Bowling Green State University (BGSU) students gathered on the evening of March 26 inside the Bowen-Thompson Student Union to listen to four bands during the fifth annual Bloomfest.

The free event featured regional bands Leghorn, Respirator, Hemmingway Lane and Grumpy Plum.

Organizer Brynn Drabek, a member of the Music Industry Club (MIC) and a senior at BGSU, said Bloomfest was about more than just music.

“The whole festival is to raise money for the Black Swamp Conservancy, which is a local nonprofit,” Drabek said in an interview on Falcon Radio. “They do conservation in the area. We do raffles, and we also take donations.”

Drabek said supporting environmental efforts is especially meaningful to her after experiencing the Toledo water crisis in 2014.

“I grew up in this area. I was around in 2014 when Toledo had the water crisis for three days,” she said. “I know firsthand the Black Swamp and the western basin of Lake Erie are a super important environment that needs to be protected.”

The festival was organized by the MIC and the Environmental Action Group (EAG).

Vanessa Vadovski, a member of the EAG and a sophomore at BGSU, said the organization promotes sustainable practices on campus. The group is advocating for updates to the university’s climate action plan and collected petition signatures during Bloomfest.

“The climate action plan has not been updated in 10 years, and there has been a lot of development over the last decade with new sustainability practices that could be added,” Vadovski said. “Our position is to create a new council to write a new climate plan. We’re working on raising 2,000 signatures to bring to the administration.”

In addition to the petition, the EAG sold stickers and raffle tickets for prize baskets to raise money for the Black Swamp Conservancy.

Editor’s Note: Drabek is a member of BG Falcon Media’s Live and Loud organization.