New York City’s beloved Ecofest is celebrating its 27th anniversary this year!
During this popular free festival on August 16, you can explore delicious food and entertainment, including a fashion show on a solar stage. You can also check out great green products, including electric and other green vehicles, and take seminars and workshops on sustainability and energy efficiency. There will also be plenty of fun for the kids with eco-activities, the recycling Olympics, and much more.
Launched as an environmental event where people would get information, get involved, find products, learn about services and be entertained by people who care about the environment, Ecofest started as a visionary effort for a better world. Twenty-seven years later it is still going strong supporting environmental causes and issues.
Ecofest is a cultural and educational environmental festival, free to the public, that is organized and produced by the West Side Cultural Center in New York. Ecofest has developed an unequaled base of public and private sector support and is a mainstay on the New York City calendar of events, bringing thousands of people to the historic NY locations including Central Park, Lincoln Center, The Intrepid Air, Sea and Space Museum, the Solar 1 Space on the East River, and now for the third year in a row at Times Square.
A major focus of Ecofest is conservation of our natural resources and innovative alternative-energy technologies. This year’s Ecofest will again feature the SEOTO (Sources of Energy Other Than Oil) Alternative Fuels Display which demonstrates a wide variety of alternative-energy vehicles – ranging from prototypes of solar cars to electric, natural-gas, hybrid, fuel cell and ethanol vehicles already in use by private businesses and many New York City and New York State Agencies. The vehicles stay on display with exciting demonstrations and activities scheduled throughout the day.
In addition to the SEOTO Display, Ecofest regular features include the Ecofashion Show on the World Solar Stage and the Ecofest Environmental Education Conference with renowned experts. The Ecofastion show presents collections made of 100% organic and recycled material and the Conference offers free seminars where key environmental issues are discussed.
Through dynamic exhibits, stimulating entertainment and celebrity performers and speakers Ecofest fosters public awareness about opportunities for environmental change. It spurs people to take the initiative in making their homes, businesses and communities more ecologically advanced and environmentally sound, while encouraging education, inspiration, activism, membership and volunteering.
Throughout the years Ecofest has had the support of major environmental organizations such as the New York Zoological Society, The Audubon Society, the United Nations Environmental Program, Sierra Club, Nature Conservancy, The Natural Resources Defense Council, Rainforest Alliance, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Council on the Environment. Major corporations and banks, such as General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Volvo, Toyota Motors, Lexus, Nissan, Brita, AT&T, IBM, BFI, Tom’s of Maine, Chase, International Paper; utilities and key government agencies, including the New York City Transit/MTA, NYC DOT, NYCDEP, Consolidated Edison, New York Power Authority, and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey provide support for Ecofest. The presence of all these enlightened organizations from the public and private sectors are brought together at Ecofest to offer thousands of New Yorkers a unique opportunity to learn of their environmental message.