IMAGE GALLERY: 5th Annual Framingham Earth Day Festival

Five years ago, Donna Kramer Merritt thought the Framingham should do something for Earth Day.

Over the weekend, the festival she conceived attracted hundreds and celebrated its fifth year.

The 5th Annual Framingham Earth Day Festival was a “zero waste event said Merritt.

Since the theme was to “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repurpose, Rethink,” everything at the festival was either compostd or recycled.

Attendees could also recycle almost everything from batteries to bikes, from light bulbs to Styrofoam, from teddy bears to textiles. There were several recycling booths at the Framingham Centre Common but also a handful of recycling stations throughout town.

The event was also 100 percent powered via wind power. Even the food truck vendors used electricity provided by New England Wind, said Merritt.

More than 50 artisans, health & fitness, non-profit, environmental businesses will have booths on the common.

There were workshops on how to make a rain barrel from scratch to how to start a vegan lifestyle.

Cisco Cycles held a bike safety workshop. Volunteers from the Framingham Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee, and the Framingham Police Bicycle Patrol distributed 120 free bike helmets to children and provide instruction on how to properly adjust and wear the helmets thanks to the Boston law firm of Breakstone, White, and Gluck.

Barbara Sherman, from ReFoamIt recycling service offered a recycling 101 workshop and Dan Balter from Fireseed Arts explained how to re-purposed instruments and art.

Framingham Centre Nursery School ran several children’s activities, and Centre Music House in Framingham sponsored the entertainment which included a jazz band comprised of Framingham High School students and a Barbershop chorus from Natick.

Merritt said Saturday’s attendance was the largest crowd ever for one of her Earth Day festivals.