Festival Fest 2009
An all day, free music festival featuring local and national bands playing on JMU's Festival Lawn.
Saturday 4/18 - 12:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Free day long music festival.
Games, Crafts, Vendors and Music from local and national acts!
Featuring The Hackensaw Boys
Dubconscious
Murphy's Kids
and many, many, more
5 comments:
Festival Feast was the capstone to a week of events hosted by the JMU Earth Club. The purpose of the week was to raise awareness across a wide range of environmental issues including: renewable energy, sustainable economics, and political policy. The aim of Festival Feast was to get people out to enjoy music, festivities, and join into the activism of the Earth Club Community on campus.
One of the particularly interesting parts of the event was a puppet show. It mocked the naysayers of global warming, and presented in a humorous way the danger and urgency of environmental issues.
Something very surprising happened near the end of the evening. While the final band play to close the evening, 10 or so of the remaining 35 people decided to strip to the nude while they danced to the music. To me, this was a form of argumentation and advocacy as they show their dedication to freedom and liberation for the plant from environmental threats.
Though I couldnt be present for the entire event, the message of the Festival Feast was clear to all who attended: while supporters and advocates come from many backgrounds, everyone must contribute on a personal level toward making the Earth a better place. In this respect, the Earth Club was very persuasive. The event was well publicized, with the support of musicians and artists which could attract crowds for the event. The club was also able to effectively convey their message of environmental consciousness AND to increase the efficacy of the public by informing them of steps they could take to lessen their environmental impact and preserve natural splendor for future generations.
I only spent a little bit of my time at the Earth Club festival fest, but the message they were trying to portray was very clear. Our earth has been deteriorating for some time now and it is up to us and future generations to help to prevent this from happening. The used many different devices to try to persuade those who attended the event to do all that they could to help our earth be cleaner. Lots of effort was made into telling us how we could dispose of batteries and other harmful products that emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It also talked very little about recycling which I think is the easiest measure in helping maintain a clean community. They did a very good job of organizing bands to play to gain the attention of the students who attend JMU and the overall success of the fest was evident by their story in the Breeze.
I was at festival fest for a short time, although it did not take long to get the gist of what was being promoted. Replete with flannel, nal-gen water bottles, and "unidentified smoke," this years festival fest proved to be another incident of a good message getting bogged down in the excessive revelry of Alumni Weekend. There were good moments such as the satirical puppet show, where puppeteers made a mockery of global warming deniers with scientific facts and empirical evidence. The earth club did a great job advertising and growing public support for the event with a variety of live bands and entertainment. Eventually though as people came and went the overtone of environmental responsibility gave way to the debauched atmosphere of a rock concert. Things really took a turn for the weird when a group of students felt the need to strip down to their birthday suits in what I imagine was a protest against textile labor abuses...or they were high (on life.)
In celebration of Earth Week, James Madison’s Earth Club hosted events that advocated and encompassed a the important of a clean Earth. Starting April 13, the Earth Club started off the week but doing a Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Day. From 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, trash could been seen all over the Commons. Showing an importance of recycling and the hidden mysteries behind it. Tuesday kicked off another event on the Commons in which they were handing out, “If you love the creator, take care of the creation” stickers (which I received one on my ever so long hike from ISAT to Harrisonburg). Flooding the Commons for the week, a Grassroots Activism Day took place which I kindly passed. Thursday, Commons, you get the picture. Friday was the annual No Drive Day. Since I don’t have a parking pass, and refuse to pay the outlandish prices of tickets on campus, I followed in accordance. And last but not least (and what this post is suppose to be about) was the most talked about event, Festival Fest. I attended Festival Fest last year as well because one of my friends participated in Green Team before they graduated and have an undying love for Earth. Music, games, frozen ice with flavors, cotton candy, dogs, hippies, and the whole shebang were seen during the event. Overall, very relaxed environment that really got the word out.
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