Community Environmental Council Announces #TogetherWeEarthrise Earth Day Live Festival on April 22

The online event will be the only Santa Barbara Earth Day celebration this year, as the public festival (previously rescheduled to July) has now been canceled for 2020 due to concerns that social distancing needs may extend into the summer.

Featured music performers include Kenny Loggins, Glen Phillips, Zack Gill, Tina Schlieske and Michael McDonald, along with poetry performances by a Santa Barbara Poet Laureate, Sojourner Kincaid Rolle, and a slam poet, San Marcos High School senior Madai Quevedo. Featured speakers include Former Vice President Al Gore, actor Jeff Bridges and past Earth Day Environmental Heroes Bill McKibben, Florencia Ramirez and U.S. Congressman Salud Carbajal. Local media favorites John Palminteri, Alys Martinez, Lin Aubuchon and Tracy Lehr, along with KJEE DJ’s, will be virtual ‘emcees.’

The 2020 #TogetherWeRise Earth Day Live Festival – which is free to stream – honors the 50th anniversary of the creation of Earth Day, a designation inspired by Santa Barbara’s environmental activism in response to the 1969 oil spill. The date also marks the 50th anniversary of the Community Environmental, festival creator and organizer. The #TogetherWeEarthrise theme is in conjunction with the international Earth Day Network’s campaign to bring communities together during the coronavirus crisis.

CEC’s CEO Sigrid Wright commented,“Over the past month, we’ve shown how we can come together as a society, acknowledge our interconnectedness and take necessary, if painful, steps to protect ourselves against this virus. These are lessons we can apply to protecting the health and well-being of all people against the existential threats of a dangerously warming climate.”

Kathi King, Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival Director, added, “For the first time in 20 years, we aren’t holding a live Earth Day festival, but our community stands strong – amazing artists, youth activists and esteemed environmentalists are joining us to bring people together. Like us, they are committed to the idea that, even though we can’t gather in person, we can take collective action to lessen our impact on the Earth.”

In addition to watching the virtual festival, the community can participate in the two weeks leading up to the festival by:

• Getting creative with the Earthrise photo through art, poetry and music, and sharing pictures and videos of this work on social media using the hashtags #TogetherWeEarthrise, #CECSB and #SBEARTHDAY. These photos and videos will be included in the online event.
• Support earth-friendly businesses, restaurants and bars offering #SBEarthDaySpecial items from April 15-24.

CEC’s Earth Day production partners are contributing their time and expertise to produce the virtual event. They include Carp Events, Cultivate Events, LoaCom, New Noise Music Foundation, Oniracom, Pharos Creative, WA Events, and Write Kinda Girl.

CEC is grateful to Earth Day sponsors for their support, including MarBorg Industries, Los Angeles CleanTech Incubator, Armand Hammer Foundation, City of Santa Barbara, Toyota, Audi, Carp Growers, KEYT, Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, Santa Barbara Independent, BMW, Advanced Veterinary Specialists, Edhat, SBCC Foundation, Coastal Dispensary, Noozhawk, Shryne Group, Santa Ynez Vacation Rentals, Chevrolet, Santa Barbara Nissan, Rincon Broadcasting, Husqvarna, SBC Air Pollution Control District, Bragg and Buddha Properties.

About CEC Santa Barbara Earth Day

Widely acknowledged as the birthplace of Earth Day, Santa Barbara’s involvement began with the devastating 1969 oil spill off its coast. This led a local group of concerned citizens to begin discussing a different way of looking at environmental systems. During that time, Senator Gaylord Nelson visited Santa Barbara to view the oil spill damage. When he returned to Washington, D.C., he introduced a bill designating April 22 as a national day to celebrate the earth. Over the next few years, the environmental movement was born across the country – including CEC. Led by a group of forward-thinking youths and elders, CEC incorporated in the spring of 1970 and its first act as a new nonprofit was to hold an Earth Day celebration – a one block long teach-in between State St. and Chapala St along Anapamu. Around the country, 20 million concerned citizens attended similar events. We recognize that ‘every day is earth day’ and that special events like this are a way to bring our community together as a reminder to always tread lightly on the planet.

Click here for a history of the oil spill and Earth Day, as well as archival photos and other articles about the 1969 spill.

For up-to-the-minute information on CEC’s #TogetherWeEarthrise Earth Day Live Festival:

• Find Earth Day on the web at SBEarthDay.org
• Like “Santa Barbara Earth Day” on Facebook.com/SBEarthDay
• Follow the event on Twitter @SBEarthday and on Instagram @SB_EarthDay

About the Community Environmental Council (CEC)

Since 1970, CEC has incubated and innovated real life solutions that directly impact climate change. Our programs lead to clean vehicles, solar energy, resilient food systems and reduction of single-use plastic. We educate and activate the community by producing events like the annual Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival. Find CEC on the web at www.CECSB.org and on Facebook.com/CECSB, Instagram.com/CEC_SB and Twitter.com/CECSB.