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Students create tie-dye shirts at the annual EarthFest celebration.

Organic treats, entertainment and a progressive air drew a small crowd of students to the 2009 EarthFest celebration.

Organized by Amnesty International and EarthNow, the annual festival educates participants about sustainability and human-rights issues in a fun and inspiring way.

At this year's event, students enjoyed interactive displays—including Village in Action educational games, a tie-dye station, a mural and chalk display and a video-recording project—as they sampled organic food and grooved to music by bluegrass band Special Consensus and guitarist and vocalist Ben Martinez '08.

Other attractions included a presentation by Mark Dixon from Your Environmental Road Trip (YERT) a performance by the Silent Poets, The Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival and a Fare Wares market, where students could purchase fair-trade goods..

"I thought Mark Dixon from YERT and the Wild and Scenic Film Festival both showed the audience how other Americans are being sustainable, showing that it is possible and easy to have sustainable lifestyle," Elise Rodriguez '11, an environmental studies major who helped coordinate the event.

Students also were inspired by an address by Nigerian civil-rights activist Omoyele Sowore.

Sowore, who currently lives in America, was repeatedly tortured and imprisoned by the Nigerian government for his political writings and demonstrations. He spoke to Dickinson students about global governance and the ways that multinational oil companies have exploited his countrymen. Then he challenged students to further educate themselves about, and take a stand against, international injustices.

The festival was part of a weeklong, campus-wide celebration of the 39th-annual Earth Day.