Participate In Earth Day Festival April 24

“We have an outstanding event planned for this year and hope everyone can make it!” wrote Bill Buchler, who is among residents coordinating this year’s third annual Earth Day Festival. “Our guiding principle is awareness, smiles, and education.”

On April 24 between 10 am and 4 pm residents are invited to the Newtown Middle School for children’s activities, live music, food, an environmental maze, a litter pick-up, vendors’ fair of local businesses and merchants, fitness demonstrations and performances by local instructors, and a one-on-one meet and greet with the Men In Green — a group of six environmental middle school friends who will take time at the event to launch a tree-planting program in Newtown. They recently won the national Lexus Eco Challenge, and prize money that they won will be used to support earth-friendly programs, such as composting, in the schools.

“This year’s Earth Day will be complimenting their efforts,” Mr Buchler confirmed.

Join the Newtown Lions Club Lose the Litter cleanup, and participate in the Hootenanny at My Place Restaurant, the Interactive Environmental Maze (sponsored by Merrell), Nature Arts and Crafts. Visit the Taunton Press’s Rain Barrel Raffle, a Vendor Fair & Food Court, the Recycled Art Show, and local businesses, school clubs, and town associations. See dance performances by The Graceful Planet.

Live music and performers include The Bandolins — hot picking from the six-piece bluegrass instrumentalists, singers and songwriters John Tamburello, Chris Ellis, and Richard Coopersmith, 59 Bank Street’s Open Mic featuring The Pears, Don Lowe, and Mark Elkins, The Northwest Quartet — a modern jazz, fusion, and blues group, Men in Green’s enviro-rapping, and The Skanktones — infectious reggae and good-time grooves.

Enjoy food from a host of local caterers, Italian restaurants and pizza shops, Mediterranean cuisine, and baked goods.

The vendor fair includes more than 40 companies from environmental-minded professionals to photographers, fitness instructors, Girl Scouts, orthodontists, landscapers, publishers, apparel lines, land trusts, and more.

Underwriters are Alteris Renewables, Merrell, The Taunton Press, Housatonic Valley Waldorf School, and Iroquois Gas Transmission System.