The audience members/consumers were quite a bit more mainstream than the vendors. Which, in my mind, is a good thing. Concern for the environment and the importance of building a greener future so that we actually have a future is something that should be spread far and wide. This is not, and should not be, a patchouli-scented club for the kids in the know. A green mentality is something that should be promoted and encouraged with the sense of fervor, style and savvy that Apple uses to sell iPods.

We are not here to be good people. We are here to be better people.

Urban Gay, I am delighted that you found the scenery worthwhile.  Apparently, "C+G" is your abbreviation of "crunchy granola"?  Which I guess means shoulder-length hair, with feathers worked in?  Well, fine, the extremely short-haired, military type has been for far too long the most exhibited fashion.

Of course, in all fairness, there are plenty of cute Republicans too.  It is a great puzzle, in fact, how so often in history good looks and bad politics seem to coincide.  For the Roman Empire, for example, cf. Ben Hur's ex-boyfriend Messala.  I call it "the Kiss of the Spider Woman Effect."

Anyway, to leave such not unimportant matters aside, it is clearly a very good sign when such an event draws so many apparently mainstream visitors.

But let us see what happens, when the show moves on to Dallas.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

A few of the featured speakers made impassioned pleas regarding an end to our consumer-oriented ways. Meanwhile, out in the booths, retailers were flogging every conceivable product -- most of which, while organic, fair trade, sustainable, and otherwise full of righteousness, were simply consumer substitutes, still manufactured and packaged and shipped, etc.

Aside from the oxymoronic notion of the "green consumer," the event itself has now outgrown the venue. The press of humanity and the cacophony of the current venue is absolutely brutalizing. It was hard to enjoy the speakers when they were being drowned out by the Live Music Stage. What the festival needs is to take over a university campus for the weekend, where they would have access to a real auditorium (for the main speakers), lecture halls for the other sessions, and so forth. Also, this is a networking venue, yet it's almost impossible to carry on a conversation with someone.

Suffice to say, I will not attend another Green Festival as it is currently constituted.

One particularly gaff at this year's gathering was to assign the only session devoted to people of color in the green movement to an auxiliary tent outside of the convention center itself. This wasn't even the back of the bus; it was like hanging on to the rear bumber! I'm embarrassed for the movement.

I don't know what to make of the crunchy observations. Perhaps because I'm a native San Franciscan (living in exile currently), but that sort of thing doesn't register with me as much as the sheer capitalist energy of the scene. You could smell the testosterone. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for local businesses supplying us with life's necessities. But a lot of the energy seems to be leaning toward larger scale effort: Become the next Body Shop. Then sell it for bazillions. Whatever.

To end on a more positive note, What I like best about the Green Festival is the pep rally aspect. Korten was great, Suzuki was great, numerous other speakers had great things to say. You leave all pumped up to do more good work, and you know you're not alone.