Earth Day Festivals don’t just happen in April anymore. This weekend, the second annual Venice Eco Fest is expected to attract more than 20,000 people to Venice Beach, Calif. The green-themed free music and arts festival, put together by the Venice Chamber of Commerce and Earth Day LA, features a solar-powered sound stage with bands, speakers, and belly dancers, 150+ exhibitors, and a cooperative community art exhibit.

When: Saturday, June 27, 10 am - 6 pm
Where: Venice Beach Plaza and Recreation area at the end of Windward Ave., Venice.

This year, the Eco Fest’s theme is green travel, fossil-fuel-free. Foodies will want to journey straight over to the international vegetarian food court, after a layover at the Fat Tire Beer Garden. Afterwards, attendees can listen to speakers and watch performers on the solar-powered stage, or simply mingle with all the other eco-curious neighbors at the fest.

At 12:30 pm, a “One Planet” Parade will begin its march, with Anjelica Huston and L.A. City Councilman Bill Rosendahl serving as Grand Marshals. Fellow paraders include the Jane Goodall “Roots and Shoots” Giant Peace Doves, Heal the Bay Aquarium children’s group in recyclable costumes, and many more organizations, performance groups, and activists.

Really want to get into the green travel theme? Join “The C.I.C.L.E. Goes to the Beach Ride” with your bicycle and “pedal along the byways and waterways that makes Venice such a unique community.” Meet at the parking lot of Danny’s Deli at 23 Windward Ave, Venice at 11 am to start riding at 11:30 am.

Don’t forget about the Green Girls Anniversary Bash and other eco-inspired events happening this weekend!

Image via Venice Eco Fest

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>> Support Trash for Teaching, an eco-nonprofit that upcycles discarded stuff into educational materials and projects. Trash for Teaching’s benefit event Let’s Talk Trash, which’ll feature appetizers and half-priced drinks, happens Thurs., June 25 from 6 pm - 9 pm at Rush Street, 9546 Washington Blvd., Culver City. Cover: $20, all of which goes to Trash for Teaching programs. RSVP to kathy@trashforteaching.org.

>> This month’s Car Free Fridays event will “spotlight roads we want prioritized in the Bike Plan, painted with Sharrows in and around Silverlake and Echo Park,” according to the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition. Meet at 8 am at Sunset Junction at the corner of Sandborn and Sunset on Friday, June 26, 8 am.

>> NorthEast Trees will have a Tree Planting & Community Day of Service — plus a citrus tree adoption for L.A. residents — on Sat., June 27, from 8 am - 1 pm at 850 N. Mission St., Los Angeles. Contact Simran at simran@northeasttrees.org for more info. Update: Mayor Villaraigosa will be a-planting here.

>> Diverted Destruction 2, a second annual recycled art show, will have its opening reception on Sat., June 27 from 7 pm - 11 pm at The Loft at Liz’s, 453 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles.

>> A second green exhibit’s happening Saturday: Conservation photographer Robert McGinley’s exhibit “Topography, Light and Magic” will feature photographs of threatened wetlands, woodlands, farmland and prairies — with sales from the exhibit benefiting Heal the Bay and Santa Monica Baykeeper. The opening reception happens Sat., June 27 from 6 pm - 9 pm at Blue Seven Gallery, 3129 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica.

>> Get ready for the Los Angeles Business Council 3rd Annual Sustainability Summit (PDF). Dubbed “Building a Green Economy, Transportation & Innovation,” speakers this year include U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa, and leaders from LA DWP, Metro, and green companies. It all happens on Mon., June 29, from 7:30 am - 3 pm in the Harold M. Williams Auditorium at The Getty. Register online. Cost: $135 - $300 per ticket.

Image via theloftatlizs.com

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Want to party at Ecco Lounge, the eco-friendly Hollywood club, while dancing drinking organic vodka cocktails with 200 other environmentalists? Then clear your Saturday night for the The Green Girls’ 1-year anniversary bash!

When: Sat., June 27 from 9:30 pm - 1:30 am
Where: Ecco Ultra Lounge, 1640 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Los Angeles
Cost: $15 — an unspecified portion of which’ll benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. RSVP online!

Dress to impress! Rob Patterson from KORN will DJ — and you’ll get to meet the girls behind The Green Girls, a bloggy, vloggy website that’s self-described as being “all about finding the fun in living green.”

And one lucky green LA girl reader can win a pair of tickets to the party! Comment on this post by midnight TODAY; drawing happens tomorrow, Thurs., June 25.

Image via thegreengirls.tv

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The real estate market may have crashed but a whole bunch of green homes will be built — in time for the Dwell on Design show next weekend, Fri. June 26 - Sun., June 28, at the L.A. Convention Center. The modern design show will showcase the latest ideas in eco-friendly living — and rather unexpectedly, the latest yummy debates about sustainable food and dining.

That’s right — Dwell on Design will feature Square Meal, an entire series of events and exhibits dedicated to food. Up for discussion will be “The Gestalt of Meat,” victory gardens and farmers’ markets, and the perfect way to cook an egg. Plus, attendees will be able to nosh on healthy sustainable eats from Locali, Let’s Be Frank, and Green Truck.

But the main attraction, of course, will be eco-design. Look through the event website, and you’ll likely see a bunch of green houses you’d like to call home. Minimalists can ogle the miniHome from Sustain Design Studio and its compact sustainable design. Upcyclers will love Reclaimed Space’s rustic modern structure built with reclaimed materials. And everyone can check out all these green structures in person at Dwell on Design’s Dwell Outdoor exhibit, described as “a “pop-up” community, ready to see, touch, and inspire.”

Sustainability Forums — a series of speakers and panels focused on environmental design issues — will happen all Saturday and Sunday, covering everything from “Water Efficient Green Plumbing Design” to “Cultivating Green and Gardens in the City.” The Home Tours — one each for L.A.’s eastside and westside, feature many sustainably designed modern homes. Even the special Night at the Movies event on Saturday will feature an eco-inspired film — The Greening of Southie — “about Boston’s first residential green building, and the men and women who set out to construct it.”

Dwell on Design tickets range from $25 for general admission to the exhibit and forums — and go up to $849 for the Dwell VIP Passport that includes the Friday conference, home tours, social events and a dinner. Sadly, I won’t be able to see the show myself because I’ll be in Atlanta, visiting MNN. I’ll visit vicariously through you –

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You don’t have to be a surfer to get in on the International Surfing Day festivities. In fact, eco-videographers, garbage sculptors, and even trash collectors can win big!

International Surfing Day events will happen around the world — including at all 70 Surfrider Foundation chapter locations — on Sat. June 20. In SoCal, we’ve got events at Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington, Long Beach, Malibu, and lots of other spots, with attractions ranging from Polynesian dancing to free yoga classes to surfing demos.

Besides community cleanups and other local activities, the day means a huge wave of eco-challenges for participants, who can get prizes for all manner of eco actions. Find the “Most Unique Piece of Trash” or “Make the Best Trash Skateboard” or ride the greenest “Eviro-board” and your unique eco-talents could win you nice things. Prizes include “a Reef “head to toe” Prize Pack” to “a complete Sector 9 skateboard” and much more.

Find an event near you — and get more details on the challenges — at the International Surfing Day website.

Also happening this weekend: Bananas! screening at L.A. Film Festival and everything from free prosecco to free pilates.

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Show your “Bananas” and we’ll sue! That’s what Dole Food Co.’s threatening in its efforts to halt the screening of a film that critiques its business practices.

While Angelenos unpeeled the socio-political history of the banana through participatory art at the Fallen Fruit exhibit on Tuesday, more socio-political banana history was being created in L.A. around the Los Angeles Film Festival.

The fruity battle’s over “Bananas!*: A Case Study”, a documentary made by Fredrik Gertten about the legal clash between Nicaraguan banana plantation workers and Dole. The story follows the workers’ taking on a multinational company for spraying the pesticide dibromochloropropane, stuff that’s been banned in the U.S. since 1979, according to the L.A. Times, and stuff that the workers say made them sterile. However, the story’s apparently more complicated than portrayed in “Bananas!” Reports the L.A. Times:

In a 2007 jury trial before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Victoria G. Chaney, Dole lost and was ordered to pay $1.58 million to four of the dozen Nicaraguans claiming injury in that case, several of whom are depicted in Gertten’s film. Dole is appealing that case.

Then this spring, in a dramatic reversal of events, Chaney threw out two other lawsuits against Dole after being presented by Dole investigators with evidence gathered from Nicaraguans who said that they had been recruited and coached by lawyers, outfitted with false work histories and falsified medical lab reports, and promised payouts to pose as pesticide victims.

Because “Bananas!” was finished before this spring, the film doesn’t cover the new developments. Still, many environmental and social justice activists are weighing in with their own opinions. The Fair Food Fight blog, for example, argues that one bad lawyer’s actions doesn’t change the reality of Dole’s use of the harmful pesticides — and their consequences (via Small Farmers):

Dole acknowledges that it used a devastating pesticide (called DBCP and known by friends as “nemagon”) in banana planations in Nicaragua, the Philippines, Honduras, the Ivory Coast, Costa Rica, and other banana-growing countries, and that that pesticide in all likelihood caused sterility in thousands of male banana plantation workers, miscarriages in women, and other serious health effects back into the mid-seventies…..

Dow Chemical, the producer of DBCP, said it wouldn’t sell the pesticide to Dole anymore because the chemical was too dangerous…. Dole threatened Dow Chemical with a breach-of-contract lawsuit if it didn’t keep selling the chemical to the fruit company (from the book Banana by Dan Koeppel)…. Dole has settled quite a few of these farm worker cases out of court.

For now, the LA Film Festival has moved “Bananas!” from the “competition” to the “case study” category, with a promise that “the festival screenings will be prefaced by a statement, written and delivered by festival organizers, that the organizers intend to place the controversy surrounding the film in context,” then “followed by a discussion of the issues the movie raises.”

Dole, however, is still threatening defamation lawsuits. Assuming the screens go on as planned, you can watch “Bananas!” on Sat, Jun 20 at 7:30 pm at James Bridges Theater, or Tue, Jun 23, at 9:15 pm at Landmark 8. Tickets cost $12 each.

Earlier:  My review of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World

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>> The Environmental Protection Agency will hold a public hearing on the proposal to cut toxic air pollution from cement kilns. Earthjustice wants you to learn more about this pollution issue and speak up at the meeting — or at least comment online. See if there’s a kiln near you, then get to the hearing — happening until 8 pm tonight, June 16 at Wilshire Grand Hotel, 930 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.

>> Metro wants you to observe National Dump the Pump Day, happening Thurs., June 18.

>> Some Old Rubies is having a sample sale of uniquely customized vintage dresses and accessories. Get up to 75% off fashions while enjoying prosecco and vegan sweets on Sat., June 20 and Sun., June 21, from 10 am - 6 pm both days at Some Old Rubies, 8024 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles.

>> Organic burger joint O!burger’s celebrating its 1-year anniversary with raffle giveaways, organic vendor samples, eco-friendly face-painting for kids, free massages, and a pilates demonstration. Food and drinks’ll be 15% off all day, so go hungry on Sun., June 21 from noon - 3 pm to O!burger, 8593 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood.

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Gay marriage is the hot topic du jour in California — and now a new event hopes to marry the LGBT community with environmentalism. The L.A. Pride Festival, happening this weekend in West Hollywood, will feature a brand new Green With Pride “interactive eco-space” with information for sustainable living, and of course, eco-friendly products for sale.

Put together by New Avenue Marketing and Enfluence Group, Green With Pride’s signed on nonprofits like the U.S. Green Building Council and Global Green to help educate the festival attendees about living green and proud — as well as many eco-minded companies, selling everything from solar power systems to eco-skin care regimens. Singer/actress Deborah Cox’s been brought in as the“National Green With Pride Ambassador; she’ll perform on Sat., June 13 from 5 pm - 6 pm.

If you’re going to the festival, check out Carbonfund-offset Green With Pride area next to the main stage on June 13 and 14. Won’t be able to make it to the L.A. event? Then just wait a month to see Green with Pride at the San Diego Gay Pride Festival, July 18-19.

Earlier: Green weekender: River BBQ, vegan cookie sale, recycled billboard drop

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The banana as we know it may soon be gone — but the fruit’s tortuous history and complicated reputation keeps inspiring art and activism. In Los Angeles, a new educational exhibition and playful performance called United Fruit will soon unpeel “the social, political, and pop history of the banana – from a gold mine of global capitalism to the media manipulation of a comic and erotic symbol.”

That exhibition’s the brainchild of the artist collective Fallen Fruit, a trio of urban fruit enthusiasts who merge fruit with community, environmentalism, art, and activism. In Los Angeles, fruits of trees that hang over public property are legally free game — and Fallen Fruit’s used this rule to organize everything from nocturnal fruit forages to fruit jams.

This month, Fallen Fruit takes its inspiration from the collective’s recent trip to Colombia — where Chiquita paid off murderous paramilitary groups as part of its business practices — for its United Fruit exhibition at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE).

Everyone’s invited to the United Fruit opening, which will include a participatory performance called “Are You Happy To See Me?“: “Hundreds of bananas will be brought in for guests to eat and photograph themselves playing with this often comical or suggestive fruit.” The delicious games will be played on Tues., June 16 from 8 pm - 10 pm at LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions), 6522 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles. The exhibit runs June 17 to Sept. 27, 2009.

For more on the complex and scary past and future of bananas, read my review of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World by Dan Koeppel — and follow fair trade company Equal Exchange’s current series of blog posts on bananas.

Image via Fallen Fruit

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Plan for it now, since this weekend’s going to be busy:

>> The next monthly Green Business Networking happens Tues., June 9 from 6 pm - 9 pm at The Ambrose Hotel, 1255 20th St., Santa Monica. There’ll be green entrepreneurs, desperate job seekers, and organic food and drinks. Cost: $10. Earlier: About GBN.

>> The next Westside Permaculture Gathering will revisit the 100 Gardens Challenge event to see where to go from here. Bring food for a potluck and your own reusable utensils on Tues., June 9 at 6:30 pm to the Multipurpose room of the Santa Monica Main Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica. See you there!

>> LA River Community Cleanup includes a mini-fair and post-cleanup BBQ! Join volunteers from Heal the Bay, Pacific American Volunteer Association (PAVA), Anahuak, Urban Semillas and Council District 13 on Sat., June 13 from 9 am - noon. For more info, contact PAVA at pava@pavausa.com.

>> Serious yogis: Take a free yoga teacher training info session — including a short class and a Q&A — with Santa Monica Yoga. The class happens Sat., June 13, 11:45 am - 1 pm at at 1640 Ocean Park Blvd., Santa Monica. RSVP required to Santa Monica Yoga at 310.396.4040.

>> Learn about the pending water allocations from Santa Monica’s water efficiency expert. The talk, which according to the organizers “will explain how water allocations will affect you, steps to start living a water wise lifestyle and funding opportunities to help you get started,” happens Sat., June 13 from 1 pm at the Fairview Branch of the Santa Monica Library, 2101 Ocean Park Blvd., Santa Monica.

>> New art on a recycled billboard will be revealed above the Eco-LogicalArt Gallery during Second Saturday at Eco-LA. The free opening event happens on Sat., June 13 from 6 pm - 10 pm at Eco-LogicalART Gallery, 4829 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. See you there!

>> The 3rd annual No Cookie Left Behind Bake Sale will even feature vegan cookies this year, thanks to eco-foodies at Spork Foods. The events part of Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale; proceeds go towards fighting childhood hunger in the United States. Go ready to eat on Sun., June 14, from 2 pm - 6 pm at Scoops, 712 N Heliotrope Dr., East Hollywood. (Thanks for the info, Tannaz)

Images via Heal the Bay and No Cookie Left Behind

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