The 15^th Earthday Jam was held on April 24, 2015 at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.  This is known to be the longest running music concert focused on the environment held every year for the past 15 years on Earth Day.  Ms. LOU BONNEVIE, who is a well-known musical artist and Executive Director of Earthday Jam Foundation invited us to join their event.

I was one of the youth representatives asked to speak about our environmental advocacy to the thousands of concert goers.  This streetparty lasted for more than 10 hours.  It started at 3:00 pm with a Recyclables Fair and Exhibit where the Foundation partners showcased their products, services and organizations.  Our friends Ms. ELENIDA BASUG and Mr. NINO PINALVA of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources had a booth at the Fair.  At 6:00 pm, the musical concert began with more than 20 bands and over 100 individual artists performing in a marathon of music and dance celebrating the environment.  

As part of the celebration Earthday Jam Foundation gave citations to several environmental leaders and artists who have made a difference in the environmental awareness campaign.  Among those who were recognized were Hon. BEBET GOZUN, Presidential Adviser on Climate Change and and NINA GIRADO, artist and songwriter, also known as the Diamond Soul Siren.

There were two batches of youth representatives that shared their experiences to the concert-goers in between the musical performances.  The first group that presented were MARLEX TUSON of Ateneo Environmental Cluster and SAMANTHA CINCO of Miriam Environmental Planning Organization.  We were the second group composed of MASAKI MITSUHASHI of the Southeast Asia Youth Environment Network of UNEP,  JEKK PADERES of the International Forestry Students Association and myself.  We got to introduce our organizations and speak a bit about what young people do to protect the environment.  We even got to do a groupie with the crowd.

We got to meet many like-minded people from government, NGOs and entertainment at the concert.  When we left the concert grounds at 2:00 am of April 25, the Earthday Jam was still going strong.