Eco-friendly event brings community together

The Chipotle Cultivate Festival features music and food

Olivia Sieff

For the second year in a row Minneapolis’ Loring Park hosted the Chipotle Cultivate Festival, bringing music, chefs, food and an eco-friendly message to the public.

Danielle Winslow, a public relations manager for Chipotle, said the company started the festival five years ago with the idea of teaching people about the values important to Chipotle.

“The whole premise of the event is to bring people in for a really good time, make it free so it’s really accessible,” Winslow said. “Our hope is that people come to the festival wanting to have a good time but they leave having learned something that they didn’t know before.”

According to Winslow, the festival featured local and national musicians, including Minneapolis-based Hippo Campus and experiences aimed at teaching the attendees about the fundamental values to the company.

I think what (the festival) does is it just creates this really cool community of awareness and curiosity around food.

— Danielle Winslow

“Woven throughout the festival we have what we call ‘experiences,’” Winslow said. “These are things that are meant to just be educational and teach people a little bit more about issues that matter to us, like today you’ll see a GMO experience.”

Junior Kailey DeLozier said she attended the festival because of her love for the company and music.

“I went to the festival because one of my favorite local bands, Hippo Campus, was playing and I really like Chipotle so going to a festival dedicated to it sounded really fun,” DeLozier said.

Winslow said she hopes the festival teaches people more about their food and their food choices, but also brings the Minneapolis community together.

“I think what (the festival) does is it just creates this really cool community of awareness and curiosity around food. It really is a community festival, we try to bring so many elements from the Minneapolis community to the festival,” Winslow said. “We hope it makes people grow curious at the end of the day and leaves a lasting impact.”

DeLozier said she believes the festival brought together people from all over Minneapolis to experience a great event.

“(The festival) really took interests from all ages and brought them together, causing everyone to really enjoy the events going on,” DeLozier said.

The festival took place Aug. 22 at Loring Park in Minneapolis.