Santa Barbara’s Community Environmental Council will host the 40th Earth Day festival at Alameda Park this weekend.

The celebration will feature an environmentally friendly car show, a Green Shorts Film Festival and 200 special exhibits. The two-day long event will mark the 41st anniversary of one of the nation’s largest oils spills, which occurred off the Santa Barbara coast in 1969.

This year’s Earth Day theme, “Bringing it Home,” aims to encourage locals to practice sustainability at home. Council assistant director Sigrid Wright said the gala will bring the community together to learn about sustainability and the environment.

“Earth day is a time we gather to give support and get new ideas,” Wright said. “We have people here who care about the environment who are trying to serve as models and lead the way. Here is an opportunity for people to get outside their comfort zone and explore some new behaviors.”

According to the CEC Web site, the festivities will make up a completely sustainable community event.

“The festival strives to keep our waste to a minimum by working with exhibitors and attendees to recycle all waste … and while we strongly encourage vendors and participants to walk, bike, carpool or ride the bus to the festival, we recognize that some carbon emissions will result from a gathering of this size,” the Web site says. “To make sure this is a truly carbon-free event, we offset the remaining emissions.”

Rebecca Ingalls, a first-year business economics major, said the festival offers students the opportunity to educate themselves about sustainable practices.

Earth Day is a great day to help make students like me more aware of environmental issues around us,” Ingalls said. “Having a day devoted to the earth helps us focus our efforts towards a more sustainable world.”

Sean Merrifield, a fourth-year mechanical engineering major, said he hoped the efforts from the festival would have a global impact.

“I hope that from this festival more people will try to help the environment in some way,” Merrifield said. “The whole community will become more aware, and we can strive towards the similar goal of helping the planet.”