Local artists, musicians and experts will be greening up Fort Edmonton this Sunday as thousands of residents head out to celebrate international Earth Day.
April 22 is Earth Day and in a rare coincidence, also the date of this year's Edmonton Earth Day festival. The annual event regularly draws thousands of area residents together as part of a global celebration of the environment.
The Edmonton festival usually happens on the weekend, says festival co-ordinator and St. Albert resident Janice Shoults, so it usually doesn't line up with the official Earth Day date like it has this year. In another coincidence, this 22nd annual Earth Day falls on the 22nd day of the month.
"All the planets have aligned," said Shoults.
This year's free event will pack six hours of entertainment into Fort Edmonton Park's Blatchford Hangar, Shoults says, and could well be the best Edmonton Earth Day ever. "There's just a lot of cool stuff."
It could also be greener than ever, she continues: not only is the event's main stage solar-powered, but its children's stage is pedal-powered with generators hooked to bikes. They're also buying wind power to cover any electricity they don't generate on their own.
"At least in that way, we're going to be a zero-footprint event."
Local acts
St. Albert children's entertainers and Earth Day stalwarts Peter and Mary will be on the main stage performing their Planet Kindness show, Shoults notes, playing alongside musician John Spearn and members of the Viva contemporary dance troupe. Members of the Big Lake Environment Support Society will also be there with buckets full of aquatic critters.
New this year is an art exhibit by St. Albert librarian Victoria Armstrong, who works at the St. Albert Public Library and is an award-winning artist who specializes in wildlife illustrations. Most of her work includes re-used materials such as tissue paper, glass, tin foil or pistachio shells.
Armstrong will have a number of her more recent pieces at the exhibit as well as the full-sized version of the logo she made for the festival, the Tree of Life.
"Almost every religion or background has some sort of legend or story about the Tree of Life," Armstrong says.
Every other living being on the planet is part of our family tree, she says, and she's hidden 56 animals in her painting of the tree to illustrate this fact. She's also tied the roots of the tree in with the red Celtic knot-work that circles the painting, illustrating how all life draws upon energy from the Sun.
Also new to the festival is a seminar run by St. Albert's own Queen of Green coach, Melanie Smith. She is one of four Canadian women picked by the David Suzuki Foundation's Queen of Green, Lindsay Coulter, to teach local families how to tread more lightly on the Earth. Smith learned a variety of eco-tips from Coulter in 2010 as part of a green makeover of her home.
Many people feel too busy to help the environment, Smith says.
"They're overwhelmed already. They don't know what to do, and they don't know where to start."
Give them some simple tips, however, and they can start making some changes — especially if they know their neighbours are doing them, she says.
One tip she says she'll bring to Earth Day will be on how to recycle less.
"People often forget about the reducing and the reusing," she says, especially when it comes to packaging. "A great example is glass jars."
Instead of recycling them, wash them out and use them as re-useable, microwave-safe containers, she suggests.
Earth Day is a chance for everyone to do something, however small, to help the planet, Smith says.
"There are lots of areas that can be a little bit greener."
Earth Day activities run from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. Visitors are encouraged to take the free shuttle from the South University Campus LRT station and to bring donations for the Edmonton Food Bank. Visit edmontonearthday.ca for details.
