Renewable energy festival alert!

If you live in Pennsylvania, or within easy driving distance, our friend Ben and Silence Dogood enthusiastically recommend the Pennsylvania Renewable Energy & Sustainable Living Festival in Kempton, PA this coming weekend, September 18-20.

A renewable energy festival may not sound like your idea of a good time, unless you happen to be a solar engineer, but we go every year and we’re here to tell you that it’s one of the most fun events of our year. It really is a festival, as well as a great opportunity to learn all about the options for green living. And it really is fun for the whole family.

You’ll find great music (including a concert by Wyndham Hill founder Paul Winter), great locally produced, organic food, tons of local organic produce and baked goods, cheeses, home-canned fruits, veggies, jams, jellies, and much more, not to mention herbs, handmade soaps and lotions, fiber arts, crafts, and books on every kind of sustainable living, from bread-baking to chicken tractors to homemade adobe housing to composting toilets. And, of course, wonderful tee-shirts, bumper stickers, buttons, primitive musical instruments, and more from vendors like Northern Sun.

There’s a wide range of kid-friendly activities throughout the festival, from tie-dyeing tee-shirts to visiting with farm animals to riding the wonderful old passenger train through the scenic countryside (adults welcome, too, of course!). Kids 12 and under can attend the festival free, which is more good news, and ages 13-21 get in for half price, at $6 a head.

True, there are about 80 how-to lectures, running the gamut from straw bale construction to feeding a family of four from 1/2 acre, plus workshops on converting your diesel car to run on recycled vegetable oil and how to build your own wind power.  You’re bound to find more interesting lectures than you can possibly attend if you go to the festival’s website, www.paenergyfest.com, and check the lecture schedule. You’ll also find hours (9 am-7 pm each day) and directions on the website.

We love the train and train museum that are part of the Kempton Community Center site where the festival is held. And we’re also fascinated by the display of converted vehicles (converted to be energy-efficient, that is) that is always a part of the festival. You can find resources for green building, green studies, and green products at the numerous display booths in the various buildings. And Silence would like to point out that there are ample restrooms available, always a critical point.

Mind you, this is the priciest festival we attend, at $12 admittance for each adult. Every year, we grumble about this and say we’re not going. And every year, we’re enticed by the wonderful range of lectures and vendors and end up changing our minds. It’s a beautiful setting, a wonderful festival, and a great opportunity to learn about all the options available for making your own life more sustainable. Or, say, how to buy and drive a $50 car, or cook a meal in a homemade solar oven, or boost your immune system with garlic. We can’t honestly think of any event we attend that we get more out of. Highly recommended!!!