Dallas Green Festival returns to Texas Discovery Gardens

by Julie Thibodeaux of Green Source DFW

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Vendor booths from the festival will stay up through State Fair of Texas.

It’s been one of the hottest and driest summers on record, but Dallas is gearing up to show its green side. On September 24, the city is hosting the fourth annual Dallas Green Festival at the Texas Discovery Gardens in historic Fair Park.

The event was started by the city’s Office of Environmental Quality to promote good environmental stewardship among residents. September is also Pollution Prevention Month in Texas. This is the second year the festival has been held in Fair Park at Texas Discovery Gardens, the first 100-percent public organic garden certified by the Texas Organic Research Center.

Susan Lee, director of development at TDG, said the eco-friendly event is a great way to end the hot summer. “What better way to wake everybody up in the year of this big drought?” said Lee. “There’s been a huge surge of interest in organic gardening and water conservation.”

This year’s festival will feature more than 50 green vendors, selling everything from solar power and foam insulation to organic clothing and cleaning products, and will include the Deep Ellum Outdoor Market. In addition, classes and demonstrations will be held on chicken and bee keeping, water and energy conservation, Square-Foot gardening, bicycle safety and how to turn cooking oil into biofuel. Attendees can sign up and prepay for a rain barrel making class hosted by Texas AgriLife Extension. Event-goers can also check out the Nissan Leaf and see an electric car charging station.

For kids, there will be a children’s activity center where they can make pine cone bird feeders, build a terrarium, have their face painted and participate in a recycling-themed relay race. Food vendors will also be on hand selling everything from popsicles to adult beverages. And restaurants like Blue Mesa Grill will be serving their street food fare.

Other highlights include live music, art and a Recycled Fashion Show featuring fashion made by local design students using vintage fabric and recycled materials. Last year, about 2,000 attended the festival. This year, organizers are hoping to double that number. Lee added that she has even bigger dreams for the future. “I’d like to grow this to a two-day event that explodes out of Texas Discovery Gardens and extends up through the lagoon.”

Festival hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, September 24. Admission to the Green Festival is free. In addition, event-goers can enter the Texas Discovery Garden’s Butterfly House and Insectarium for a discounted rate of $3.

Also new this year, Texas Discovery Gardens will be letting vendors keep their booths up throughout the State Fair of Texas, which runs Sept. 30-Oct. 23, creating the fair’s first Green Exhibit.

For more information, see www.greendallas.net or www.texasdiscoverygardens.org.

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