Kermit the Frog sings that it’s not easy being green — but it can be a lot of fun, and the seventh annual Aurora GreenFest is set to show you how with an upgraded, kid-friendly event June 11 in Aurora.

“Parents bring your kids. Kids bring your parents,” said Mavis Bates, founder and organizer of free festival that celebrates sustainability and living green.

“We are excited to make this year’s Aurora GreenFest the best ever,” Bates said. “Every GreenFest is different from the last, as our community evolves in how we respond to the needs of our environment and our goals for sustainability. We love bringing our community together to celebrate our planet.”

The seventh-annual Aurora GreenFest takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 11, 2016, at Prisco Community Center and McCullough Park at 150 W. Illinois Ave. in Aurora. Aurora GreenLights, an affiliate of the Conservation Foundation, organizes the festival, and the Dunham Fund is a major sponsor of this year’s festival, in accordance with John C. Dunham’s dream of “making the world a more comfortable, safer place for mankind to live and prosper.”

This year, GreenFest welcome The Resiliency Institute, dedicated to teaching communities how to prepare for economic, social, and environmental change through permaculture. Resiliency is a new concept in environmentalism and sustainability: the ability of a system to bounce back from a disturbance, such as pollution or climate change, and find new and betters ways to thrive.

The 2016 GreenFest features everything from environmentally-friendly lifestyles to green products and is full of great ideas about how to help ourselves and the planet through our own daily actions. It’s got nature exhibits with bats, eagles, bees, skunks and other creatures, live music and local food and uses green-friendly energy sources that show ways to save money and save the world at the same time.

Other great exhibits include:

• A bike, car and truck show featuring electric vehicles, including a new Tesla, a Nissan Leaf, and a Chevy Volt, and the Fox Valley Electric Auto Association.
• A Kids Eco-village with games, crafts and recycled art projects. Kids teaching kids.
• A local market and trade show with more than 100 exhibitors
• Local organic farmers

Where to Park

Aurora Township will be providing shuttle bus service from various parking lots around the downtown area. Please look for “Event Parking” signs at these locations:

• Lot W. This is across the street from Rocktown Adventures. Pick up will be at the kayak store at 107 Spruce St.
• Aurora Transportation Center. This lot will be the site of the Aurora Farmers’ Market. You can attend the GreenFest and the Farmers’ Market all in one day and with one parking spot! Pick-up will be at the “Kiss and Ride” area.
• Aurora Township Office Parking Lot. Pick-up will be at the entrance to the parking lot just south of the Township office.
• City Parking, south of the Aurora Township Office. Pick-up will be at the entrance to the parking lot.
• City Garage at northwest corner of Illinois and Route 25. Pick-up point will be at the parking lot entrance.
• Fox Valley Park District Cole Center. This is across the street from McCullough Park and the Prisco Community Center. You may want to walk. Pick-up will be near the front door of the Cole Center.

What to Bring

• We are NOT doing electronic recycling this year. For locations of other recycling facilities please go to this page on the Kane County Recycles website.
• Kane County Recycles will be holding its Recycling Extravaganza the same day as the GreenFest, on June 11. Kane County will NOT be taking electronics, either. Please go the Kane County website to find out what items are on the recycling list.
• Please bring all of these things to the GreenFest:
  • These are for Mutual Ground clients. The phones are programmed to call 911 in case of an emergency.
  • Medications: Fox Metro Water Reclamation District will be doing a medication take-back inside.
  • Gently used women’s business clothing. These are being collected by the Aurora Actionnaires for women in need to use for job interviews.
  • Dart will be collecting Foam #6 (sometimes called Styrofoam).
  • Used Books: American Association of University Women.

For more information, visit auroragreenfest.com!

SOURCE: GreenFest 2016 news release