Sunday’s EcoFest to feature a tiny village, solar displays, live music

It’s going to take some pedal power to turn up the volume for the concerts during EcoFest at the Bartlett Arboretum on Sunday, Oct. 29.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Bartlett Arboretum, a 108-year-old museum of trees and nature in Belle Plaine, will host EcoFest, a celebration of sustainable living with a small carbon footprint.

The event happening from 1 to 6 p.m. will include seminars on sustainability, vendors selling wares of upcycled goods, various children’s crafts and the debut of the arboretum’s Teeny Tiny Town, a collection of child-sized buildings ranging from a mercantile to a train depot. To amplify the four concerts on the wooden stage located between two loblolly pines in a clearing on the grounds, concert-goers will be asked to take turns pedaling the stationary tandem bicycle generator.

“EcoFest is a celebration of taking care of the planet, as well as taking care of the mind, body and soul of people,” said organizer Catherine Johnson, who developed the idea for the festival as part of her master’s degree thesis in environmental studies at Friends University.

The setting provides the ideal place to see what can happen when people care for nature, Johnson said. The arboretum – started by Walter Bartlett, a local physician and naturalist, in 1910 and run by his descendants until the 1990s – has been rejuvenated and renewed under the ownership of Robin Macy, who purchased the 17-acre property 20 years ago and calls herself its steward. Volunteers have helped in that effort.

The mind, body and soul part of EcoFest comes in the form of the activities, Johnson said.

Biking to the event is being encouraged, with bicyclists getting free admission to the event. A Tour de Trees bike ride to the event is being organized by Johnson’s Garden Center, with online registration at bikereg.com closing at 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 27. Yoga will be offered during the event.

And, then of course, there’s the opportunity to pedal the generator for a song or two.

“You just show up and we hope that people will hop on to keep the power going,” Johnson said. “We tried to stick with bands that don’t need a whole lot of amplification.”

However, when the musicians hit the high notes, pedalers will notice some resistance, she said. A meter will register how much power the pedalers are generating.

Along with four scheduled concerts by Irish Ceilidh, Brutal Bear, Jenny Wood and the Winfield Municipal Band, four “ecocentric” seminars will take place in a historic train depot on the grounds. The sessions will cover the topics of living off the land with sustainable food production, landscaping with native plants, planting Kansas-hardy trees and the latest in solar panels.

The bike-powered stage isn’t the only example of creating energy. Artists Mike and Meghan Miller have installed two kinetic art sculptures – a rocket and a school of fish – that move when someone uses the swing set near the volunteer-built Teeny Tiny Town.

To minimize the waste generated at the event, food vendors are being provided compostable products that can easily break down in a residential-style compost pile, Johnson said.

For a complete schedule of EcoFest’s concerts and sustainability seminars, visit bartlettarboretum.com.

This story was originally published October 27, 2017 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Sunday’s EcoFest to feature a tiny village, solar displays, live music."