Whole Earth Festival

The Whole Earth Festival was born when an art class taught by Jose Arguelles had an "Art Happening" on the University of California, Davis campus in 1969. The students used art to involve those that attended in an educational process that dared to transcend the typical system of standardized tests and impersonal lectures.Following the United Nations declaration of "Earth Day" in 1970, the second "Art Happening" (1971) was renamed "Whole Earth." Later sponsored by the Associated Student's Experimental College, and then becoming a self-sustaining unit, the Whole Earth Festival has evolved over three decades into what can be seen Mother's Day weekend (May 12-14, 2006) on the U.C. Davis campus quad.Two music stages, a solar dance stage, the Wellman DJ pit, educational/activism workshops and speakers, parades, fire dancing, drum circles, food, crafts, kid's space, and best of all, zero waste.