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World Environment Day puts focus on future
A crowd of almost 4,500 people revelled in the warm winter sunshine at the University of the Sunshine Coast on Sunday for the 30th annual Sunshine Coast World Environment Day Festival.
The festival – with the theme “Many species, one planet, one future” – was jointly organised by the Sunshine Coast Environment Council, SEQ Catchments, Sunshine Coast Regional Council and USC.
The family fun day featured live entertainment, children’s activities, environmental and trade displays, a farmers’ market, screenings and award presentation of Ecoflicks, and talks on topics ranging from native plants to artificial reefs, and from geology to theology.
Other highlights included a GreenBizz expo, which showcased sustainability in daily home and business lives, Transition Town, an interactive display model of a self-sufficient lifestyle and the colourful musical March of the Animals with Linsey Pollak and his furry friends.
Narelle McCarthy of the Sunshine Coast Environment Council said the festival was an exciting culmination of a fruitful collaboration between the four festival partners that brought together community from the whole Sunshine Coast region.
Susie Chapman of SEQ Catchments said festival-goers particularly enjoyed being outside in the sunshine, with the children’s activities, the stalls and musical performances well patronised.
“The generosity of performers, presenters and all the volunteers gave the day a special magic,” she said.
“Internationally acclaimed Coast band Oka played for an extra hour and the three members of Cycologists were very entertaining, stopping all around campus and playing music using different parts of their bicycles.”
Ms Chapman said she had received plenty of feedback from people who had enjoyed the networking opportunities provided by the festival.
“There were plenty of networks that were either established or reinforced and these will have enormous value for future collaborative projects in the region,” she said.
— Terry Walsh