North Texas Daily

Linda Kessler / Staff Writer

The Coliseum was filled with students, vendors and environmentally friendly chatter as UNT celebrated its fifth annual EarthFest. Everyone circled around the Super Pit to enjoy the booths set up by various organizations, departments and vendors.

The International Fair and Market, UNT Sustainability and local businesses like SCRAP Denton turned out for the festivities. Student Activities, UNT International, UPC and the Office of Sustainability hosted the event Wednesday evening in the Coliseum from 4 to 7 p.m.

“We decided to come to EarthFest this year because this event has a lot of things that really coincide with Earth Day,” Keep Denton Beautiful event and outreach coordinator Bailey Gillreath said. “We’re all about being smart with your resources so EarthFest is a great time to come out and show everyone what we do.”

EarthFest provides students with a way to become more sustainable and environmentally responsible by inviting organizations like Keep Denton Beautiful and the Texas Campaign for the Environment to educate students on their sustainability footprint. UNT Sustainability representative and journalism freshman Kristen Borrego said EarthFest is all about coming out to see the things people can be involved in.

“The goal of EarthFest is to promote everything sustainable and to get people into the ‘Going Green’ spirit,” Borrego said.

The Eagle Fashion Show, which featured environmentally friendly organic clothing with recycled fabrics and non-toxic dyes, showed that clothing can be both couture and eco-friendly. UNT’s Fibers Collective department was excited to showcase its own eco-friendly products, such as naturally dyed scarves, at its booth.

“EarthFest is an opportunity to show people how they can explore natural fibers and natural dyes,” fibers junior and secretary of Fibers Collective Alexandria Clifton said. The solar-powered band from New York City, Solar Punch, returned to the festival for their second year and performed songs centered on environmentally friendly ideas, issues, challenges and solutions for the listening students at the Super Pit.

“We love to connect with everyone about the issues and it’s always pleasure to come back and see what UNT has going on here,” guitarist and UNT physics alum Alan Bigelow said. Biology freshman Samir Prajapah, who was attending for the first time, said he hopes EarthFest is something UNT continues to do because it brings awareness to the community.