Medellin

Medellin hosts eco-friendly festival

by Flora Baker

A two-day environmental sustainability festival, complete with live music, healthy food and eco-conscious workshops, comes to Medellin’s Botanical Gardens for its second year.

Carrying the slogan “a small-scale revolution,” the Primavera Fest starts on Wednesday with a music concert, but kicks off properly on Thursday – May 1, a Colombian public holiday – at the “Orquideorama” in Medellin’s Botanical Gardens. This natural oasis in the center of the city is a perfect location for a festival like El Primavera, which aims to promote more eco friendly and sustainable ways of living.

The first El Primavera Fest in 2013 welcomed over 5,000 people, and the same crowds are expected this year.

MORE: Primavera Fest 2013 comes to Medellin

The festival is particularly focused around environmental conservation, sustainability, mobility and healthy living, and many of the events CH involve use of the bicycle.

Thursday morning’s festival will begin with a 9am cycle ride from the San Diego Bikehouse store to the Orquideorama, which children and adults alike are welcome to join. Organizers hope the en-masse cycle will promote the bicycle as a viable means of transportation, and as an activity the whole family can enjoy.

The Primavera Fest will also feature many alternative and innovative designs and ideas about small actions which can make a big environmental difference. One particularly interesting invention is the “jugocleta,” where visitors can mix healthy juices using the power of their legs aboard a specially designed bicycle.

Workshops and activities for children will be on offer, as well as an art program, plenty of healthy food options and a packed live music program, including guest artists like Heritage Timbiqui and Samuel Torres. In accordance with its environmental missive, the festival will also measure and offset its carbon footprint, in order to know what impact the two days of activities make on the environment.

Sources