Who said being green isn’t fun?

This Sunday, to commemorate the 38th annual observance of Earth Day, the Green Apple Festival will host eight separate day-long events across the country to help increase knowledge and raise awareness about environmental issues and the threat of global warming. The D.C. festival will start at noon on the National Mall and will include a host of musical performances, speakers and informational booths — and the best part is, all of these events will be entirely free of charge.

With the numerous performers and speakers, this year’s Green Apple Festival promises to be the biggest festival to date. Last year’s festival, held in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco, became the largest multi-performance event to not leave behind any carbon emissions. With five more cities participating this year, they will surely beat their own record. The festival continues to be co-sponsored by the Earth Day Network, which was created by the founders of the original Earth Day in 1970. Further, organizers have implemented a “zero waste goal,” mandating that the event be entirely paperless, and utilizing bio-diesel generators at all locations.

In conjunction with the main event on Sunday, several D.C. clubs will be participating in lead-up events by becoming “Green Apple Venues” and introducing environmentally friendly practices and products to their locations. Each club or theater will be given a “Green Box” of sustainable, non-toxic and recyclable products by the organizers of the Green Apple Festival in exchange for its promise to enact environmentally friendly practices at its locations throughout the weekend. Thirteen clubs in D.C. alone will be participating, including the 9:30 Club, the Black Cat and the State Theatre.

In an effort to garner more attention and to help excite young people about the cause, the Green Apple Festival in D.C. has formulated a fabulous lineup of musical acts to perform throughout the day on Sunday. O.A.R. will kick off the festival with a special acoustic set, and The Roots, featuring Ne-Yo, will.i.am and Doug E. Fresh, will be one of the main performances. American Idol winner Jordin Sparks, British alt-pop singer Kate Nash and Cartel are also scheduled to perform.

Aside from music, the festival will also offer an educational aspect. Lined up to discuss the environment and global warming are a number of speakers, including actor and comedian Chevy Chase, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and record producer Russell Simmons.

Also, a number of nonprofit and environmentally friendly organizations have been invited to promote new technologies. Peter Shapiro, founder and executive producer of the Green Apple Festival says, “we use the music to get people there in a family-friendly environment … then they can learn about simple things they can do to improve their impact on the earth.”

But some students are worried that on the whole, the event’s focus on environmental issues will be overshadowed by the musical performances. “Honestly, I feel with all the marketing and ‘celebratization’ of the concept, it’s not really that most people care about the issue any longer, but have just kind of fallen into a sort of chic conscientiousness,” Alex Lee (SFS ’10) said. “So, while, sure, huge concerts with popular artists are a great way to get people to participate, I think, at best — in terms of increasing awareness — it’s superficial.”

Alison Crowley (COL ’11) echoed this sentiment: “I think large-scale events like this are definitely great ways to raise awareness, although I can’t guarantee what lasting effect it will have,” she said. “I’m happy that so many people are interested in going, but the appeal of the festival has to last beyond just the day, in order to really see if it’s helped youth become more involved with environmental causes.”

However, organizers of the event contend that the festival has raised awareness and interest by “[galvanizing] music fans, environmentalists, progressive consumers and families in a growing number of cities … by providing events with music performances, family entertainment and interactive exhibits at public locations.” One thing is for sure, the festival is bound to not only be filled with great performances, but also an important message for our generation to take to heart.