AMHERST — When UMass Permaculture organizes its weekly student farmers markets in spring and fall, vendors interested in selling their wares must act fast to scoop up the limited number of spots.

But on Friday, there was no limit to the amount of organizations, sellers and vendors that piled onto the Goodell Lawn to celebrate the joy of sustainability and spring. Students could walk through a Thrift Village of dozens of student-run thrift stores, take a photo under Stockbridge Floral Design’s flower photobooth with a handmade bouquet, purchase some vegetable seedlings from the Student Farm and finish by shopping a large selection of hand-made plushies, jewlery, crystals, and upcycled trinkets.

“That’s why we call it an extravaganza,” campus sustainability manager Ezra Small said. “It’s not just a farmers market, it’s everyone on campus.”

UMass Earth Day Extravaganza is an annual event celebrating sustainability, conservation and climate activism throughout the UMass community. Planned by by UMass Permaculture, Sustainable UMass, and the Student Government Association, this style of sustainability celebration took shape in 2023 when a student named Adam Fink decided that the campus’s yearly Earth Day events should not only celebrate sustainability on campus, but also simply be a fun day for students, campus sustainability manager Daniel Bensonoff said.

“This is a celebration of climate positively,” Laurie Simmons, an assistant campus sustainability manager, said. “With all the negative news and doom surrounding climate change, this is meant to be a positive event in the community showing what we’ve created.”

This year’s extravaganza was the biggest one yet, with 180 vendors, and the size isn’t the only difference this year. As the Trump administration continues to slash funding for  executive departments regulating ecosystems and roll back environmental protections, “it’s all the more important that this is established,” said Liana Rosenblum, UMass Permaculture student coordinator.

“We’re already building a space that students can come to learn about creative climate solutions,” Rosenblum said.

A key part of these climate solutions, Bensonoff​ said, are “eco-renewers,” a term for vendors and businesses that offer alternatives to mass-produced material goods. The various crocheted stuffed animals can replace the trendy Squishmellos at Target. Students can purchase locally raised meats from the Stockbridge Livestock Program instead of poultry and beef from large-scale farms. Thifted, upcycled or repaired clothing creates a circular fashion economy that rejects the fast fashion industry.

“Our whole point is to make sustainable fashion and art accessible to the student body,” said Lynn Jang. “So the fact that you can just walk by, that it’s really close, especially for people without transportation.”

However, students who want more than clothing to wear or a decoration for their dorm could visit the many sustainability-centered student clubs, like the Sunrise Movement, Forestry Club or Reproductive Justice Club. Sustainable UMass tabled at the extravaganza to sign up volunteers for the New2U program, a move-out program that collects donated or rejected  items from students during move-out and sells them to students at a tag sale the following fall semester. Recently, the program expanded to a permanent thrift store in the Hampden residential hall.

Nearly every aspect of the festival is filled with whimsy, from the bike-powered blender churning out smoothies, to the North Atlantic right whale inflatable named Walter who sits under MassPIRG’s large tent. With only 360 right whales left in the wild, MassPIRG leads a campaign to persuade lawmakers to stand against “anti-ocean legislation” that could increase fishing and ship activity during right whale migration season. The Earth Day Extravaganza serves as the organization’s big push to raise awareness on this conservation issue and gather signatures on a petition to Congress.

“We have to make winds where we can and we can have fun while doing it,” Olson said. “I really think having an event like this brings the community together to show we can still appreciate the Earth, and here is also something tangible that you can do.”