27th Annual Harmony Festival ~ Inspires Green Living with World Class Music and Great Fun for the Entire Family
Formerly known as the Health & Harmony Music & Arts Festival---The 27th Annual Harmony Festival is Northern California’s Community Celebration of Progressive Culture- Music • Arts • Ecology • Healthful Living, returns to the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Santa Rosa, California, the weekend of June 11-12, with over 29 great attractions, world class music--George Clinton, Kitaro, Jon Anderson, Family Stone, and much more. Plus the all new Saturday Night “Harmony After Dark” – 8 pm to 2 am three venues later night concerts, and the Techno Tribal Community Dance Party
(PRWEB) May 23, 2005 -- A vibrant eco-movement is sweeping through the summer
festival season. At the forefront of this movement stands the legendary
Eco-Village, part of Northern California’s long-running Harmony Festival, which
takes place this year on June 11th and 12th at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds.
This year’s amazing outdoor attraction features:
- Exhibits of ecological
products
- Eco-savvy businesses
- Renewable energy resources
-
Permaculture displays
- Inspirational musical entertainment
- Renowned
speakers, and
- Hands-on educational tools dedicated to environmental
preservation and sustainable practices.
Now in its 27th year, the
Harmony Festival (previously called the Health and Harmony Festival), has been
sponsoring its first-rate attraction—the Eco-Village—for eight years. Festival
attendees have voted the Eco-Village the number one attraction for the past five
years running!
This year, the Eco-Village is designed from the ground up
on the principles of permaculture—a term derived from the two words: permanent
and agriculture. A permaculture approach integrates perennial agriculture for
the enrichment of local ecosystems. The Eco-Village demonstrates the
multi-faceted nature of permaculture with many examples of a healthier
lifestyle:
- Beekeeping
- Solar panel exhibits
- Innovative water
formations
- Hemp clothing
- Straw Bale construction—the entire
Eco-village is built with straw bale walls!
The entertainment and
education are abundant with the Eco-Stage hosting a number of terrific speakers,
including:
- David Cobb, Green Party Presidential nominee
- Dan
Sheehan, legal activist in prominent cases such as Silkwood, - ran Contra, and
the Pentagon Paper
- Randy Hayes of Rainforest Action Network, and
- The
not-to-be-missed Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping
Musical
performers include a host of local talent including Copper Wimmin, Riffat
Sultana & Party, the Feisty Females, Adaawe, and Free
Peoples.
Volunteers are at the heart of this village—they work for months
before the festival on the design and layout, to craft the educational program,
help recruit vendors, speakers, musicians, dancers and crew, and arrange for
hundreds of plants to be picked up and placed throughout the festival – all of
which are for sale! The week before the event, volunteers essentially build an
entire small village that will be populated by thousands of visitors for two
days. It is a labor of love created by members of the North Bay community who
are committed to living in harmony with the Earth, driven by a desire to share
it with the world.
The five-acres of the Harmony Festival abounds with
eco-consciousness:
- The Foods of the Earth Hall features ecologically
oriented vendors, environmental arts and crafts, healthy body products and
delicious shade grown coffee
- The Food Courts include vegetarian and vegan
food booths and all food service supplies are biodegradable.
- The Festival
is powered by bio-diesel and solar energy
- The Alternative Fuel Vehicle
Expo, now in its 4th year, showcases dynamic local groups promoting petroleum
alternatives - Sonoma County Bio-Diesel Coop, Veggie Oil Coop, the Electric Auto
Association, Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition and Car-Lite, the local drive-less
group.
- Kid’s activities run the gamut from eco-art to learning about hemp
production. (Kids are free and teens are only $10)
Each year the Harmony
Festival has an increasing emphasis on environmental sustainability. This year,
vendors, sponsors and staff are taking even greater strides to fulfill their
obligations to the Earth through event “Greening.” There are compost stations
throughout the festival and waste has been cut in half in the past two years.
One-time use “recyclable” water bottle sales are not sold at the festival as
reuse takes precedence over recycling.
The Solar Living Institute is
partnering with Harmony Festival to produce "Green Living Workshops" for the
second year with an exceptional lineup of speakers and workshops in the
Eco-Village—everything from biodiesel to worm composting to solar
power—practical advice on how you can take the green spirit of Harmony Festival
home with you.
At the Harmony Festival, the green event of the new
millennium, “Rethink” heads the list of “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” Global
activation through local transformation, with music, entertainment,
environmental awareness, political education and participation – this is
community.
For more information, please contact the Harmony Green Team
at 707-861-2035, or email: e-mail protected from spam bots. Website www.harmonyfestival.com
The 27th Annual Harmony
Festival returns with a new name, new look and a world-class musical lineup to
the Sonoma County Fairgrounds the weekend of June 11-12, 2005. Featuring the
newly expanded “Harmony After Dark” hours (the music goes on until 2:00am on
Saturday night) the Harmony Festival showcases an outstanding musical lineup of
over 40 bands on 10 stages including Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame members George
Clinton, The Family Stone, plus Grammy Award Winner Kitaro and rock legend Jon
Anderson (lead singer of Yes).
The Harmony Festival is recognized as the
West Coast's premier community celebration—promoting Music, Arts, Ecology and
Healthful Living. Voted the "Best Music Festival in Sonoma County" for the first
time this year, and the “Best Festival in Sonoma County” for the past 12 years,
the Harmony Festival is many events in one; a world-class music festival, a
vibrant health expo, a sustainable business and technology forum—a dynamic
marketplace for the exchange of ideas, services and products that promote art
and creativity supported by a natural and healthy lifestyle. Produced largely by
community brainstorming and group energy, utilizing more than 500 volunteers and
calling on the talents of hundreds of musicians, artists and performers, the
event is supported by progressive business leaders including: Toyota, Whole
Foods, Organic Valley, New Belgium Brewery and over 400 independent vendors and
exhibitors.
This year’s theme “Global transformation, local activation”
encapsulates the mission and vision of the event’s creators—working together in
harmony, we can positively transform the world—the future is now, come and join
the celebration!
For the first time ever we will be presenting “Harmony
After Dark” extended Saturday night programming that will keep the festival
going full swing until 2:00am. This evening music festival hosts world-class
musicians and performances in three unique venues:
Japanese world music
pioneer Kitaro and singer / songwriter Jon Anderson of YES will perform a rare
concert together, in the “Hall of Moons” an intimate 500-seat theater.
The Eco Village Eco-Theater will host a program entitled “Voices of The
World” with a diverse collection of artists performing in an acoustic-based
format. Featured performers include Nigerian afro-beat legend Majek Fashek; Bay
Area blues sensation David Jacobs Strain, Joe Craven from the David Grissman
Quintet; Austin, Texas based rocker Patrice Pike and Sonoma’s own Markus James
and Wassonrai (Mali), PLUS The amazing Techno-Tribal Community Dance Party
returns to the Grace Pavilion on the festival grounds with a music and
performing arts extravaganza featuring live performers, International DJ’s,
circus acts and headlined by The Mutaytor the Los Angeles based music and
performing collective of Burning Man fame.
This year’s festival also
features a new layout of each of the five major field attractions: Eco-Village,
Healing Sanctuary, Goddess Temple, Global Bazaar, and Crafters Village. The
vending rows have been transformed into unique village themed attractions
featuring distinct entranceways and natural curves and turns. The Global Bazaar
has now become a circular Moroccan-style market, with a “Bizarre Bazaar”
sideshow stage in the center. The Eco-Village has become a flourishing
permaculture playground with flowing water, planted area capped by a magnificent
canopy covered Eco-Theater. In an indoor expo hall, the Foods of the Earth Expo
features over 30 organic and natural food vendors in a farmers’ market setting;
in addition to exhibits showcasing the latest advancements in natural health,
green business and self-improvement products and services.
The Harmony
Festival is dedicated to being one of most “youth friendly” festivals around.
Our enhanced Kids Zone features engaging activities for kids of all ages, with a
live performance stage, interactive art and music activities, fun and games.
Kids 12 and under are free, and teens are just ten dollars, providing economical
entertainment for the whole family.
We invite everyone to experience the
best festival in the North Bay. In addition to the affordable $20 per day
advance ticket price and $25 “Harmony After Dark” pass, for a limited time the
Harmony Festival is offering a special online discount ticket that gets
attendees into both days of the Harmony Festival plus Harmony After Dark for
only $55. With a full day and night of stellar world class music on ten stages,
along with dozens of free workshops and lectures with nationally known,
leading-edge speakers––it is overall the best value of any event of its kind on
the west coast!
For the latest information visit our website at www.harmonyfestival.com or call 707-861-2035.
# # #
Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/5/prweb243090.htm