Earth Day will be celebrated at the Cleveland Zoo Sunday April 22, 2012.

The event theme this year is "Local and Sustainable Food” in cooperation with Sustainable Cleveland 2019, Mayor Frank Jackson's environmental initiative, as well as Cleveland Crops, Tunnel Vision Hoops and Ohio City Farm.

Regular admission rates apply: $12.25 for adults, $8.25 for children 2-11 and free for children under 2. Admission is also free if you take the RTA shuttle to the zoo from Public Square. Make sure you ask the operator for a receipt.

In addition, the following bus routes serve the zoo -- No. 20, No. 35, No. 51 and No. 79A/B. 

In previous years, EarthFest also hosted several local bands and had traveling musicians roaming the zoo grounds.

But this year, more than 100 musicians on 18 stages will be playing music from folk to hip-hop, said coalition Executive Director Scott Sanders.

"It’s literally occupy the zoo," Sanders said. "We'll have bands hanging off the balcony at Monkey Island and music everywhere you go all day long."

The expansion of live entertainment was put together in partnership with Undercurrents Inc., a company that works in cooperation with Cuyahoga Community College’s music business education program. 

The various stages were booked, managed and will be produced by Undercurrents students, said program director John Latimer.

 “I really put it in their laps to make sure it happened,” says Latimer, “and the students were right on top of it.”

EarthFest will also show off a new exhibit area this year with a "hoop house" located in the Zoo Welcome Plaza. After the Earth Day event, the structure will be obtained by the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities as an part of their CleveLand Crops education and career training program at their Ohio City Farm location.

Earth Day Coalition also sponsors a 6-mile Walk for the Earth a fundraiser walk-a-thon at 9 a.m. Sunday that starts at the zoo, goes through Brookside Reservation and finishes back at the zoo.

You can register by phone at 216-281-6468 until  Friday at 5 p.m. or download a registration form, pledge sheet and map from our website.

For information on EarthFest, call 216-281-6468.