Community Environmental Council |

Click on the 2008 festival poster to view it full-size!

◊ Highlights

◊ Exhibitors

◊ Sponsors

◊ Volunteers

◊ Green Car Show

◊ Performances

◊ Ride Free on MTD

◊ Come Car Free

◊ Student Projects

◊ Photo Gallery

10 am - 5:30 pm
Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Gardens

"Reduce Your Eco-Footprint"

View the SB Independent insert HERE for some of the highlights of Earth Day 2008!

NEW! 2008 was the biggest Earth Day yet--check out some of our stats:

Tracked attendance: 10,527
Get Energized pledgers: 611
lbs. of CO2 prevented if pledgers keep their commitments: 4,874,910
Equivalent kilowatt hours of electricity saved: 7,319,684
Number of South Coast homes that could be powered by the savings: 1,219
Number of TravelPass participants: 246
Number of TravelPass participants who came to Earth Day using alternative transportation: 173--that's 70 percent!
Bicycles valet parked: 308
People who took advantage of 'Ride Free on MTD' and rode the bus to the festival: 14,899--almost 3,500 more people than the Sunday prior to the festival, and 4,500 more than Earth Day 2007
Exhibitors: 199

NEW! The Earth Day Festival grabbed headlines in Santa Barbara. Get the scoop at these local news sources:

NEW! Click to visit the Earth Day Photo Gallery. Other photo collections can be seen below:

History of Earth Day
The story goes that Earth Day was conceived by Senator Gaylord Nelson after a trip he took to Santa Barbara right after that horrific oil spill off our coast in 1969. He was so outraged by what he saw that he went back to Washington and passed a bill designating April 22 as a national day to celebrate the earth. It was in the wake of this same tragedy that Community Environmental Council was born and began working on ways to clean up our natural resources. It is due to these events that Santa Barbara is considered the birthplace of the environmental movement. The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970. CEC organized a celebration again in 1990 and has done so every year since. Click here for more detail on the history.

Location
The festival is located in the heart of Santa Barbara at the Sunken Gardens of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse, 1100 Anacapa Street. Click here for a map to the festival.

Special Note
Dogs are not allowed in the Sunken Gardens during large public events. Please leave your canine friend at home. Earth Day is a smoke-free event and cigarettes are not allowed at the County Park.
Thank you.