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By Karenna Keane
Back for its 15th year, the annual Harvest Your Energy Festival will take place at Riverbend Park on Saturday, October 17, from noon -3 p.m. The event will feature environmental organizations, local artists, food and drink, and an opportunity to recycle electronics and other hard-to-recycle materials.
The festival, which is hosted by the city of Medford and the Office of Planning, Development, and Sustainability, first began in 2010 as a way to celebrate the town’s new wind turbine. Harvest Your Energy has grown over the years, increasing in the number of vendors and the available recycling services. So far, this is the only city-sponsored recycling opportunity, but there may be another recycling-only opportunity in December.
The festival has only missed one year, according to Alicia Hunt, Medford's director of Planning, Development and Sustainability. That year was 2020, when bad weather thwarted plans to have the outdoor festival and the global pandemic meant an indoor celebration was not an option, she said.
This year's event will feature several food vendors including Plazita Mexico Tacos and Colleen’s Ice Cream and Sandwich Shop, according to Kyla Branco, the festival coordinator. Additionally, the Black Harp travelling Irish pub will make its first Harvest Your Energy appearance serving beer and Guinness.
“There have been years without a food vendor for one reason or another,” Hunt said. “It’s usually our biggest complaint when we don’t.”
But food isn’t the primary focus of the event. It’s educating the community about sustainability.
One of the local organizations joining that effort is Community Pedal Power, which is known for its “E-Bike Lending Library.”
“Our focus at Community Pedal Power is more butts in [bike] seats,” Christopher Schmidt, the founder of Community Pedal Power and the E-Bike Lending Library, said. “There is a huge number of people who can transition to using e-bikes to replace some of their car trips. When there’s an opportunity to reach people in new spaces, we always try [to] touch base.”
Community Pedal Power works primarily with parents of young children, Schmidt said. Their popular cargo bikes allow a parent to bike while two or more small children ride up front or behind, ideally relieving the need for a second car.
Most of the organization’s growth occurs through word of mouth by parents in and around schools. The Harvest Your Energy Festival is an opportunity to tap into new or different demographics, especially since they will have e-bikes available for test drives at the festival.
“As the area has grown more bike infrastructure, this has become something that more people are interested in,” Schmidt said. “By being at these events, we’re able to reach people, many of whom may go on to borrow a bike from the e-bike lending library or will look into e-bikes as an option for themselves.”
Jill Feldman, who, along with her friend Lisa Brukilacchio, started the Medford chapter of the nonprofit climate justice advocacy group, Mothers Out Front, almost six years ago, said that the chapter’s goal of encouraging alternative modes of transportation began after seeing groups like Community Pedal Power at last year's Harvest Your Energy Festival.
“It helps [us] because we can see the direction that interests are moving,” Feldman said. "The fact that there was this whole section of demonstrations that was specifically about e-bikes and alternatives to driving cars tells us that that’s where things are moving and that we need to pay attention.”
Along with alternative transportation, Mothers Out Front will be promoting compost initiatives and, specifically, their annual Pumpkin Smash on Nov. 1, where families can bring old jack-o-lanterns to smash as they wish and then compost.
In addition to community organizations, there will also be local artists present, all of whom either work with upcycled materials or focus on environmental themes, according to Branco.
Festival attendees will also have the opportunity to recycle certain electronics, Styrofoam, furniture, propane tanks and more. The recycling cost for each item can be found on the festival website.
Due to the recycling stations, residents should anticipate traffic delays. Hunt recommends parking at Hormel Stadium or Wegmans and walking to the festival from there.
Branco, who is studying Urban and Environmental Policy Planning at Tufts, sees this event as an extension of her coursework.
“[In class], we talk a lot about community engagement and doing it meaningfully, so I think that I’ve been trying to carry that over to planning this and making it not just an event that’s happening … but creating a space to interact with one another [and] interact with the city and other organizations," Branco said. “I think it’s really important to talk about these things and create space for people to do so.”
This story is part of a partnership between Gotta Know Medford and the Boston University Department of Journalism’s Newsroom program.
