Los Angeles Topanga Canyon Earth Day Inspires Sustainability and Sensitivity in Everyday Life

Unless you set aside time to go hiking in a nearby state or national park, living in Los Angeles can make you feel drained and desperate for a little tête-à-tête with nature. The annual Topanga Canyon Earth Festival is a community resource for people in the Los Angeles metropolitan area looking to enjoy the outdoors and get tips on how to improve their lifestyles, energy levels, and health. Although you don’t have to wait once a year to adopt a baby hamster, try on organic deodorant, or hula hoop, this event is a great way to fill your weekend with entertainment. The festival is an event that encourages California residents to live wisely and sensitively not just on Earth Day, but on every day of the solar calendar.

This annual festival offers music, food, educational booths, and other activities to inspire California residents to celebrate and protect the earth in a genuine, community oriented way. Local organizations like the California Wildlife Center, The County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works, and The Topanga Creek Watershed Committee, set up tables at the Earth Day festival to provide information on different environmental initiatives in the area.

Last year, half of Topanga Canyon Earth Day proceeds were donated to Topanga Creek Watershed Committee. To make room for native species to be planted, some of the proceeds were used to eliminate invasive plants like Fountain Grass, Castabean, and Cape-Ivy. This year, the organization handed out a brochure with local business listings pertaining to tree maintenance, erosion control, sustainable buildings, brush clearance, and equestrian trails. The brochure also listed information about graywater, an innovation that many people dream about setting up but don’t have the resources--or can’t persuade their landlords--to construct.

In addition to providing information about Topanga Canyon nature and wildlife initiatives, the Earth Day festival gave visitors the opportunity to sample eco-friendly food and health products, like Cliff Bars, Tyler Tolman’s “Abundance” Meal, and green energy drinks. Depending on their level of interest, visitors could learn a variety of relevant facts about the health and energy benefits of such products. One advocate of Abundance Meal described how it is possible for people to improve their health and energy levels by following seven simple steps. The meal is tasty and highly unusual, consisting of colon cleanse fiber blend, bentonite clay, and sea salt flush. For people hesitant to make a commitment to the Abundance Meal thirty day cleanse, the seven steps include: walking, sunshine, clean air, whole foods, loving/non-toxic relationships, and passion. This combination would make anyone feel grounded yet euphoric.

For guests still hungry after munching on a handfuls of samples, raw and vegan food from Draw, or Green Truck, could be purchased at a great deal. People formed long lines in front of the vendors, eager to buy a Sweet and Tangy Thai Wrap from Draw, or a kombucha from Green Truck. As Green Truck uses biodegradable containers, bags, napkins, and utensils, no one was worried about what would become of the waste. The mobile restaurant is powered by recycled vegetable oil. In effect, Green Truck—unlike most automobiles--does not clog Los Angeles’ drainage systems.

This year, the effects of the California economy on local living have been daunting. While Green Truck might be inspiring and useful in the long run, not everyone has as an arsenal of vegetable oil to use for cooking and fuel. Local businesses, like Visionary Boutique, align transportation and environmentalism in a different, though effective, way. In addition to its location in West Hollywood, Visionary Boutique has a traveling bus that visits festivals like Topanga Canyon Earth Day. Eco-chic to the max, the bus is filled with unique and eclectic items of green culture. Magda, the woman who developed the boutique along with its organic, lifestyle brand counterpart (“Visionary”), promised a discount to visitors interested in getting a good deal on makeup. People who visit the permanent West Hollywood location can dump their old, toxic makeup in an area where the boutique will dispose of the waste (in a safe fashion, of course). In turn, customers can receive ten percent off of the boutiques eco-friendly makeup. How many corporate retailers can boast of that?

Visitors excited by didgeridoos, accordions, and teenage eco-Led Zeppelin style music, had only to sit in front of one of the festival’s two stages, breath in the excitement, and watch unicyclists almost collide with painters. The annual celebration is setup to maximize the potential of visitors to enjoy themselves. Whether laidback or eager to collect information, the festival offers opportunities for people of diverse interests every year. The only requirement is that visitors come with an openness to further appreciate, protect, and enjoy nature.