Music and environmental sustainability will join forces this weekend at Yellowhammer Festival, an event featuring local bands, art-making activities and different booths from local and campus organizations.

“A group of [Creative Campus] interns pitched the idea because we wanted to bring the festival experience to Tuscaloosa like a lot of other college towns have,” said Moira Quinn, a sophomore majoring in marketing and Creative Campus intern.

Creative Campus, an arts advocacy organization, will host the festival Saturday, April 19, from 1 to 5 p.m. at the The University of Alabama Arboretum.

Quinn said Yellowhammer Festival’s eco-friendly aspects and the deep focus on creative sustainability sets it apart from other festivals.  

“We have Greekfest, which is a great event, but we wanted to bring a daytime festival type event to UA,” she said.

Ben Tomlin, a senior majoring in public relations and project leader for the festival, said the event is the largest Creative Campus has hosted this year.

“The partners we invited to join, including Eco, RecycleBama, Sassafras and more, are all eco-friendly,” he said.

Although Creative Campus was initially planning a much bigger event, Tomlin said time and budget constraints influenced the club’s decision to keep it smaller and more local. 

“We decided to put on a smaller-scale festival to see if there is an interest and to see if people would be excited about something like this,” Tomlin said. “We have had an overwhelming amount of positive feedback already, and hopefully next year, we can make it bigger and better than it will be this year.”

The UA Arboretum is located at 4800 Arboretum Way. Admission is free and the festival will feature performances by local bands Actual People, Lake Lyon, Agent Honeydew and The Doctors and the Lawyers. Food and beverages will be available for purchase.