Happy Earth Day!

Dread heads, deadheads, hippies, and more…Families, fairies, ganja galore, converged together to form an eclectic crowd, that San Francisco is synonymous for. Unlike 4/20, this time it was for a cause, as the Green Apple Music and Arts Festival hosted a celebration for Earth Day, April 22nd, in Golden Gate Park.

The second annual Green Apple Music and Arts Festival, presented by JP Morgan Chase, was held on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Speedway Meadows of Golden Gate Park. The festival, accommodated over 30 booths that included the San Francisco Green Party, Greenopia, a massage parlor, and a global mourning-global awakening area by Creative Community Catalysts, where artists work to inspire more ecologically sustainable and socially connected communities. The main attraction to the event, however, was the free musical line up that brought San Franciscans out in throngs, to hear Bob Weir and Rat Dog, Stephen and Damian “Jr Gong” Marley, The Greyboy Allstars, Martin Sexton, and Jonah Smith all in the name of mother earth. Earth Day, was created as a result of the conscious awakening by Rachel Carson’s bestselling novel, Silent Spring. Silent Spring, among other things, inspired United States Senator Gaylord Nelson, to speak out on a need for an environmental teach-in. Thus, Earth Day was created and began on April 22, 1970 with the participation of more than 20 million people. Today, the once grassroots rally, has turned into a celebration by more than 500 million people in 175 countries.

The Green Apple festival held in San Francisco was also held in New York and Chicago, and celebrated by 15,000 people in each city, said the MC for the event (event staff declined interview). For one of the 15,000 in attendance, Brandon Redman, a student at the University of San Francisco, Sunday turned into Funday as he described the celebration as “a well organized event that did a good job of bringing all different types of people together to celebrate Earth Day.” Emily Stetson, a young adult festival goer, said “I’ve never seen this at a festival before,” in response to the overwhelming large attendance as she waited for her garlic fries.

As bubbles and smoke hovered above the crowd, San Franciscans enjoyed free music and good food as the need for global environmental awareness grows stronger with every passing gas guzzling Hummer. Which begs the question, shouldn’t Earth Day be everyday?