This April 18th-20th join the nation’s largest celebration of Earth Day at the Green Apple Music Festival’s free outdoor concerts in 8 cities’ parks across the US: New York (Central Park), Washington, D.C. (the National Mall), Chicago (Lincoln Park Zoo), Miami (Bicentennial Park), Denver (City Park), Dallas (Fair Park), San Francisco (Golden Gate Park) and Los Angeles (Santa Monica Pier).

The Festival’s mission is to raise the profile of Earth Day, and to raise awareness of environmental issues. According to their website, each concert site will invite non-profit environmentally friendly organizations to promote new technology and products. “We use the music to get people there in a family-friendly environment,” says Green Apple Festival founder and executive producer Peter Shapiro. “Then they can learn about simple things they can do to improve their impact on the earth.”

In partnership with the Earth Day Network, a non-profit organization created by the originators of the first Earth Day in 1970, the Green Apple Festival is greening all its venues to produce as little a carbon impact as possible, taking initiatives such as a zero waste goal, mandating a paperless event, using organic cotton T’s for their volunteers, using biodiesel generators for power, and serving organic foods. They’ve also planned the events to be accessible by public transit, bicycle, or walking, and have used the cities landmark parks as their backdrop to celebrate the day. For the emissions that are produced, the Festival is working with NativeEnergy to offset its carbon impact.

Last year’s Festival was considered the largest carbon-neutral event of its kind, held in New York, San Francisco, and Chicago. This year the event has expanded dramatically, not only to the eight major concerts around the country, but also to include 150 club events in the days leading up to the Festival, supporting the venues to adopt greener practices, and encouraging more than 1,000 bands to speak publicly about environmental issues at their gigs.

Featured artists last year included Bob Weir & Ratdog, the Decemberists, Taylor Hicks, Stephen Marley and the Kaiser Chiefs, and many others, and this year’s line up promises big acts at all 8 free concerts.

So hop on your bikes, grab your friends, and chill in the park to some good tunes to celebrate our beautiful planet, and be a part of the largest Earth Day gathering in US history!

For concert details and locations, visit the Green Apple Music Festival’s website: http://www.greenapplemusicfestival.com/