Help us be GREEN at the 2025 Festival!
The Chain of Parks Art Festival Going Green initiative continues for its 9th year!
Festivals offer vibrant cultural experiences, but they can also generate significant waste that impacts the environment. The Chain of Parks Art Festival is committed to reducing landfill waste and continually builds on our greening efforts each year. We strive to make our event as eco-friendly as possible by promoting sustainability and responsible waste management.
We prohibit styrofoam and work to minimize single-use plastics whenever possible. This year, in partnership with Community Partner, Imperial Dade, we’ve invited Festival food vendors to pre-order eco-friendly food and beverage disposables. Imperial Dade is also supplying sustainable products for our Behind the Scenes and VIP Experience areas. Additionally, volunteers collect leftover food for local donations.
In partnership with Sustainable Tallahassee, judges select a piece of artwork from our participating artists for the “Recycled Content Award”. Sustainable Tallahassee also has an information booth in the Community Corner, along with Rags2Bags (where you can get a FREE reusable tote bag). Don’t forget to stop by to see their Electric Cars on display on Tunnicliff Lane.
We are also excited to partner with Tallahassee State College’s Wakulla Environmental Institute to make the Festival even greener! WEI will be providing composting services for food waste during the Festival in our Behind the Scenes & VIP Experience areas, helping us reduce our environmental impact and promote sustainability in our community.
How can you help?
Bring a refillable water bottle to the festival and refill it at the City of Tallahassee free water refill station, saving you from having to purchase bottled water. If you do, you can enter a raffle to win a FREE festival water bottle from the Sourvenir tent.
Parking can be tricky, so grab some friends and carpool to the Festival! 
You’ll save time, help the planet, and have more fun together!
Dispose of your food and beverage containers in the recycling bins clearly marked for recyclables.
Visit the Community Partners in the Community Corner and Pop-Up Studios in the Children’s Park to do eco-friendly crafts and learn about how to live a more sustainable life. Don’t forget your reusable tote bag to fill with all of your Festival goodies.
Recycled Content Award
The Festival awards a $300 cash prize, sponsored by Sustainable Tallahassee, to an exhibiting artist for a singular piece of original artwork, created using at least 75% post-consumer use/recycled/re-used materials.
The intention is to recognize the potential green use of thrown-away materials to create fine art. Review Award Criteria
Chain of Parks and Sustainable Tallahassee recognized for Going Green
ReThink Energy Florida: Kelly Dozier, Festival Chair, was the 2016 Energy Innovator award winner for her leadership in greening the festival.
Recycle Florida Today: Sustainable Tallahassee was the 2017 Environmental Sustainability award winner for their efforts with greening events, especially Chain of Parks Art Festival.
Sustainable Florida: Sustainable Tallahassee and Chain of Parks were together finalists in the 2016 Best Practice Awards for their partnership with greening the festival.
The Chain of Parks Art Festival was recognized by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for our recycling efforts! The festival’s recycling rate for the 2018 festival was 72.06%! Thank you Sustainable Tallahassee for being a partner with our festival to help us go green!
2023 Greening Efforts:
- We worked with Compost Community to collect our food waste from the VIP and Behind the Scenes areas.
- Food vendors donated their leftovers to Food Not Bombs at the end of each day.
- The City’s Waterwagon was available, don’t forget your reusable water bottle next year!
- Visitors stopped by the Rags2Bags booth to get their free reusable tote to carry all of their new purchases.
- Sustainable Tallahassee had 3 Community Partner booths with greening information and an EV car display.
2022 Green Initiatives Included:
- Eliminated Styrofoam use
- Facilitated compost and recycling in the Behind the Scenes and VIP areas
- Reduced food waste by collecting and donating leftovers from our food vendors to local non-profits
- Collaborated with the City’s TAPP program to produce a rain barrel public art project and support 8 local artists
- Had four educational booths relating to sustainability
- Visitors had access to the City’s water wagon to reduce single-use plastic water bottles
2022 Project:
The 2022 Chain of Parks Art Festival, in partnership with the City of Tallahassee’s TAPP program, commissioned 8 artists to use their artistic talents to decorate repurposed rain barrels for a public art project in downtown Tallahassee! These painted rain barrels were on display for the month of April, leading up to the Festival weekend, April 23 & 24, 2022 and were auctioned off at the festival as a fundraiser for LeMoyne Arts.
Participating Artists:
Dan Taylor, Gena McDaniel, Quia Atkinson, Lakey Love, Honey Hilliard, Pattie Maney, Marcia Mcauliffe, and Caroline Manuel.
