Festival update for Feb 23: what to do at the Festival
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Sustainable Practice
Feb 23, 2026, 11:44:41 AMFeb 23
to earthdayinbrunswick
Hello Festival friends,
Hope you're home safe and snug while this blizzard blankets our state. Please forward this message to anyone who may be interested in the Festival.
Who knows what the weather will be in two months, but whatever is happening the Festival will go on Saturday, April 25, at Harriet Beecher Stowe School!
In today's update, I want to share a list of what to do at the Festival. The "big three" are
1) The All Species Parade at 10:30 am. Dress up as your favorite creature or come just as you are, but don't miss it!
2) The "fun ride" at 1:00 pm led by the Bicycle Coalition of Maine. Bike to the Festival, then go for a fun ride around town and back to the Festival.
3) The wheelbarrow races, finals at 2:30 pm. Help spread a load of mulch for the school garden to get an entry ticket, then push your wheelbarrow around an obstacle course during the time trials. Fastest teams compete in the finals.
There will be lots more going on all day, from 10 am to 3 pm. The Festival is rain or shine, indoors AND outdoors. Tell everyone to mark it on their calendars, check the weather to decide what to wear, and come to Harriet Beecher Stowe to have fun, meet people and make new friends, and do some good for our planet. We'll have tabling and interactive exhibits in the gym, talks in the cafeteria, and tents and music and food trucks outdoors. Regardless of the weather, some activities will happen indoors and some will happen outdoors. If you're participating, you can choose whether you want to reserve a table indoors (you'll be inside even if it's a beautiful spring day) or a space for your tent outdoors (you bring your own tent, and you'll be outside even if it's a miserable mud season day). April is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get. Be prepared!
In today's update, I want to share a list of what to do at the Festival. The "big three" are
1) The All Species Parade at 10:30 am. Dress up as your favorite creature or come just as you are, but don't miss it!
2) The "fun ride" at 1:00 pm led by the Bicycle Coalition of Maine. Bike to the Festival, then go for a fun ride around town and back to the Festival.
3) The wheelbarrow races, finals at 2:30 pm. Help spread a load of mulch for the school garden to get an entry ticket, then push your wheelbarrow around an obstacle course during the time trials. Fastest teams compete in the finals.
There will be lots more going on all day, from 10 am to 3 pm. The Festival is rain or shine, indoors AND outdoors. Tell everyone to mark it on their calendars, check the weather to decide what to wear, and come to Harriet Beecher Stowe to have fun, meet people and make new friends, and do some good for our planet. We'll have tabling and interactive exhibits in the gym, talks in the cafeteria, and tents and music and food trucks outdoors. Regardless of the weather, some activities will happen indoors and some will happen outdoors. If you're participating, you can choose whether you want to reserve a table indoors (you'll be inside even if it's a beautiful spring day) or a space for your tent outdoors (you bring your own tent, and you'll be outside even if it's a miserable mud season day). April is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get. Be prepared!
The lists below are NOT complete! Our deadline for guaranteeing a free place at the Festival to non-profit groups is this Saturday and we're continuing to sell exhibit space to business sponsors. So if your activity is not on the list, don't panic! Next week (the first week of March) we'll be sending out a packet to every business and group that has reserved a spot in the Festival and updating the draft of the Festival Program on the website.
Thanks to the amazing people we have in our community who have stepped up and made a commitment, here are some of the activities that are definite:
* All Species Parade: dress up as your favorite creature and march through the school and around the school grounds
* All Species Parade: dress up as your favorite creature and march through the school and around the school grounds
* Wheelbarrow races: push a wheelbarrow around an obstacle course, best time wins
* Fun bike ride: meet at the Festival for a guided fun ride around Brunswick
* Food trucks: enjoy delicious food, including vegetarian and vegan choices
* Mulch spreading: help spread mulch to get an entry ticket for the wheelbarrow race
* Make a pot and rescue a wildflower: learn how to make a paper pot, dig up a wildflower growing in the wrong spot on the school grounds and take it home
* Scavenger hunt: get a card with clues, then visit exhibits and search the school grounds for answers and items
* Bicycle blender: pedal to make your own smoothie
* Basic bicycle tune up and repair: bring your bicycle to the Bicycle Coalition of Maine tent for a safety inspection, basic tune up, and simple repairs
* Solar talks: learn how to go solar by attending one of the solar talks in the cafeteria
* See electricity being generated: see a complete dependable off-grid power system generating electricity from sunlight
* Electric vehicle show: see a variety of fully electric vehicles and learn what it’s like to drive 100% on battery power in Maine all year long
* Practical cycle show: see a variety of practice cycling equipment and learn what it’s like to commute and run errands on pedal power in Maine all year long
* Art projects: make your own art from natural materials
Here are some of the activities that are probable. I need to work out some more details and get commitments from volunteers, but I'm expecting all of these activities to happen at the Festival, too:
* Greenhouse talk: learn how the greenhouse happened for Harriet’s Haven, the school garden
* Festival Farm stand: buy locally grown food
* Live music: enjoy live music outdoors
* Dancing: dance to the live music
* Cooking demonstrations: see how induction plates work and enjoy free samples
* Volunteer board: see a list of all the volunteer opportunities provided by organizations and environmental projects in the greater Brunswick area
* Wheelbarrow donation: before the Festival, drop off a working or “almost working” wheelbarrow that you don’t need any more
* Wheelbarrow repair clinic: learn how to do simple repairs on broken wheelbarrows
But wait, there's more! Here are some of the ideas that have been floated but need a community champion to move them from the "maybe" to the "probable" or "definite" column:
* Art show: appreciate art created by local artists
* Knitting circle: bring a project and knit in community
* Yoga and calisthenics: stretch those muscles!
* Litter walk: pick up trash and put down chalk footprints leading to the Festival
* Composting clinic: learn how to turn uneaten leftovers into garden gold
* Plant identification clinic: learn how to identify all the plants growing on the school grounds
* Insect identification clinic: learn how to identify all the insects living on the school grounds
* School facilities tours: get a tour of the systems for environmental control in the school
* Seed swap: bring seeds to exchange with other gardeners
* Sustainability trivia: play a trivia game
* Author talks: hear from local authors writing about environmental sustainability
* Story tellers and poets: hear stories and poems
* Garden talks: hear from master gardener volunteers about gardening topics
* Fluorescent lighting drop off: drop off your old CFLs and other fluorescent lighting that contains mercury for safe disposal
* Battery drop off: drop off batteries for proper disposal
* Repair clinic: bring by a broken small appliance that might be fixable to see if a volunteer can figure out how to fix it
If you'd like to help move anything from the probable or maybe list onto the definite list, or have another activity we need to add to our list, please let me know. We've got a growing list of volunteers. I just need people willing to take responsibility for an activity to put it in the program. We'll allow room for spontaneity at the Festival; things will happen even without a champion from our community. We'll see!
A final note, we're delighted to welcome three Brunswick high school interns to the Festival team: Elina, Sophia and Willow. They are working on outreach. You'll be hearing more from them in the weeks ahead.
Stay safe and warm!
-Fred
2026 Earth Day Festival in Brunswick
Have fun celebrating Earth with your community
Meet people and make new friends
Explore ways to protect our environment
Dress up as your favorite creature or come just as you are, but don’t miss it!
Saturday, April 25, 2026
10 am to 3 pm, rain or shine
Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School
44 McKeen Street, Brunswick
Bringing people together from Arrowsic, Bath, Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Brunswick, Durham, Freeport, Georgetown, Harpswell, Lisbon, Phippsburg, Pownal, Topsham, West Bath, and Woolwich for a day of fun, learning, and environmental action.
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