Live Philly Festival to Help Make Philadelphia the Next Great City

It's no secret that lately, Philadelphia has been focusing more on its "greener" side - especially in the wake of the Democratic primary race for the Mayor of Philadelphia, and the recent report done by The Next Great City initiative, which cited a 10-point agenda for cleaning up the city (click here to watch the video of The Next Great City Mayoral Forum on February 15th, where the 10-point agenda was introduced). And now that it's summer, the potential to get the word out is even greater with outdoors concerts and festivals highlighting the topic.

One such festival is Live Philly -- the brainchild of two Temple University students - sophomore, Kiriko Brindley and junior, Kristen Ide.

"Live Philly is a festival during which regional musicians and speakers will perform to raise awareness of social and environmental sustainability in Philadelphia," Brindley said. "Between band's sets, sustainability-minded individuals will give brief speeches to share ideas about sustainable philosophy, technology, sociology, and politics with the audience."

For those unfamiliar with the term, sustainability simply means a dedication to meeting the needs of present-day society while trying not to compromise the ability of future societies to do so. While sustainability relates to the continuity of economic, social, institutional and environmental aspects of society; the end result is ultimately a better looking and better functioning society that works with its "green" side instead of shunning it, or looking at it as another problem to take care of.

Live Philly will be held on July 7, 2007, from 2:00 to 9:00 PM in Philadelphia's famous Love Park. Speakers at the event include T. Dorje Immanuel -- a spoken word activist and student at the Art Institute; Paul Glover - a member of the Philadelphia Orchard Project; and representatives from the PennFuture and Philly Car Share organizations.