DC Green Festival

Yesterday DH and I went to the Washington DC Green Festival. We lucked out on tickets as one of the local natural markets that I shop at regularly is a sponsor, and they just happened to have a coupon at the checkout for a buy one get one free admission. Parking in DC can sometimes be tricky, and there is a Metro station right at the convention center where the festival was being held so it was a given that we'd take the Metro to the convention, and because we had our Metro passes we got an even further reduced rate. We ended up getting a two-day admission for only $10 total for both DH and I, whereas other people were paying full price of $15 per person for only one day-- a huge savings for us.

We got there shortly after the festival began, and got to work filling out contest entry forms, collecting freebies, and sampling all kinds of goodies. There were some big name companies there- Earthbound Farm, Dr. Bronner's, Kashi, Nature's Path, and more, all giving stuff away! There was a table (Dogswell) that gave us a bunch of organic dog snacks for Mr. Tucker, and another table that gave us some Innova dog food samples to try. I brought a tote bag knowing that I'd want a place to stash stuff, and we were giddy when we saw that a local natural market (MOM's) was also giving away totes, Mambo Sprouts coupons, and tons of samples! Getting all the stuff was like trick or treating. We tried to remain organized about the event and give everyone a fair glance so we chose to weave our way up and down each row. We did manage to miss a few things, like the Planet Green booth right at the front that was also giving away really nice tote bags, but when we took a break for lunch I checked out the navigator pamphlet so we could take a look at the stuff we missed and find some lectures to go to for the afternoon. One of the things I really wanted to see was a discussion about the economics of happiness but it wasn't until 3:00 and I wasn't about to deal with the crowds for another 2 hours, especially since we had already visited every booth. I was really amazed at some of the rudeness I witnessed at this event. While most of the people were obviously trying their hardest not to bump into others, there were some people that pushed other people out of the way or cut in line! After lunch we visited the booths we missed (Planet Green, Larabar, and this really cool machine that makes sparkling water/soda using your own tap water) and then made our way back to the Metro to head home.

I've really been wanting to get a stainless steel water bottle to replace my Nalgene bottle (which may or may not contain BPA) so I stopped at the Klean Kanteen table and bought an orange bottle and a sport cap to go on top. We didn't buy anything else, except for lunch, which we weren't overly impressed with. The food was alright, but we thought that a lot of the prices were high, and it was hard to choose which stand to get food from because no one really had a menu or prices listed.

Unfortunately, we didn't stop in the beer/wine garden since it was really busy after lunch. It wasn't so busy during the morning but I hadn't had anything for breakfast and didn't want to end up being lightheaded from drinking at 10:30 in the morning! We could have gone back down today and gotten in for free, but DH and I were both tired and didn't feel like dealing with the crowds again, especially after we hauled so much stuff home yesterday. (If you don't believe me, see the photo below, lol!)

The employees and volunteers there were amazing. Each trash station had a few volunteers to help you figure out which can your items needed to go in- landfill, compost, recyclable, etc. The people manning the booths were friendly to everyone even though I'm sure they must have all had headaches at the end of the day. I am a little disappointed that I didn't get to do a lot of networking on behalf of OGD. There were some fellow Tweets there that I could have met up with had I been more organized...

All in all we had a great time, and though I'm disappointed that we didn't get to go to any of the lectures/discussions (the ones we tried to were packed FULL of people with standing room only) I saw that they will be available for viewing on the website after the festival is over. We were lucky to get there early because when we were trying to leave the room was so packed with people that you could hardly move. I'm hoping for a phone call later this week to let me know that I guessed the right number of Eden Organics lip glosses, or that I won something else from one of the contests we entered. Hey, a girl can dream, right?

Click the thumbnails for larger images.


Look at all of the samples and freebies we got...I will definitely be sharing these with my OGD friends!


Mr. Tucker got lots of samples too...


This one was a dried banana chip with dried chicken wrapped around it. It's supposed to be good for the skin and coat. He gobbled it right up.