Last year, the annual Green Fest that makes a stop here at the DC Convention Center, as well as on the west coast in San Francisco, CA was a must-attend event. Downsized from the expo-sized mega hit of 2008, the 2009 Green Fest still retained the valued elements of its previous year-- free stuff, music, kids' activities, renowned speakers, oh, yeah, and free stuff. This year, while the message of Green reigned supreme, festival-goers from years before could not help but notice visible signs of downsizing in this economy's painful recession.
Newcomers to the festival were impressed with the festival, nonetheless. Dionne McDonald, mom of two, found the festival to be worth the visit.
"The Go-Go music geared towards ending child poverty, added a little bit of DC to the festival's concept and that was much appreciated," McDonald shares. "From the foods to the crafts and home projects, all focused on living a greener lifestyle, the Green Festival gave me tons of ideas to bring home to my family. What I truly enjoyed, were the numerous publications about gender equality. In a time where these topics are touchy, it was nice to see them in such a positive setting."
Beer garden-- good in theory
I took my family this year to the festival and could not help but notice how much smaller this year's festival appeared when compared to the previous years I had attended. Some new elements this year that I hadn't seen in previous years included the Green Fashion Show which was produced by Hi-DEF, LLC and the organic beer and wine garden. While the beer and wine garden was a good idea, I'm sure, in planning, its presence diminished the sitting space for those of us who had purchased food, so scurrying around for places to sit was a tricky thing to do. With an active 7 year-old pulling me here and there, the search was a bit harder. Being that most of those attending the Green Fest have kids in tow, it was understandable why, during the time I was there, the garden was barely occupied. Ultimately, those who were looking for spaces to sit resorted to squatting and sitting on the convention floor. But, at this hippie-meets-hipster event, that was more than acceptable.
All in all, the Green Fest is still a top pick for those looking to check on things new in the Green industry and to listen to renowned speakers and to meet fantastic folks such as Democracy Now's Amy Goodman and local activist Tambra Stevenson, founder of the D.C. Food Justice Coalition, which helped pass the D.C. Healthy Schools Act. and Chair of the Food and Environment Committee for the Metro Washington Public Health Association. Kids are never lacking for things to do there and the give-aways-- from healthy fruit snacks to free t-shirts never gets old.
The Inaugural USA Science & Engineering Festival
Advertised since January with the help of no other than President Barack Obama, the Science & Engineering festival debuted this weekend as well on the National Mall. The fact that the festival was free and directly off of the Smithsonian metro stop made this a prime spot to hit for those visiting the city or residing in the city and looking for a family friendly event to attend. By 11am, on its first day, the festival site was packed with festival-goers. The small tented booths could not accommodate the packs of youth and families as the numbers of attendees seemed to swell by the minute.
My family and I got to engage in two activities (see in the slideshow) before deciding that the crowds were a bit overwhelming and decided to walk the six or so blocks up the street to where the Green Fest was. While the Science & Engineering festival was a hit by all standards of success (attendance, level of engagement, etc.), here's hoping that next year the tents are bigger and more of the green space is used for activities out from under the tents. But, for an inaugural feat, it was definitely a winner.
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Khadijah Ali-Coleman is founder of So Our Youth Aspire (SOYA) and FamilyFunDC. You can follow both on Twitter at @SOYAOnline and @FamilyFunDC. Be sure to keep up with all of your DC Community Issues Examiner news at @DCCIExaminer.
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