We are excited to invite you to take an insider look at behind-the-scenes action in each city with our new Green Festival Blog. This blog will serve as a platform for conversation about green and socially responsible topics from coast to coast.

Green Festival is the nation's largest sustainability event; and we are always working to improve the festival you know and love. This year’s theme is ‘Engagement,’ with exciting new ways to shop green, be inspired, get engaged and give back. You will enjoy informative, insightful speakers, incomparable green shopping, cutting edge eco-innovations, great live music, fun and educational family activities, hands-on workshops, organic wine and beer and delicious, local vegetarian cuisine. Plus, our new admission options are geared to encourage you to get engaged in your community with immediate dividends from Green Festival.

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Thank you for joining us at Seattle Green Festival on June 5-6

Thank you for attending the Seattle Green Festival®, a joint project of Global Exchange and Green America. Named one of the top 10 green cities in the U.S. in 2005 by National Geographic's The Green Guide, what better place to celebrate an urban community's vision of green than Seattle? Led by the Office of Sustainability and the Environment, the City of Seattle was a wonderful co-host to the Green Festival in the Pacific Northwest.

Mayor Mike McGinn

Mayor Mike McGinn officiated the Opening Ceremony of Seattle's 3rd annual Green Festival on June 5th at 12:00pm.  The opening followed the Welcoming Ceremony  featuring the Muckleshoot Tribe with a welcoming song and prayer and remarks from Steve Robinson of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

Seattle Green Festival will return next Spring.  You'll continue to find some of the best green products and services the Northwest has to offer. Through Seattle Climate Action Now!, Clean & Green Seattle and the city's many other climate projects, learn how neighbors, community nonprofits and city departments are working together to make the city a healthier place to live all year long.

Mayor Daley & Governor Quinn Kick-off Green Festival Chicago

Green ribbon cutting with Govenor Pat Quinn, Denise Hamler and Mayor Richard Daley

Chicago's 4th annual Green Festival at Navy Pier was another great success, with huge crowds and excited media covering the event. Mayor Richard M. Daley and Governor Pat Quinn honored Green Festival with a green ribbon cutting ceremony by welcoming and speaking to the gathered press, guests and businesses. During the ceremony, Illinois Governor Quinn signed legislation into law that mandates energy savings of state buildings (Senate Bill 3429). "Illinois is committed to being a leader in the green movement," said Governor Quinn. "This bill is a first step in creating standards for energy efficiency at existing state buildings and further addresses the state's green goals."

Both governor and mayor toured the Green Festival exhibit hall to see all the new green innovations and green businesses. To Green America's Business Director, Denise Hamler, Mayor Daley remarked how impressed he was with the growth of green business enterprises in the city and looked forward to discovering new technology innovations to add to the city's greening initiatives.

This year's Green Festival boasted incredible programming, fantastic vegan and vegetarian food, outstanding exhibits and fun for the whole family. Green Festival's Executive Co-producer Kevin Danaher shared, "Our speakers, exhibitors and partners were delighted by the fantastic crowds. The Chicago host committee was exceptional, the regional ambassadors were amazing and the volunteers were phenomenal. We are all looking forward to Chicago Green Festival in 2011."