Whole Earth Festival turns 50: UC Davis event continues tradition of good vibrations

Casey Evans has been coming to the Whole Earth Festival at UC Davis for as long as he can remember. But his mom has been coming even longer.

“My mom went to Davis, and she came to the first one in ’69 and she’s gone every year since,” Evans said.

That’s a total of 50 years. The Whole Earth Festival marked this anniversary with the same kind of positive energy and good vibrations festival regulars like Evans and his mother have come to expect.

The student-run event runs Friday through Sunday each Mother’s Day weekend. Evans said his mom would be in town Sunday to hang out with him at the festival. On Saturday, Evans attended with his girlfriend, Tu Nguyen, a fourth-year student at UC Davis.

“I never got a face paint before!” Nguyen said. “So he was like, ‘You have to get one.’”

The gathering bursts with joyful festival favorites such as face painting, airbrush tattoos and hair braiding. But the artwork and artisan vendors that line the quad are what make the festival special.

Angela Dallas, a Modesto-based artist, is a newcomer to Whole Earth. She had heard about it for years, but had never been.

Her booth was filled with mixed-media artwork depicting African themes and images of everyday African life. She uses authentic, traditional African fabrics as well as elements like beads and sticks in her art.

“People really connect with the creativity,” Dallas said. “The vibe that I feel is just good. You see a diversity of people, a diversity of art. People seem to be genuinely decent.”

Art is the world from which the festival originated. In 1969, an art class hosted a project on the quad they called an “Art Happening,” with the goal of teaching visitors about activism, wellness and sustainability.

After the United Nations recognized Earth Day in 1970, the event was renamed the Whole Earth Festival. It now attracts tens of thousands of people over the course of every Mother’s Day weekend.

The original ethos of the event is still going strong at 50, too. The Whole Earth Festival emphasizes acceptance, sustainability, expression, community and inclusivity.

This means everything from water bottle refill stations instead of plastic bottles, to all-vegetarian food vendors catering to people of all ages and backgrounds, to an abundance of friendly dogs panting in the sun.

“They welcome everybody,” vendor Soledad Munoz said. “You meet a lot of interesting people, a lot of smart people and students, the young ones and the old ones.”

Munoz lives in Salinas but is from Mexico. She is a vendor selling wire-wrapped crystals, leather pieces and dream catchers handcrafted by her husband, Jesus Vasquez.

“My husband’s work comes from his heart and soul,” Munoz said. “It’s part of him and also his culture.” Her husband sat under their tent working on his craft as she spoke.

Three stages host live music and other performances throughout the weekend as well. One band singing “I’ve got soul, but I’m not a soldier” during their cover of The Killer’s “All These Things That I’ve Done” captured the mood of the event, with people clapping along to the beat.

While they sang, children gathered around a cart selling iridescent, colorful Dancing Wings, according to the cart’s label. The biggest challenge for kids at the festival seemed to be figuring out how to hold onto a homemade frozen pop and the glittering wings at the same time.

This story was originally published May 11, 2019 at 7:17 PM.