Festival

“]Cool Davis Festival Co-Directors thank all those who made the Festival on Healthy Pathways to a Low Carbon Life a great success! A huge thank you is owed to them for the massive amount of work they did.

As co-directors of the Cool Davis weekend, we are thankful to Mother Earth who gave us three days of blissful weather and to all those who contributed – Cool Davis Members and Initiative Partners, sponsors, performers, Davis City Staff, elected officials, exhibitors, demonstrators, awardees, a host of volunteers and hundreds of visitors.  Read more

Peter Wm. Wagner teaches Chris Jones how to ride his German gymnastics wheel Sunday at the Cool Davis Festival. Fred Gladdis/Enterprise photo

By Chloe Kim. Cross-posted from Davis Enterprise, who did fantastic coverage of the whole festival. See full gallery of photos on Enterprise website

Hundreds of community members attended the 2011 Cool Davis Festival, overflowing with Earth-friendly themed performances, exhibits, workshops and booths. The festival took place at the Veterans’ Memorial Center on Sunday.

Highlights included a bike rodeo and bike safety checks, the National Plug-In Electric Vehicle Day event, a solar cooker booth, a cooking demonstration and a vast array of exhibits in the multipurpose room. Read more

Peregrine school organized an interactive art activity at the heart of the festival

Davis Enterprise has a great gallery of photos by Fred Gladdis

More photos up on Cool Davis’ Picasa album and blog stories to come!

Cool Davis mascot Gotita promotes the Cool Davis Festival at Farmers' Market

There are lots of reasons that people will come to the Cool Davis Festival this Sunday 2-5:30 at the Veterans Memorial Central.  But Festival organizers just hope people will come to have fun!

The children will lead the way!  Peregrine school will be returning with their popular interactive hands–on activities for kids in the courtyard of Fun at the Veteran Memorial Theater.

The courtyard will feature several activities including face painting, recycled paper folding, games led by Davis high school students and an outside stage with music, storytelling and yummy free samples from Dos Coyotes!  Children won’t want to miss Nature’s Theater’s original play, Junky’s Last Stand in the theater at 2:30. Read more

Sue Greenwald, a downtown Davis resident and member of the Davis City Council, enjoys regular walks through the UC Davis Arboretum and to downtown restaurants and shops. Mike Syvanen/Courtesy photo

By Sue Greenwald, cross-posted from the Davis Enterprise

When we think of Davis, we think of bicycles, Unitrans, Amtrak and yes, maybe even Zipcar. But I want to speak today about the forgotten Davis pedestrian.

The Cool Davis Festival folks asked me to write about why I chose the walking lifestyle. Since more than 50 percent of our household gas emissions are related to our transportation habits, those of us living a walking lifestyle have an important perspective to help envision a low-carbon future. Read more

A conscious zero-waste policy can stop trash going to the landfill and reduce carbon emissions

By Lynne Nittler, cross-posted from Davis Enterprise

Our culture teaches us to value what we put on our bodies more than what we put in our bodies.

Folks who might gasp at the price of organic heirloom tomatoes will spend quite a lot on a pair of shoes, jeans, or a handbag, etc.,” says Rhonda Gruska of Monticello Seasonal Cuisine, one of the food providers at the “What’s On Your Plate?” event at Sunday’s Cool Davis Festival. Read more

Bags made from recycled materials made by UC Davis Design Program, Fashion and Design Society (FADS) will be on show at the Cool Davis Festival on Sunday.

We Americans have a lot of stuff and we dispose of a lot of stuff, and all that stuff we throw away, took a lot of energy to create.

John Johnston, local resident and Environmental Engineering Professor at Sac State likes to tell his students “unlike the Cat in the Hat there is no magic “voom” to make all that stuff disappear.  Right now we stack it up in our landfills or send it across the seas for other people to turn it into something useful.”

But many people are starting to rethink what we do with our waste, and they are coming up with lots of new and creative solutions.  Read more

Article by Manny Rin of Cool Davis, cross-posted from Davis Enterprise

Peter Kerr and family show off their electric car, a Nissan Leaf

Vroom! Boom!

These sounds of a traditional automobile show will be noticeably absent in the upcoming Cool Davis Cruise About and the plug-in electric vehicle show-and-tells coming to Davis this weekend.

With increasing gas prices and the need to find alternative fuel sources, electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are making their way to becoming a viable alternative. The Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf are becoming more visible in today’s culture and more models are expected to emerge within the next year. Read more