With the help of many sponsors and a man with a “green” heart, the first official statewide Earth Day Festival will take place Sunday, April 21, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Balloon Fiesta Park.
Art Gardenswartz is a commercial real estate developer who used to own a sporting goods store in Albuquerque. He donated the first bit of money to get the event started and hired Karen Baker as director of this year’s celebration.
Baker says Gardenswartz has had a longstanding dream to create the Earth Day event, which will have a full day of activities.
“It's really going to provide useful tools to educate people to move into a more sustainable, driven society,” Baker said.
There will be recycled arts and crafts, and demonstrations on clean energy vehicles, induction cooking, and tree planting.
There will also be a giant fish.
“The international theme for Earth Day now is 'plastics versus the planet,' Baker said. "So he got an engineer from Sandia [National Laboratories] to design a New Mexico trout, it's going to be 40 feet long out of metal. And then kids will be able to come and feed the fish plastic."
The trout will help teach kids the damage plastic does to animals and ecosystems on our planet.
The event will also have several panels, including one hosted by kids, voicing their opinions on the damage done to the planet and how we should help.
A few of the local sponsors include the City of Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, Nusenda Credit Union, PNM, and Sandia National Laboratories.
Tickets can be found here. They are $5 for adults and free for kids under 18 and students with a valid ID.
