Important Update: Earth Day Celebration
For several years, The Environmental Center has been proud to bring together our community to celebrate Earth Day with our annual Fair and Parade. It’s a time to honor the Earth, celebrate culture, learn about sustainable practices, and take meaningful action as a community. We’ve always been excited to see the spirit of collaboration between local businesses, nonprofits, families, community groups, and environmental advocates come together in a truly special way.
This year, we’re making an important change to our Earth Day Celebration. After careful consideration, we have made the collective decision to not host the parade through downtown Bend as part of this year’s event. This decision comes after facing significant challenges in organizing the parade, including increasingly complex coordination with the City of Bend and drastic increases in City permit fees, new and required street closure protocols, safety concerns for volunteers, and difficulties in securing enough volunteers to manage the parade safely and effectively.
While we won’t have a parade this year, we are committed to making the Earth Day Fair even more impactful and exciting. We are focusing our energy on enhancing the fair experience by offering more interactive activities, educational workshops, local vendors, and opportunities for people of all ages to connect with the environmental causes they care about. We’re also introducing new ways to engage youth, families, and community members to make this event one you won’t want to miss!
We still want to keep the spirit of the parade alive! We encourage all attendees to wear their Earth Day costumes as they did for the parade in years past. We will be hosting a Costume Promenade during the Earth Day Fair—a fun and festive way for everyone to show off their creativity and environmental pride!
We deeply appreciate your support and understanding as we work through these challenges. The heart of our Earth Day Celebration remains the same: fostering a sense of unity, inspiring action, and creating a future where we can all thrive together. We hope you’ll join us on Saturday, April 26th, 2025, for a day of celebration, learning, and community connection.
Thank you for your continued dedication to protecting our planet. We can’t wait to see you at this year’s Earth Day Fair!