GLF News

MI Green Team (MGT) today announced estimated weekend attendance of 25,000 at the Green Living Festival, about half of the 50,000 festival-goers it had planned for. The estimate was used to calculate and offset the event’s carbon footprint, including 75,000 pounds of C02 generated by an estimated 10,000 cars averaging two passengers and a 7.5 mile round trip.

Concerns over Rochester traffic delays and a busy metro event schedule adversely affected attendance. “We tried very hard but apparently didn't convince more people to come to Rochester for the festival during the Main Street Makeover”, said John Batdorf, event manager. "Rochester area resident attendance remained steady this year but other attendance was noticeably down. Clearly, many people avoided a traffic situation that was reported as a major headache but really wasn't."

There were many bright spots at the festival including great weather, in spite of a Sunday forecast for thunderstorms. An upgraded wellness program was clearly the weekend highlight, with hundreds of people attending presentations by leading local and national healthy-lifestyle doctors. The Connections Cafe, kids activity area and many exhibit areas were well-attended as well. Improvements in the event layout and smartphone map/locator were well-received, Batdorf said. “We were gratified by the comments we heard from those who were able to attend about the event; we will build on those and on some good suggestions for next year."
 
MI Green Team's promotion of healthy and green living extends beyond the festival, and includes publishing complete exhibitor listings, in 30,000 event guides inserted in local newspapers and on its popular event website, www.miglf.com, which receives as many as 1,000 daily visitors. According to Batdorf, the website will continue to provide a "virtual festival" throughout the year.

MI Green Team would like to express its appreciation to all event participants, especially our major sponsors The Home Depot & Pure Eco Environmental Solutions. "150 exhibitors, 20 non-profit organizations, and several media partners helped the event promote downtown Rochester during the Makeover and green/healthy living all year long. With this support, we’ll continue to work on ways to improve the Green Living Festival and add other community and targeted events. We will be preparing for the return of large crowds at next year's festival," concluded Batdorf.

MI Green Team promotes green living, business & community through Michigan's premier green/wellness network, website and events.  Visit www.migreenteam.com  for information.

Eat, Drink & Rock!

at the Green Living Festival

With Longneck Strangler, Acoustic Brothers from Different Mothers, and Kyle Vincent, former lead singer of the Bay City Rollers, topping the bill of more than a dozen acts during three full days, the 3rd annual Party for the Planet will be the biggest and best yet. 

 

A relative newcomer on the Michigan music festival scene, the Party for the Planet has already become a tradition for Rochester residents and is sure to be a hit with music fans across the state as all performers have a Michigan connection.

The Green Living Festival and Rochester Mills Beer Co. are proud to present a full weekend schedule of musical entertainment and special events at the Meijer Main Stage

MI Green Team is pleased to announce that the following nominees have been elected to the 2012 class of the MI Green Hall of Fame:

• Alana Hart, The Home Depot (business)
• Jerry & Tracy Neale, Natural Awakenings Magazine (media)
• Joel Kahn, MD, WSU School of Medicine (professional)
• Peggy Matta, USGBC-DRC (non-profit organization)
  

The second annual MI Green Hall of Fame Awards Ceremony.will headline the GLF Charity Preview Party Wednesday, June 20th. Please join in to recognize the dedication and achievement of four of Michigan's green and healthy living leaders.

MGT Offers $5,000 in Prizes Donated by Green Living Festival Exhibitors

MGT today announced the Green Door Prizes daily drawing on its Facebook page. Contestants can enter as often as they like to improve their chances of winning and picking from prizes worth over $5,000.

Daily and weekly prizes will be awarded by their donors at the Green Living Festival. Grand Prizes will be selected on Sunday, June 17th and awarded at the Charity Preview Party. Winners to-date are listed below.

The list of prizes and winners will be posted at Green Door Prizes.

Oprah Winfrey’s food safety expert, Michael Greger, MD, and other wellness experts headline a weekend of presentations and other healthy and green-living activities at the seventh annual Green Living Festival, taking place June 22-24 in downtown Rochester.

"Wellness programs are a natural fit for the Green Living Festival," explains Dr. Kerrie Saunders, a nationally known health expert and author who organized the wellness programs and is also one of the presenters.  

"In keeping with its 'healthy people, healthy planet' message, this year's festival will offer many programs demonstrating that eco-friendly, green choices are also healthy lifestyle choices."

Michael Greger, MD, an internationally recognized author and presenter on nutrition, food safety and public health, served as expert witness in Oprah Winfrey's defense in the infamous "meat defamation" trial. Currently serving as director of public health and animal agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States, Dr. Greger will present the “Nutrition Game Show,” a lively and interactive look at how food can promote health and prevent disease.  His presentation takes place Sat., June 23 at 3 p.m.

Nationally known presenter and best-selling author Kerrie Saunders, MS, LLP, PhD, will speak on the topic of greening your diet on Sun., June 24 at 1 p.m. Her interest in the Green Living Festival comes from an understanding of the connection between healthy food choices and a healthy planet:

“Personal and environmental health really come together at food," says Dr. Saunders. "While the decisions we make about which type of vehicle we drive or what type of home to buy are important, with our food choices, we are making environmental impact decisions every single day."

Other featured wellness presenters include Joel Kahn, MD, director of preventive cardiology and wellness programs at Detroit Medical Center Hospitals, who will address preventing and reversing heart disease through diet on Sat., June 23 at 2 p.m.; and Mumtaz George, MD, medical director of the Birmingham Royal Oak Medical Center, who will discuss lifestyle medicine for optimal health on Sat., June 23 at 1 p.m.

In addition to wellness programs, the Green Living Festival will feature a variety of presentations on green living including local food systems, detoxing your life, biodynamics, the Clean Air Act, yoga, super foods, as well as a variety of kids activities.  Program schedules and details can be found at miglf.com/glflearn.

Major sponsors of the Green Living Festival are The Home Depot and Pure Eco Environmental Solutions.  Dr. Greger's presentation is sponsored by New Horizons Computer Learning Centers.

The three-day Green Living Festival is one of the largest green/wellness events on the planet, bringing together tens of thousands of people to learn about healthy living and earth-friendly products, services and programs. Featuring more than 200 exhibits and dozens of presentations along with a food court, a parade, Party for the Planet and more, the event celebrates the successes of local individuals, businesses, nonprofits and government programs in growing a brighter, greener future.

Admission is free and open to all ages.  Details are available at www.MIGLF.com.

This year's festival is being moved from mid May to the first weekend of summer - June 22nd thru 24th - for better weather prospects. MI Green Team, the event organizers, promise other improvements, including:

• greater local exposure from 40,000+ daily traffic detoured along the festival site before and during the event for Main Street construction
• a more convenient, open and attractive event layout
• expanded exhibit and program hours on Friday evening
• coordination with leading non-profit green programs including the "My Green School Art Contest" presented by the US Green Building Council
• expanded use of interactive web and smartphone maps for exhibit location and information
• addition of national acts including a kids performance by Disney Radio, and musical performance by Kyle Vincent, former lead singer of the Bay City Rollers
• an enhanced wellness program, managed by Dr. Kerrie Saunders, best-selling author and diet & disease prevention expert, and headlined by Dr. Michael Greger, best known as Oprah's food safety expert
• additional media partnerships

Michael Greger, MD, is a physician, author, and internationally recognized speaker on nutrition, food safety, and public health issues. He is best known as an expert witness in the defense of Oprah Winfrey in the infamous "meat defamation" trial. A founding member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, he has lectured at the Conference on World Affairs, and testified before Congress. He is a graduate of Cornell University School of Agriculture and Tufts University School of Medicine. Currently Dr. Greger serves as the Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at The Humane Society of the United States. Hundreds of his nutrition videos are freely available at www.NutritionFacts.org. 

Dr. Greger has scoured the world's scholarly literature on clinical nutrition and developed this brand-new talk of the latest in cutting-edge research. Focusing on studies published just over the last year in peer-reviewed scientific nutrition journals, Dr. Greger offers practical advice on how best to feed ourselves and our families to prevent, treat, and even reverse chronic disease In an engaging interactive quiz show format.

Singer-songwriter/entertainer, Kyle Vincent, labeled the "crown prince of soft pop," by Goldmine, will headline Friday evening's Party for the Planet line-up at the Green Living Festival.

Vincent is best known for his gig as lead singer of the Bay City Rollers for their 2007-8 U.S. tour which included a month-long engagement at the Riviera in Las Vegas.

 

Vincent also toured as the opening act for Barry Manilow who has called Vincent, "The best singer-songwriter to come along since the heyday of Tin Pan Alley".

Kyle Vincent's song "Sierra" was adopted by the Sierra Club and John Denver's Windstar Foundation. It was included on the Dear Earth double CD released Earth Day, 2007. Other artists on the CD include Gladys Knight, The Kingston Trio, Olivia Newton-John, John Denver, Melanie, and readings from the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu.

While recording demos as a solo artist in an L.A. studio, Vincent began co-writing a song entitled "Nature Girl", with eden ahbez, writer of the classic "Nature Boy," popularized by Nat King Cole.

Vincent's Trust album was produced by Vincent, Clif Magness (Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson), and Steve Levine (Culture Club, Beach Boys), and featured co-writes with Magness and Steve Kipner, writer of "Physical" and Genie In A Bottle.

For his next album, Vincent signed with Disney's Hollywood Records which released the album, Kyle Vincent, and which spawned the U.S. Billboard/Radio & Records Adult Top 20 single, "Wake Me Up (When The World's Worth Waking Up For)", co-written by vocalist/guitarist Parthenon Huxley.

His songs have appeared on various television shows including MTV's :The Hills, Road Rules, The Real World, Daria, ABC's All My Children, and "Save the Planet: A CBS/Hard Rock Cafe Special".

In 2010, Vincent teamed with his longtime songwriting partner, Parthenon Huxley, and released a single, "Dirty Girl", as the duo Huxley & Vincent. The song quickly went into the Top 10 on Amazon's Glam Rock charts.

Event Stays Downtown During Main Street Construction

 

Rochester will again host one of the nation’s largest green/wellness events. The Green Living Festival will move from spring to the first weekend of summer (June 22-24) but will be staying at its downtown location during road construction that will close Main Street.
 
City Manager, Jaymes Vettraino, welcomes the event’s return during the “Main Street Makeover”. “A green-living event downtown has become one of the highlights of the spring in Rochester and we are very happy to have it return for a fourth year.  It is a great opportunity for residents and visitors to come downtown to enjoy the event and check out the Makeover project.”

 

The proposed construction detour borders the festival site, a 60,000 square foot vacant lot at Water and Third Streets, and will bring thousands of vehicles past the festival. “We expect to gain a great deal of local awareness of the event”, said John Batdorf, General Manager of MI Green Team. “Four years ago we moved the event from Oakland University to ‘Main Street’ and ended up a block away. This year ‘Main Street’ is coming to us.”

 

The three-day festival will again feature 200+ exhibits, 50+ presentations, activities for all ages, and many special events. Admission is free and open to the public. Information is available on-line at www.MIGLF.com.

 

"It is an honor to welcome back to Downtown Rochester, the Green Living Festival. It is more important than ever to work together to help solve today's complicated environmental and economic problems through education, innovation and long term sustainability strategies. This festival combines all three and it is a wonderful community event,” added Marilyn Trent, Rochester DDA Board Member and Chair of its Green City Committee.

 

With the promise of warmer weather, more local and media exposure, and improvements in layout and programming, MI Green Team is planning for a return of the large crowds that attended the event prior to last year’s weather-affected attendance.

2012 Green Living Festival Announced

Summer Dates Promise Warmer Weather

For the 7th year running, one of the nation’s largest green/wellness events will be held in Rochester, MI.  For the first time, the event will held during the summer - June 22-24.

Once again the event will be held at Third & Water Streets and will feature over 200 displays and exhibits located at 10 venues, over 50 free presentations from green & healthy living experts, great food, drinks and music at the Party for the Planet, and fun activities for all ages. Several special events will be presented including the MI Green Hall of Fame awards ceremony.

Several significant improvements are planned for the festival:

• better scheduling to improve prospects for warmer weather and attendance
  
• expanded marketing including more advertising and major media partners
• improved entertainment and educational programming
• several enhancements to the layout including closer proximity between venues, and better exhibit arrangement to improve foot-traffic flow
  

With these improvements and exposure to over 40,000 daily vehicle traffic detoured from Main Street construction traffic, event organizers are planning for a much larger crowd of over 50,000 attendees this year.

For further information about and to register for the event ,visit www.miglf.com.