Earth Fair

San Diego Earth Fair was great! But if you missed it, still chance to see Earth Day in Action: Kyocera FREE Earth Day celebration under Solar Trees: Balboa Ave. & Kearny Villa Rd. Thurs.11a-1pm!(4/21/16)
Earth Fair was extra special with Childrens Parade kicking things off, music on Moon Stage at the Southend festival on the Green near Park Blvd., food too! See lots of information booths on Presidents Way to second displays/​booths village. On the way you learn about alt. energy generation & use. Next learn of EV’s, Solar water pumps, organic eating, cleaning, health, and living! The Children play & have fun near the puppet theater and Lions, Tigers and
, while more is taken in near International houses across from International Cottage village. Watch the live Radio show at KNSJ fm 89.1 booth, or cross the street to hear live music at Spreckels Organ. Enjoy the shade of the «Christmas Tree» pine or on the bridge over Palm Canyon under the huge Fig tree. Relax a bit to the fountain sounds in the Alcazar Garden/​gazeboo area, or just pass through to get to Museum of Man, California Tower, and the Old Globe theater.
The El Prado will bring you past the political/​religious booths to Plaza de Panama where you’ll find food to eat and non-​profit organization booths telling you about their ventures. Do you hear the distant drum beats of the drumming circle near Botanical Building & Zoo? Go take a peak/​listen. Back to El Prado on the way to San Diego Natural History Museum you will see many booths with wares, messages, services, and organizations that KEEP SAN DIEGO GREEN! You can’t touch the Barn Owl or hawks at the
tent, but you can look & listen. Don’t miss the butterfly garden in Zoro Gardens just south of Village Place. The cool large Bea Evenson fountain is outside of the Fleet Science Center. The pedestrian bridge over Park Blvd. will get you to the Cactus & Rose gardens and trails over to Morley Field with its Velodrome, play courts/​grounds and Disc Golf course.
The day at the (Earth)Fair is not only educational, inspirational, fun and entertaining, it can give you a great workout in a glorious park filled with color, life, critters, creatures, people, and activity! A great low budget whole day filled event. Walk, skate (board), bike, or use public transit, as parking will be difficult. The earlier you come the better!
Don’t forget to visit the worlds largest Moreton Bay Fig tree, and Spanish Village Art Colony, minature riding train, or carosel near the zoo.

Well, my boyfriend had a basketball game during this earth day fair so after his game we checked it out.
First: The traffic is ridiculous. You have to be very patient in waiting to get in a parking lot or to find one. I wish they had some sort of public transportation that was free to help bring people to the fair without driving your cars.
Second: The vendors you will find here are focusing on less energy use products, or recyclable products. Some vendors are just there to try to sell you something. The food vendors were random but I did come across a snow cone vendor called «Earth Made Snow Cones» who used recyclable cups and wooden spoons. How Awesome! Also, you will come across a lot of sign this petition booths or people protesting about certain subjects.
Third: For being the worlds largest earth fair I never came across educational public speaking about anything that can help reduce energy or whatever that case may be in that category. I guess, for being such a big event you would think they would have a section where you can learn how to reduce energy… or recycle right products by well educated people. Hopefully the event coordinators can take advantage of such a big event and educate people.
Not sure if I’ll come out of my way to go to this event again, but it’s always nice to walk around Balboa Park.

Earth Fair is a great local event featuring a wide variety of vendors who are promoting different things that are supposedly Earth friendly. I enjoyed my day at Balboa Park walking around and checking out the vendors.
I came away with some very useful and Earth friendly information. Including how to reuse my tote bags that I gathered up as freebies at this event. You can use these to plant your fruits and veggies instead of using a plastic planter or pot. I used some of the seeds that I was given to start my own Milkweed plants to help promote the butterfly population. I am attempting to keep my tomato plant alive that received.
The Earth Fair was crowded with people. A group of people were there protesting abortion and were walking around showing large poster size pics of bloody babies. The event organizers and security were on sight to make sure that people were aware of this protest and that if you choose to do so, you could walk around the event to avoid this display.
There was a beer garden and live music. Food vendors. The event organizers had multiple volunteers on hand to help show people where the trash and recycling bins were located. That was neat.
I enjoyed the booths that had items that had been re-​purposed for sale. It gave me ideas of projects for DIY. (in my spare time LOL) In this section the Library was selling used books and Goodwill was selling items that may have otherwise gone to a landfill.
A downer was that there was a LOT of printed materials being handed out. Which were more than likely NOT going to be recycled. I can honestly say that I probably picked up some printed materials that I did not need.

If there was an option for zero stars, that would’ve been the choice.
I’m only writing this review because I see the countless other individuals who are just like me, upset with the fact that there were images of aborted fetus is being shown around children.
What I feel is that if they are able to express themselves freely under the First Amendment then we should be able to express ourselves freely under the First Amendment.
I proposed that next year 200 people gather with me where we have large white billboards 8 feet high 5 feet wide to block out these images so that no one is subject to them against their will.
If we do this and stand side-​by-​side with these billboards with positive and or earth and friendly green images we would be able to stop them from subjecting people something that is so Grusin that no adult or child should be subject to it.
If you would like to help and do this, please send me a message through Unilocal and I will definitely be back in contact with you.

The San Diego Earth Fair is a mixed bag. Crowds of ordinary people mix it up with neo hippies, «queer» nuns (their words), house rabbit promoters, pro-​lifers, atheists, Hare Krishnas, vegans, republicans, and tree huggers. Plus musicians, bee keepers, librarians, Fish and Wildlife special agents, major car manufacturers, solid waste managers, Jewish tomatoes growers, and friends of the seals.
I always have a great time seeing the amazing diversity of people and lifestyles we have in San Diego County. The Earth Fair is a microcosm of all our community has to offer. Some people don’t like the crowds or the wandering homeless. But the weather is usually great and the food, music, and freak show makes this a must-​see for me each spring. It’s like a rite of passage!

My experience as a former visitor and exhibitor at this event is that a lot of un-​earthy, un-​green junk that should never have been made from this (or any other) world’s resources, is being offered at this fair. We were quite disgusted seeing this at an event that’s supposed to help celebrate the earth. In some spots it simply looked like a rummage sale, while other booths looked OK but presented products which were a far cry from being earth-​friendly (or otherwise healthy).
Looking at what food was offered to visitors confirmed our impression.
In addition, some of the crowd were outright impossible. Aside from the screaming, pushing and shoving, some of them were taking, or trying to take off with products from our display table without paying or communicating with us, and then when asked, pretended that they thought these retail boxes were ‘samples’ (we did have plenty of samples but these were obviously much smaller and packaged in a completely other way than the products we brought along for sale).
These particular visitors clearly also misunderstood what this fair should be about – a reflection on what we consume and how we treat the earth and its inhabitants.
Maybe one day, the organizers will be more selective in choosing companies they allow as exhibitors, but then of course, booth rental supports the event, so being picky is hard. If they would restrict this to truly earth-​friendly products, maybe the visiting crowd would be more gracious as well. It surely would make this more like the event it is supposed to be.
We certainly won’t be back to this fair until things change for the better.

My wife and I attended the 2009 Balboa Park Earth Fair in celebration of our marriage anniversary, which falls on Earth Day.
It was a beautiful San Diego afternoon and we enjoyed strolling around taking in all the sights and sounds.
The Fair was large and well attended, but did not feel crowded.
We tried Greek yogurt for the first time at the Fair, back before it was all the rage at COSTCO and Trader Joes. The sample sizes were huge and we gobbled up a few each.
The only negative aspect of the event, for us, was the large anti-​abortion group standing near the Organ Pavilion with those horrible huge signs. Even worse was they had children and teenagers holding some of them. YUCK! Why are they even there?

It’s been a number of years since I attended so I figured on this nice beautiful day I would check it out. I was expecting lots of free entertainment, but what I saw was hundreds of booths. They were from one end of the park to the other. What ruined the day for me was the anti abortionist running around with there signs saying atheist were murderers. Just because of that I gave a donation at the atheist booth.

I love earth day as much as the next guy, but as I sat in my car for about an hour just to get through the traffic to the event in Balboa Park, breathing in the fumes and watching the trash from people who had already arrived at the event pile up, I had to wonder if the irony of it all hit the attendees. I’ve attended this event a few time just out of curiosity and here is what I have concluded about it. If you are going just for the freak show, then by all means, go. It is only second to Halloween in that respect. However, if you are going in hopes of learning something about the environment, you will be better off going around your neighborhood or to the beach and picking up trash. Mother Earth or Gaia or hell, even your neighbors, will appreciate that more than attending this monstrosity.
Oh yeah, the guys with the giant abortion posters should be banned from attending events like this. Hand out your fliers, sure, but that? Good god.

One of the busiest event in Balboa Park. A fun experience that truly promote the idea of taking care of the Earth. In Hawaii, they call It malama aina. Taking of the land as it gives back to you. We owe to have more of these events. Although, I don’t see the connection of terminate pesticide in this event. Hmm.

A really cool fair at the beautiful Balboa Park! There are hundreds of vendors either selling items, giving freebies, or dishing out information about their organization. There was supposedly some sort of parade, but I didn’t see it when I went. Parking was actually plentiful. We parked a bit far away at the Highschool nearby in anticipation the parking lots in and around Balboa would be packed, but when we walked through those lots there were a bunch of spaces open!
I love getting free stuff. I mean, come on. Who doesn’t?! I came away with about 20 samples of hummus (oh man were these good and useful to bring as snack for work!), a roll of toilet paper, a tomato plant, 2 small bags of fertilizer, organic soaps, chapstick, and a bunch of other little things. If you’re looking for something kind of cool to do when this happens again I’d say it’s a nice time to come out and see what they’ve got. Plus, being at Balboa Park, you’re in an awesome part of SD. I usually like to take a nice long stroll around here anyways, so getting free stuff was definitely an added bonus!
They have food here, too, but we didn’t buy any of it.

What a terrible way to spend the day this past Sunday. I don’t mind crowds full of kids, dogs and dreadlocks, but maybe I completely missed the point of this «Earth Fair.» On the plus side, the weather was terrific!
Crowded with booth after useless booth the crowd (including me) was underwhelmed. Everyone just kind of walked by, stared and was less than interested. I suppose I expected more impromptu drum circles and hippies sneaking a few puffs behind the buildings and I didn’t see any of that! What I did see was a terrible metal band playing at the bottom of the hill, which seemed anything but peaceful. I like me some metal from time to time but during «Earth Fair» something a bit more tie-​dye sounding would have been a better fit. I know, tie-​dye isn’t a sound… but it should be.
«Earth Fair» should take some queues from December Nights — those guys know how to turn Balboa Park upside down. Put a beer garden in anything and it’s a win in my book!
Oh yeah, the religious peeps and abortion photos were an interesting touch to the event.

Earth Day, great. Earth Fair, no. Lots of crowds, widely spread and random booths, but not a real good emphasis on sustainability or environmentalism. The anti-​abortion areas were really quite graphic. Food was overpriced and shuttles were… not that frequent (once every 15 minutes, but due to the crowds we had to wait for 3 shuttles = 45 min). Pass.

My friend told me about Earth Day a couple of days before. I decided to check it out. I thought it was a very good fair! they closed down a good portion of Balboa Park and had what seems like a couple of a hundred vendors. They even had a mini Earth Day parade which was kind of entertaining. Overall, it was a fun fair to experience.

Worst festival ever. Granted, I did get a great smoothie green drink and a salad for $ 5, but that was the highlight of this fair. And it didn’t do much justice, as I can go to the ocean beach farmers market and get the same thing, any wednesday.
This was just a forum for political, religious, and moral debate. I would NOT have wanted to bring my children here to «Celebrate Earth Day» and leave with them scarred from religious groups yelling «YOU WILL GO TO H*LL IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE» and by GRAPHIC pictures carried by pro-​life protesters. This was in an area fully viewable by children. Really? Is this what the park has come to? Its was not even enjoyable and yes, I do understand I made the choice to go and I fully support the 1^st amendment, but I also believe there is a time and a place for potentially scarring words and images. It was not at an Earth Day celebration catered toward children and families.
I spoke with the earth works rep about the protestors and they stood by the fact that this was a first amendment right but tried to convince me to sign a petition for the gathering next year… WHILE LAUGHING AT ME (?)
The best part was the drum circle that ALREADY exists in balboa every sunday. There were tons of toddlers dancing with flowers in their air, celebrating the park and time with family.
My suggestion– skip festivals at Balboa and just go any other day for a better experience.

I love Earth Day! I learn so many things about the environment and get some great vegetarian recipes for when I feel like being extra nice to the planet.
This year it lost a star though due to the unexpected amount of anti-​abortionists and bible thumpers that were on literally every corner of the fair. Their yellow signs could be seen from the soy candle booth, the dog rescue booth, and the booth giving out free candy. «You will go to hell» could be seen in my peripheral vision 90% of the time and it was a little disturbing.
I did very much appreciate the lovely ladies with the umbrellas trying to block the photos of dead fetuses and dancing around in front of the children whose parents allowed them to hold these signs, but I swear these crazies would chase people down, especially people with children who obviously had NOT gotten an abortion.
I really enjoy earth fair and all it represents, but I wish other people wouldn’t make it all about their own political agendas

Struggled with 1 or 2 stars. On the one hand, the booths were mostly interesting & informative — though they are handing out way too many pieces of paper (!) & selling too much junk.
Food was totally lame! Seriously, you can’t get some decent interesting green food?
But what totally ruined the whole day for me was all the Jesus freaks & abortion protesters. I am all for freedom of speech & assembly, but it was intrusive & gruesome. They have huge yellow signs & microphones, so you can’t avoid being preached at. And if you want to walk from the Prado to the southern part of the fair, you get to walk the «gauntlet,» where they have dozens of zombies holding larger than life color posters of aborted fetuses. No one, regardless of their belief about abortion, wants to see that. Especially families — and by the way, this is the main route to the kids’ section of the fair. Nice. Real class & compassion.
By the time I left I was so angry I wanted to scream at them.
If you bring your kids, heed the warning sign that says «Gruesome images ahead,» and find another route.
Better yet, how about festival organizers work with park & city officials to keep said gruesome images out of areas where children gather? Because quite obviously, my alternate suggestion (that these people get some class & common sense & exercise their beliefs at home) would fall on deaf ears.

NOT WORTH GOING!
this is supposed to be about environmental awareness and what not however I HATE this fair not because each year there are more and more nazi like teenagers and their leaders with giant anti-​abortion signs.
NOT COOL!!! I want to abort them… from the festival!
THIS IS ABOUT THE EARTH, NOT THE HUMANS WHO ARE KILLING IT SLOWLY… ugh!
on the bright side, you get to sample a ton of free new «organic» and «vegan» products which isn’t bad if you don’t mind the crappy traffic.

update for 2011:
3.5…
I am upping my average from about a 2.5 to a 3.5 because after several years of attending this fair the managers have finally heeded the requests of the public and made some minor changes. So i was working a booth again this year, so i didn’t get a chance to check out everything as thoroughly as i had hoped, but some things never change:
— the jesus freaks with the racist, homophobic, intolerant signs that say «god hates fags,» etc. Honestly, NO ONE likes them. and they know it too. NOTE: it doesn’t make you a martyr like Jesus, it makes you a fucking asshole.
–the anti-​abortion people who feel the need to plaster pictures of surgeries everyhere even though they themselves will never adopt an unwanted child.
–the hilarious nut jobs i love talking to. this time, someone told me to kill myself to save the planet.
–parking: ppl driving their monster trucks to this event and leaving tons of room in btw spaces (oh the irony)
However, management has stopped them from having an actual booth unlike previous years, and now there are counter-​protesters that target these abortion ppl specifically. And for the first time, they actually have a VEGAN food court. but it’s way the fuck out in butt-​fucking Egypt, not in the main food court. Not Cool. They should really be putting the meat stands out of the way.
however, depending on the company you keep, it is always a fun time gathering info/​memorabilia, and pimping my orgs.

«Earth Fair» must be a typo. It’s really Earth Fail.
So, yesterday, I had the bright idea of skipping the gym and taking a walk around Balboa Park instead. Little did I know that the Earth Fair was going on. Apparently, this annual event is supposed to raise my awareness about conservation and the environment.
Instead, it just raised my blood pressure.
Here’s a sampler of what the Earth Fair is really about…
1) A clusterf**k of traffic as thousands of San Diegans attempt to descend on Balboa Park at once without the assistance of mass transit. (Let the irony soak in.)
2) Booths selling useless tchochkes, most of which aren’t recyclable. (Don’t ask why.)
3) Booths selling disposable water bottles for $ 2. (Even more ironic.)
On the bright side, they do have free valet bike parking. Too bad I walked.
Oh! The real lowlight is the army of whackadoodle right-​wing protesters. I wouldn’t have cared much (First Amendment all the way, baby), except this burly and foul-​smelling dude grabbed me by the shoulders in his attempt to encourage me to embrace something-​or-​other. I’m pretty sure that he was referring to Jesus, but I was afraid that a follow-​up question would’ve resulted in him punching me in the face.
Ugh.
So… yeah… I’m not returning to this enviro-​freakshow next year. If I want to learn about being eco-​friendly, I think I’ll watch Captain Planet reruns on Hulu or something.