Along with preparing the launch of a new website, WeEarth also made some time this past weekend to celebrate Earth Day at the Topanga Earth Day Festival. Deep within a canyon just outside of Los Angeles, California, many of us here took a time-out from our seemingly busy city lives to get in touch with our “inner hippies,” let our long-hair freak flags fly (those of us without hair participated in spirit) and become one with nature and the Topanga community for a two-day festival of music, art, yoga, and environmental education.
Serving as both media and sponsorship partners, we also managed a garbage and recycling program. Several of us spent a great deal of time making sure garbage was stored responsibly and sent to plants that would put it to use for other purposes. We were pleased to see plenty of kids at the event curious to know more about the process—and we were stoked to teach them, often lecturing to several groups of little ones throughout the weekend about the benefits of eco-consciousness and how one person can make a difference.
We also had camera crews documenting the entire event capturing hours of footage of attendees, musical performances, and interviews with some of the vendors’ about how their businesses cater to the Earth. We’ll make some clips available here soon.
Overall the Topanga Earth Day Festival provided a wholly worthwhile and fun experience that left many of us feeling much more connected with people and the environment. When I, personally, wasn’t relaxing in the grass by myself absorbing the sounds of sitars and pleasantly droning organs, I found it incredibly easy to approach people and learn more about some of the services they brought to the event (more attendees than I expected played an active role in making it come together). If a pivotal moment could be found, it came when a vendor provided me some free specially filtered water in a cup made from corn oil.
“Did you ever read the Robert Heinlein book, Stranger In A Strange Land?” he asked. I had, it’s been one of my favorite books for the past five years. “Remember how the main character in the book treated water? He believed sharing it was the most important thing we could do in our lives.”
He handed me the cup, and I felt something far greater than water being shared. There was a connective bond amongst mostly everyone at the event, and it was surely enough to make us at WeEarth anxious for next year.
