The event featured local bands, vendors and artisans
By RACHEL GAUER— campus@theaggie.org
On Sunday, April 23, UC Davis’s Zero Waste and Sustainability Club partnered with the city of Davis to host an outdoor concert in Central Park. The concert was the club’s first large event and featured local bands, clubs and vendors.
Eva Barajas-Carmona, a third-year environmental science and management major and one of the co-presidents of the Zero Waste Club, talked about the first steps of making the concert come to life.
“This planning process took a while,” Barajas-Carmona said. “When we were talking to people about our club, we were already talking about a possible concert. We’ve had this idea for a while, and we really started to get into the planning process at the end of fall quarter. The city of Davis got involved and co-sponsored the event, and things really blossomed from there.”
The concert was held in Central Park in downtown Davis, which is not technically campus property. Kili Kato, a second-year marine and coastal sciences major, and the communications officer for the Zero Waste and Sustainability club, commented on how the club was able to successfully secure the venue.
“The city of Davis was more than helpful in the complicated process of getting the correct permits and paperwork for the event,” Kato said. “We were very fortunate [that] the city of Davis Sustainability Program offered to co-sponsor the event to help promote sustainability ideals in [the Davis] community.”
Amelia Swanson, a second-year design major and co-president of the club, described other partnerships with local groups that helped make the event possible.
“We’ve been reaching out to different local bands since January,” Swanson said. “We have also been attending the farmers market on Saturday mornings to find local artists, and we went downtown to talk to small shops like the Growing Groves.”
The concert lasted from 3-7 p.m. and featured five local bands: The Silver Lining, Baby at the Bar, First Name Basis, Decent Action and Cowboys After Dark.
For two of the featured bands — The Silver Lining and Baby at the Bar — the Zero Waste Concert was their first live show. Oscar Alonso, who is a songwriter, guitar player and singer for The Silver Lining, commented on his band’s first experience playing live at the event.
“It was nervewracking, but also great, and we had a lot of fun,” Alonso said. “We had our little trips but we recovered from them quickly and overall it was a really good experience. Davis is a really nice town, and this stage is so welcoming — I feel like the people here welcomed us with open arms.”
In addition to the bands, the event featured several local vendors and clubs that also attracted event-goers. The booths included local shops like Growing Groves, as well as UC Davis organizations, such as Aggie Trading Post and The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF).
The Aggie Trading Post, a sustainable clothing “trade-style” organization, is a portable thrift shop for clothes. Although they typically operate in a “trade-clothes-for-clothes” fashion, they encouraged concert-goers to pick a few pieces regardless of whether they had anything to give in return or not.
Additionally, TGIF tabled to advertise their fee referendum on the ASUCD spring election ballot. They provided flyers with QR codes leading directly to the voting website to encourage concert-goers to cast their vote this week.
Barajas-Camona reflected on the process of organizing the event and seeing it come together.
“We’ve been planning this for so long; it’s been a huge undertaking for every single officer,” Barajas-Carmona said. “To finally see all our hard work come to life is something I am so excited [about]. It really started as a small idea about six months ago and I can’t believe we made it happen.”
Written By: Rachel Gauer — campus@theaggie.org
