The Associated Student Government Sustainability Committee hosted its annual GREENOUT music festival in celebration of Earth Month at Kahn Pavilion Saturday evening.
The event featured various student bands, while attendees ate from food trucks, thrifted clothes and learned about environmental initiatives from student and local sustainability groups.
Weinberg senior and ASG Sustainability Committee member Annabelle Gray helped plan GREENOUT.
“(GREENOUT) is really about bringing together community with all the sustainability clubs and environmental organizations,” she said.
ASG partnered with various Evanston and Northwestern organizations, including Climate Action Evanston, UNITY and Menstrual Equity Activists, so attendees could learn more about each group’s work, Gray said.
McCormick sophomore Wengyin Ho represented Engineers for a Sustainable World Northwestern at the festival. Ho is the co-project manager for ESW-NU’s AutoAquaponics team, which aims to create self-sustaining fish and plant systems.
ESW-NU designs sustainable solutions, such as the AutoAquaponics project and another project that recycles waste from 3D printers. Attendees who visited their station could play fish trivia and nominate names for the AutoAquaponics project’s fish.
Ho said she particularly liked how Menstrual Equity Activists showcased sustainable menstrual products, which she said are not explicitly sustainable.
Sustainability has always been important to her, Ho said, since she grew up hearing about it from her father.
“It’s one of the biggest problems that we have to face,” she said. “Everything always comes back to the environment, climate and how we choose to handle it, how we choose to live our lives are so intertwined with it.”
Weinberg senior and UNITY Charity Fashion Show co-Executive Director Isa Grau said the organization is always happy to partner with ASG.
UNITY previously hosted thrift store pop-ups at GREENOUT, according to Grau. Its set up this year included tables and coatracks with secondhand clothes for students to sift through, try on and purchase.
“One of UNITY’s values is sustainability, so we like to do the thrift pop-up a couple times every year to encourage people to shop secondhand, which lowers water, waste,” Grau said. “There’s so much clothing in the world that we really encourage people to shop secondhand.”
Grau also said she was excited to listen to the bands and spend time in the new pavilion.
McCormick sophomore Ethan Lanlua said he had fun at his first GREENOUT. He enjoyed the music, food and thrifting, he said.
“I’m a big believer in always buying used, trying to give things a second life, upcycling, things like that,” Lanlua said. “Thrifting and upcycling used clothes is always a fun idea for me.”
ASG also collaborated with eight different student bands to perform throughout the afternoon, including one visiting from DePaul University, according to Gray.
Gray said the music is her favorite part every year.
“It’s always super fun to see people,” she said. “I know a couple of the bands who are performing and seeing students having their friends come and support is always super fun.”
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