03.04.26 HOPE Festival in Brewer
The first HOPE Festival was held in Bangor in l995 and featured Helen Nearing, who with her husband Scott were leaders in the back-to-the-earth homesteading movement. A standing room only crowd listened to then 91 year old Helen Nearing urge “Live simply and frugally with an eye to the needs of the others to come”.
The free HOPE Festival was designed to celebrate Earth Day and to honor those who care for the environment, but it broadened to include honoring and celebrating the variety of ways groups are working to meet the needs of their communities. Organizations and members of the community come together to share information and affirm the unified power of the multi-faceted efforts to challenge and provide alternatives to corporate power, poverty, militarism and environmental destruction.
The HOPE Festival has been coordinated by the Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine and co-sponsored by the University of Maine’s Peace and Reconciliation Studies Program and other businesses and organizations and powered by dozens of volunteers.
Read MoreThe free HOPE Festival was designed to celebrate Earth Day and to honor those who care for the environment, but it broadened to include honoring and celebrating the variety of ways groups are working to meet the needs of their communities. Organizations and members of the community come together to share information and affirm the unified power of the multi-faceted efforts to challenge and provide alternatives to corporate power, poverty, militarism and environmental destruction.
The HOPE Festival has been coordinated by the Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine and co-sponsored by the University of Maine’s Peace and Reconciliation Studies Program and other businesses and organizations and powered by dozens of volunteers.
