Thousands of people, young and old, packed the main quad Sunday to celebrate Mother Earth, and she rained sunlight back down on them on a perfect spring day.

The third annual Earth Day festival, held at Sacramento State, drew an immense crowd of people who wanted to honor the earth and learn ways to keep it pristine.

“We want people to understand the importance of Earth Day,” said Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo.

Fargo delivered a short speech in which she asked the people to accept more personal responsibility to ensure a high quality of living environmentally.

One of Fargo?s examples was for those living within city limits to take on “a little more than their fair share” of the cost of rising energy and water premiums. This will ease the strain on farmers who will not be able to pay the higher premiums on their land.

While it may be inconvenient for those living in the city to shoulder the burden, they can more easily afford it since they are not paying bills for hundreds of acres of land.

“We all have to keep in mind what we can do as individuals,” Fargo said.

The speech was also an opportunity for Fargo to announce the opening of Granite Regional Park.

Granite Regional Park is a rebuilding project that took an abandoned granite quarry at Power Inn Road and Folsom Boulevard and turned it into a park.

City council member Steve Cohn, who was also involved in the project, said that another such park will open later this year. That project will be called Sutter Landing Park and is being built over a landfill in the downtown area.

The diversely aged crowd broke out in applause at the announcement of the parks, and Cohn took the opportunity to comment on the range of ages in attendance.

“I think I?ve seen everything from newborn to 90,” said Cohn, reflecting on the four generations being represented at the festival.

Blankets and lawn chairs covered the grass as people either grooved to the music onstage or shuffled between the many booths outlining the area.

Vendors including Steve?s Pizza, Leatherby?s Ice Cream, Jamba Juice and X O Chimilco Mexican Restaurant held people?s hunger in check while bands such as Mumbo Gumbo and Driving with Fargas kept the music playing.

Booths and activities were set up to inform attendees about various topics. Among the agencies represented were California Wilderness Coalition, SMUD, who had an electric car on display, Sacramento Tree Foundation, Regional Transit, Heartwood Drums of Davis, the Norcal Environmental Students Network and Organic Farmers.

This year?s event also had several activities aimed at children. A wildlife education stage was set up for the UC Davis Raptor Center to display various birds of prey. There were activity booths where children could make sock puppets or pictures using plant parts as the materials.

Other children?s activities included a climbing tree, and the California Department of Conservation brought an educational arcade with boards and wheels that taught lessons about recycling and conservation.

Dena Allen, who brought her two young children from Placerville, was happy to see that her kids had things just for them to do. Allen said she brought her children to the festival so they could begin to learn to take care of their environment.

“We wanted to teach our kids to respect the home and respect what is around them and that it all starts with respect for the earth. It?s good to see how many families brought their kids,” Allen said.

Allen?s friend, Trisha Taylor, also brought her daughter and said that she liked having the kids? activities, but would like to see more physical and motor-skill involved games in the future.

There was, however, one particular attraction Taylor was anxious to see.

“We are going to start a garden at home so I really want to get over to the farmer?s market. That is going to be a big plus,” she said.