Forest Park comes alive again with engaging programs and performers at the St. Louis Earth Day Festival. We know you love our vendors and you will want to visit as many as possible throughout the two-day event, and to enrich the experience even more, we have many great interactive educational opportunities, DIY demonstrations, short vendor spotlights, youth performances, the climbing wall, a toddler balance biking course, plus aerial artistry and the Peace Garden.

As always, our Youth Corner is a treat for interactive kid-friendly activities, and you will appreciate the chance to engage with each registered vendor throughout the many areas of the Festival about their product or service. Our special programming is listed below so you can plan your visit to engage and enjoy the many options. And they are all FREE! So plan to come for an hour and stay all day!

Main Stage

Local performers, Featured speakers and a Sustainable Fashion Show will all be happening on our Main Stage. This year, located in the Big Field in the center of the Festival grounds.

Saturday, April 22, 2023

11:00       DJ Whiz
Noon       Celia’s Singalong Dance Party
1:00         Opening Ceremony and Sustainability Awards

Welcome: Lisa Cagle, earthday365 Board President
Land Acknowledgement: Galen Gritts
Featured Speakers:

St. Louis City Mayor Tishaura Jones
St. Louis County Executive Dr. Sam Page
St. Louis Zoo WildCare Park Director Dr. Jo-Elle Mogerman

Sustainability Awards: earthday365 Executive Director, Dr. Jessica Watson

3:00         The Grooveliner
4:00        Midwest Avengers

Sunday, April 23, 2023

11:00       Voices With Vision
Noon       Fire Dog
1:00         Sustainable Fashion Show
2:00         The Blue Moon Blues Band
3:00         DJ Nico Marie
4:00         Steve Ewing Band

Community Stage

The Community Stage Offers youth performance groups, like the Fox Teen Talent Finalist’s West African Drumming Ensemble and the returning Pazazz Performers, a venue to share their emerging talents. We also have the return of the World Bird Sanctuary and their Feathered Friends of the Forest programs 2x/day thanks to the Missouri American Water sponsorship, and we have again partnered with The Collective STL to provide many yoga and wellness classes. Join THE COLLECTIVE STL for complimentary yoga and mindfulness activities during the two day festival. Classes and activities are appropriate for all levels including beginners. Each day will consist of 4 classes beginning at 10:30 AM. These short classes offer an opportunity to try out various yoga and wellness modalities that may help you on your path to continued well-being. Check out “Mother Earth Morning Flow”, “The Power of the Earth”, “An Ode to the Sun”, “Offsprings of Mother Earth”, and “Protect your PLACE and PEACE”. Come with an open heart and be gifted and guided by expert teachers.

Perennial’s Repair Demo Fair

New this year is Perennial’s Repair Demo Fair where expert DIYers demonstrate how to repair everyday items. Join Perennial for demonstrations and interactive activities. Great for folks who want to learn DIY skills to extend the life of their items and live a more resourceful life. In addition to demonstrations led by artists throughout the weekend, Perennial will have opportunities to try eco-friendly products, be inspired by the creative repairs on display, and discover repair resources in St. Louis.

There will be 3 45-minute demos each day on various topics. Check out the visible mending stations, a DIY repair try-it station or the repair resource info on display.

Saturday

11:15 – 12:00 – DIY Lamp Repair – Jenny Murphy
12:15 – 1:00 – The Nuts and Bolts of Furniture Repair – Jenny Murphy
3:00- 3:45 – Upholstery Basics – Abby Crawford

Sunday

12:00 – 12:45 – Small Appliance Repair Tips + Tricks – Joel Schad
1:30 – 2:15 – DIY Drywall Repair – Emanuel Taranu
3:00 – 3:45 – Clothing Repair: Mending + More – Alexis Giger of Little Cliff Shop

EarthDance Organic Farm School’s Education Tent 

Each day, the education tent will have knowledge experts from the organic farm school to teach about growing a community for food sustainability, growing garlic, working with herbs, composting with worms, or how to store what you can grow in your backyard.

Saturday

11:30am Jake May: “Growing Gourmet Garlic” Get started with this easy “set it and forget it” crop.
2:30pm Amy Hereford: “Gardening with Neighbors” The how to’s of building a community for food sustainability
4:00pm Tara Blanchard: “Growing Herbs” Drying herbs for cooking, infusing and crafting

Sunday

11:30am Erin Bernsen: “Compost or Cuisine” How to save and use your food scraps and seasonal produce bound for the compost pile.
1:30pm Erin Bernsen: “Preserving the Harvest 101” Learn the best practices for freezing and dehydrating with seasonal produce.
3:30pm Ro Kicker: “DIY Worm Bins for Vermicomposting” Get started composting using worms with your very own DIY worm bin.

Vendor Spotlights, located at the Education Tent, offer an additional opportunity for our vendors to reach our audience with how they are addressing certain environmental or social issues. Sprinkled in between the Earth Dance programs, these 10-15 minute spotlight sessions are a great way to get a quick intro about many different topics.

Saturday

12:45p Health Matters Insurance – We would discuss how our brokerage provides clients the resources they need to be proactive about their health instead of spending their resources (time and money) by having to be reactive to their health
1:00p Renew Missouri – Renew Missouri Homes Program – Talking about why energy efficiency improvements in the home need to be documented with a third party certification and how energy efficiency is vital for your health, home, and reducing emissions
1:15p STL TreeLC – Ways residents can help improve tree health in their neighborhood by providing quick, simple care.
1:30p Climate Reality Project, Missouri River Region Chapter – plastic pesticide pollution or eco friendly home tips
1:45p City Greens market – Growing Food Sovereignty.
3:30p Forest ReLeaf of Missouri – Why trees are a solution to environmental justice issues

 

Sunday

12:45p Chris Oestereich, CircularSTL + Linear to Circular – Using Systemic Design for the Circular Economy: How to use systemic design (systems thinking + design) to address complex challenges to help create the circular economy.
1:00p Known & Grown – Discussion about the Good Stewardship Practices of the farmers in our program

Sax Player, Rodney Keely in the Café busking for tips.

Saint Louis style smooth and modern jazz saxophone solo performance

Originated in early 1900’s and still to this day, in its many styles, the music Jazz is one of United States’ True Original Art Forms, having everything to do with environment, community and culture, founded on expression and new ideas. Listen to THE ST. LOUIS STYLE, as started by artists like Miles Davis, Oliver Nelson, David Sanborn, etc.

Peace Garden

Newly located this year on the east end of the Festival, you’ll find the Peace Garden nestled among the rocks and beautiful water feature running behind the Theater Drive. Limited programming will happen around the Peace Circle but be certain to visit to take time for yourself. Sit on a straw bale and gaze out over the serenity of the pond. From a water blessing ceremony to Jabula women’s drumming, take time to enjoy all this space has to offer.

Saturday:

11:00 am Dancing with Phyllis
11:30 – 12:30pm: Water Blessing Ceremony with Karla and Pooki
1-2pm: Sound Bath with Kristi
3 – 4:30pm: Jabula (women’s drumming circle) with Paula and Natasha

Sunday:

11:00 am Dancing with Phyllis
1-2pm: QiGong with Cindy

Also happening in our Education Tent are short “Vendor Spotlight” sessions of ≈10 minutes to hear about the sustainability issue some of our registered vendors care about and try to address through their business model or organization. Topics will include: Importance of trees, resources for proactive health care, energy efficiency improvements, growing food sovereignty, systemic design for the circular economy, the Known and Grown STL farmers program.

Climbing Tower

Back again, is the Upper Limits Rock Gym climbing tower for fun and challenge for all. Waivers to climb will need to be signed by parents/guardians onsite. I’d like to say the sky is the limit, but the tower tops out at 24′ (if you can get that high!).

BALANCE BIKE DEMO AREA
Sponsored by St. Louis BWorks and near the Climbing Tower. For those just learning to balance on two wheels, this free ride and play area will allow younger festival attendees to hop on a Strider bike and take it for a spin on a kid-friendly, natural-surface course.

 

Aerial and Circus Arts

We will have aerial performers each day demonstrating their skills, and you can have an opportunity to try your hand at hula hooping and juggling and other interactive ground skills.

Sun Woman Cirque Art & Specialty Entertainment will return bringing Hi NRG Gymnastix students performing aerial routines for tips. There will be juggling and hoops available for attendees to try their hand, and stilt walkers, hoop performers, and aerial performers for a fun filled end of the day spectacle. Ongoing performances and activities start about noon in the Center Circle in front of the MUNY box office.

Saturday