Food, fashion and fun were all on the agenda at last week’s Boston GreenFest, held from August 19-21. Featuring eco-minded exhibitors from all over New England, the family-friendly event took over Boston’s City Hall Plaza. Organic food vendors, green design companies, and plenty of local businesses were on hand to both showcase their wares and generate eco-awareness.
The event kicked off on Thursday morning with a green business breakfast and green jobs forum (featuring former Governor Michael Dukakis). Other highlights included 50/50 raffle (wherein the winner received half the winnings while the other half went to the Foundation for a Green Future, Inc.) and continuous performances held on the City Hall Plaza’s main stage. The concerts, dance performances, stunt work, fashion shows, yoga and workout bootcamp dominated the stage all weekend long. Thursday also featured the One Gallon Challenge, a “race” to see how far the latest fuel-efficient, eco-friendly cars could travel with one gallon of gas… from 110 miles away in Northampton, MA.
Friday’s highlights included the Eco-Runway, featuring Nancy’s Gone Green! Eco Boutique of Framingham, MA. Festival goers could also enjoy another night of performances and shop in the Eco Bazaar. They could also sample organic “world cuisine” in the Eco Cafe, including North Indian dishes from Mela Restaurant, Korean cuisine from Choi Food, Mexican treats from Cha-Cha-Cha, and coffee from Dean’s Bean, a fair-trade, organic company and a Green Cotton favorite! Saturday saw still more exhibitors, concerts and another staging of the Eco-Runway.
New Englanders are fortunate to be able to enjoy large green festivals like this, and the Boston GreenFest is sandwiched between two other major eco-conscious events: April’s Down2Earth and October’s Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. Plenty of healthy, organic food, along with fashion designers and green companies, will descend on VegFest next month, so if you missed GreenFest, be sure to check it out!
Green Cotton was happy to receive a gift from a local eco-friendly vendor that will be reviewed (and raved over!) here on this blog… stay tuned later this week to find out what it is!
Images from: http://www.bostongreenfest.org/index1.html
http://www.bostongreenfest.org/onegalchal.html
http://www.bostongreenfest.org/fashiontent.html
This sounds like a great festival! I am from Connecticut, but I currently live in Arizona for the school year. If I was around I would have loved to hop on the Mass Pike up to Bean Town for this event. It sounds like the festival was geared towards all types of people who are into (or at least interested) in the Green movement. This was an event that allowed people to spread their knowledge about ways individuals can become more environmentally aware and friendly.
I’ll be graduating and heading back to the East coast at the end of this year. Hopefully next year, I can make it up to this awesome festival. It must have been refreshing to spend a weekend with interesting people who have a good grasp on the importance of being kind to our planet!
Seems like a great event. That car seems really cool. Very organic
there needs to be more eco-friendly fashion events like this. thanks for the information.