The Green Apple Festival, now in its fourth year, is America’s largest Earth Day Celebration. Its mission is to involve audiences of all ages in celebrating Earth Day, raising local and environmental awareness, educating individuals on environmental issues, hosting cultural events suitable for a wide and varied audience, and providing tangible benefits to local communities and environments.
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Green Apple Festival was founded by Peter Shapiro and Zenbu Media. It is produced in partnership with Earth Day Network (EDN), the non-profit organization created by the original founders of Earth Day in 1970. The Executive Director is Kathryn Stoddard.
Since the mid-nineties, the growth of Earth Day in the US and around the world has been explosive. More than one billion people in 175 countries now take part in Earth Day activities, according to the Earth Day Network. Businesses too have increasingly become involved and now view Earth Day as a day each year to focus on “going green”, exploring climate solutions, and promoting environmental achievements.
With growing public demand for meaningful ways to participate in Earth Day in the US, Green Apple Festival has expanded each year since 2006. It began with one city, New York, in 2006; in 2007, it was held in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. By 2008, Green Apple Festival had grown to eight cities: New York, Washington DC, Miami, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco. In 2009, plans are to grow to10 cities with events on April 19, 2009. In each city, the festival presents large-scale free events in landmark parks, and includes live music, entertainment, guest speakers and environmental activities.
“By featuring a diverse group of musicians and uniting these under one cause, we are able to coordinate an exciting, and unprecedented event. We hope the national footprint of the Festival will help inform as many people as possible on these important issues. And, we hope to keep expanding in future years. I think everyone would agree that Earth Day should be recognized in a big way every year.” – Peter Shapiro, Founder.
2008
Once the worlds's largest Earth Day celebration, Green Apple Festival has been inactive since 2009. Green Apple Festival took place in New York City, Washington DC, Miami, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
On April 20, 2008, eight simultaneous events were held to observe Earth Day, with over 200,000 people attending in landmark venues: Central Park in New York, the National Mall in Washington DC, Bicentennial Park in Miami, Fair Park in Dallas, Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, City Park in Denver, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, and Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles.
In addition, Green Apple Festival also presented 220 music shows in indoor music venues in the eight cities on April 18 and 19. Each of the 110 venues where the shows took place and 475 performances themselves were made “green” through the use of environmentally sustainable paper, lighting and cleaning products.
2007
In 2007, The Green Apple Music & Arts Festival ran from April 20–22 in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco with over 200,000 in attendance and millions more reached through the media. Large-scale free public events were held in Central Park and on Vanderbilt Avenue outside Grand Central Terminal in New York, the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago and at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Green Apple partnered with Earth Day Network, the worldwide coordinating body for Earth Day events, campaigns and activities.
2006
The first annual Green Apple Music & Arts festival was held at over 35 venues in the New York City area and ran from April 20–23. On Thursday, April 20, The Sixth Annual Jammy Awards show (Jammys)at Madison Square Garden kicked off the festivities. Jammys performances included: Blues Traveler, Guster, Peter Frampton, Martin Sexton, Béla Fleck and The Flecktones, and many more. The festival concluded at The Ziegfeld Theatre with the world premiere of the film Wetlands Preserved directed by Relix senior editor and Jambands.com founder Dean Budnick and executive produced by Peter Shapiro. The documentary examines the social, political and musical history of the celebrated New York City rock club The Wetlands.