On April 17, the University of Colorado Boulder’s Student Government hosted Earth Week Music Festival, the first event of its kind for CU students.
The sustainability-themed festival featured live music from local bands On The Dot, The Cody Sisters and the Galentines. Many campus sustainability organizations also set up booths on the field with ice cream, snacks, games and educational activities.
Some of the booths were the CU Farm and Garden Club, which “empowers students to experiment and learn about gardening and farming and regenerative agriculture,” according to lead garden coordinator Mandy Marcus.
The CU Environmental Center was also there to promote AWorld, the app replacing the CU PIPs Rewards app, which was discontinued in spring 2021. AWorld is the official platform in support of the United Nation’s campaign for individual action on climate change, ACTNOW.
AWorld allows users to track their environmental journey and log their sustainable actions, as well as calculate their carbon footprint.
This event was organized by the CUSG Sustainability Chair Serafina Scalo, a first-year student at CU Boulder.
”I just thought that music can be such a vehicle for social change,” she said. “I wanted to do something fun for Earth Week and I came up with this festival to make it not just about the hard part but also about the fun parts and community.”
Another guest at the festival was Nude Foods Market, a zero-waste grocery store based in Boulder and owned by CU Boulder alums. Matt Turner, a CU alum who was running the booth, was excited to be involved and promote sustainability.
“I’m just really glad to be able to give back to the environment both by working at Nude Foods and also by supporting this event,” he said.
Scalo said she’s hopeful that such events will help inspire students to “learn more about the resources that we have here and start those conversations with friends to start spending their free time connecting to nature and thinking about the ways that sustainability plays a role in our daily life.”
To learn more about CUSG’s Environmental Board and Sustainability, you can explore their efforts on their website. To get in touch with the CUSG Sustainability Chair, contact cusg.sustainability@colorado.edu.
Contact CU Independent Assistant Arts and Entertainment Editor Summer Aljobory at sana.aljobory@colorado.edu.