green_is_greater The Green Is Greater Festival, an opportunity for the often-fragmented environmental movement to unite during a day of music, art and message-carrying (oh, and also what ought to be a pretty lucrative 50-50 drawing) will be held Sept. 18 at The Gaslamp restaurant from noon to 6 p.m.

Although the musical lineup has not been finalized, bands that have committed to play include The Potential Lunatics, The Evolution Theory, Heavy Water and Pete March.

Greater Long Beach is partnering with The Gaslamp and Heather Altman of the environmental blog EgretsNotRegrets.com to present the Green Is Greater Festival, which has already drawn support from environmental organizations ranging from Friends of the Colorado Lagoon to Compassionate Cuisine to El Dorado Audubon to the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust.

The early buy-in seems significant. The way the term “environmentalist community” gets thrown around, well, you’d almost think there is one. Not so much, really. Sure, the tree-huggers may be generally sympathetic to the precarious existence of the wandering skipper—that’s a coastal wetlands butterfly—and the people fighting to save the whales may hope the western yellow-billed cuckoo gets saved, too. But ultimately the environmentalist community is a collection of some distinct and territorial tribes—most of them competing to attract public attention and financial support.

The Green Is Greater Festival intends to merge some of those divergent paths. Environmentally oriented groups from throughout the region are invited to set up booths —for free, table included—to distribute information, solicit volunteers, collect donations…whatever…while bands play, arts-and-crafters peddle and a certain bunch collects around the TVs to watch college football.

Children? Bring ‘em. A kids’ crafts corner will keep them occupied.

About that 50/50 drawing: tickets are $5 and the winner keeps half the pot—then  gets to choose which of the environmental organizations in attendance gets the other half.

Other drawings throughout the day will distribute a wide variety of cool items. Half the proceeds from those drawings will go to the newly formed Egrets Not Regrets Scholarship Fund. The other half goes to a participating environmental organization via another drawing.

Additionally, The Gaslamp will donate 10 percent of its food-and-drink sales to attending organizations.

Want a booth? Contact 

Booth information: EgretsNotRegrets@gmail.com

GREEN IS GREATER FESTIVAL AT THE GASLAMP • THE GASLAMP RESTAURANT & BAR • 6251 E. PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY (AT LOYNES DRIVE) • LONG BEACH 90803 • 562.596.4718 • SAT SEPT 18, NOON TO 6PM • FREE