing spectrum of environmentally sound local businesses, free workshops, art exhibitions, live music and a performance by the popular local fire dancing troupe Sirena Serpentina. Most importantly, perhaps, you'll have an opportunity to experience, first-hand the energy and enthusiasm that's been steadily growing about sustainability in the city.
Tiffany Chen, a Core Team Member for Green Long Beach!, explained the goal for the festival.
Tiffany: We want to create a spotlight for the growing momentum for a more environmentally sustainable community in Long Beach, and not only highlight the leaders in the community, but generate a fun and inviting environment where anyone and everyone can come and learn about what they can do on an individual bases. The difference, this year, is that we wanted to really highlight our "green marketplace" in Long Beach. If you look around town you see more and more businesses that have adopted green business practices. Even our own city of Long Beach launched a "green recognition program" in the fall of 2010! So I think we really wanted to celebrate that at this year’s “Ignite Change” festival.
Sander: What are the criteria for being part of the green marketplace?
Tiffany: Green Long Beach! and the Festival team really wants to celebrate the emerging green economy developing in the area, as well as support the local vendors that have continued to be leaders in the green movement. So the goal is to exhibit a very diverse range of local businesses and industries that not only have a green mission statement, but have green business practices or a commitment toward environmental sustainability.
On our exhibitor forms for participating vendors and organizations, we ask that they submit their “green statement,” which basically allows festival attendees to understand how this vendor is committed toward the environment. It also allows attendees to really support the local green economy by buying local and buying green.
Sander: Can you give me one specific example of a local business that's excelled in all of these areas? Tiffany: One local business and amazing resource in our community is the Long Beach Depot for Creative Reuse. The proprietor of the store, Lisa Hernandez, has been a major support since the first year of the festival and encapsulates all the ideals of a local green business that ignites change in the community.
Another local business that has excelled in all of these areas is Green Wave Energy Corporation, who will be powering the entire festival via solar and wind! They are an energy engineering think tank and manufacturer of clean energy producing products. The festival team is really excited to have them on board this year. Sander: The festival is also hosting a series of workshops. Can you talk a bit about how that came together? Tiffany: Another goal in our Green Long Beach! mission statement is to promote environmental awareness and outreach through education. The purpose of the education workshops and presentations is to connect the “why and how” for environmental sustainability. This year we’re hosting workshops that range from information on energy efficiency, sustainable fisheries, sustainable chocolate, green cleaning and native landscaping, to name a few.
Sander: What's happening on the Main Stage? Tiffany: We have the opening ceremony starting at 10 a.m., which includes an indigenous performance followed by Vice Mayor Lowenthal, Council Member Garcia, and a reading of the "Green Long Beach Day" proclamation. From there, we're kicking off a full day of music performances and even a green fashion show.
Sander: Tell me about the visual art component of this year's festival?
Tiffany Chen: This annual event heavily incorporates the arts and will feature the politically charged visual artwork of Robert Lebsack and the stunning photography of artist Kimberly Davis. There will also be a collection of “sacred scarecrows” displayed at the festival site, which were made entirely from reclaimed wood from the former Acres of Books store. In addition, the festival team will also be creatively landscaping, or “greening,” the entire festival site with native plants, artwork and also featuring a ‘live’ visual art component of “Dancing with Long Beach.” They are gearing up some wonderful talents of dance individuals, groups and dance companies to perform site-specific demonstrations during the event. Jerry Lee Hudson's Tinderbox will provide live painting. Sander: What else can people look forward to?
There will also be a cell phone recycling component. Attendees are encouraged to bring in their old cell phones (working or non-working) to recycle at the festival. This also serves a dual purpose of mitigating hazardous waste that would potentially be going to the landfills, and also we’re working with “growing green with Cell Funds” to help fundraise for Green Long Beach!
We have been working with local businesses in the surrounding area to offer discounts to festival patrons. A list of participating businesses will be featured on our website and also highlighted on our Festival Map that will be available online and at the festival on Saturday. Our festival team decided to not offer food vendors and food trucks at the festival this year in order to encourage festival attendees to go around the corner and shop local. An example is Zephyr Vegetarian Café. They will be offering discounts on the day of the event.
There will be a free water station, so people are invited to bring their own water bottles and get free refills. We’ll also be selling reusable water bottles for $1, with unlimited refills. Lastly, we encourage all festival attendees to bring cash to support the local green exhibitors at the festival, ride a bike to the festival using the newly opened separated bike paths. We will have a free Bike Valet service all day, courtesy of the HUB Community Bike Center. Attendees can also use the newly redesigned transit mall that will essentially take you right to the festival site.
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Visit GreenLB.org for event details. The site also has a detailed stage and workshop schedule.