Members of the Syracuse community gathered in sunny Thornden Park Sunday to take in free entertainment and speakers for Earthfest, an event hosted by two sustainability organizations to celebrate the planet.

Earthfest, which took place in the Thornden Park Amphitheater, was held by Students of Sustainability, the Sustainability Division at Syracuse University and NYPIRG. It was in celebration of the 45th Earth Day, which is on Wednesday. Earthfest “is a place of celebration, innovation, togetherness and hope,” said organizer Christine Edgeworth, a senior geography major.

Earthfest aimed to bridge the gap between SU and the surrounding community as the free event was collecting donations for Syracuse Grows, a community organization that is working to create an equal foodscape in central New York.

Emma Edwards, a senior geography and policy studies major at SU, said she was at Earthfest because “it is a really great event that brings together all of the members of the sustainability groups at SU and ESF, along with the local Syracuse community.”

This year’s event featured eight local music acts, three local food vendors, five local craft vendors, five speakers from the community, four live painters, an art instillation, 16 student and community organizations tabling and hosting various activities, and other activities such as yoga, henna tattoos, face painting, jewelry making, tie-dye and interactive murals.

Alex Poisson, a graduate student and the sustainability coordinator at SUNY-ESF, said he was glad the event allowed for community members to see the different organizations’ initiatives to make the planet a better place.

Students of Sustainability was handing out free water bottles in its campaign to reduce the amount of plastic water bottles that are used on campus, and the group had a free water bottle refilling station set up in the amphitheater. This was part of a bigger “Take Back the Tap” campaign from the Food and Water Watch Initiative.

Bob Wilson, a geography professor, spoke about the first Earth Day event in 1970, when 20 million people held celebrations across the country. He spoke about how SU students blockaded the entrances to the university and forced people to walk to campus to highlight the negative impacts of fossil fuel cars. They also held a “sludge trudge” to raise awareness about pollution and hosted boat tours around Onondaga Lake.

He mentioned this year’s event was particularly special because of SU’s recent decision to divest its endowment from fossil fuels.

Paul Ottesen, an author and web coordinator at SUNY-ESF, also spoke about the first Earth Day celebrations. He said that since the first Earth Day, tremendous progress has been made in protecting and improving the environment, such as the amount of pollution and the degradation of our lakes and rivers. However, he said there hasn’t been much progress made on the threat of climate change.

Julia Jesse, a freshman engineering major, said many of the events on campus have the same celebratory atmosphere, but that Earthfest was the only event celebrating both sustainability and the Earth.

Correction: In previous version of this article, the groups that organized the event were misstated. NYPIRG, Students of Sustainability and the Sustainability Division hosted the event. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on April 19, 2015 at 9:32 pm