Following the United Nations declaration of “Earth Day” in 1970, the third “Art Happening” in 1971 was renamed “Whole Earth Festival.” Later, Whole Earth Festival was sponsored by the ASUCD Experimental College and has since become a self-sustaining unit. The Whole Earth Festival has evolved over four decades into a three-day arts and musical festival hosted every Mother’s Day weekend on the UC Davis campus.
The Whole Earth Festival has been historically vegetarian in an effort to embrace food sustainability.
The Whole Earth Reusables Cooperative (WERC) Dish Program and our Compost and Recycling Team work together to reduce waste throughout the three-day festival. All our vendors are required to use reusable dishes to the best of their ability, and all waste brought to the festival must be of recyclable or compostable material. Our goal for zero-waste is to reduce our carbon footprint by contributing as little waste as possible to landfills.
The Whole Earth Bench is a bench constructed during a building materials workshop at the Whole Earth Festival in 2004. The bench is made of cob, which is a construction material made of clay, sand, and straw, and it still exists today! It is located near Wellman Hall.
