By Brett Zongker
Associated Press
Wednesday, March 26, 2008

The Roots, Ricky Skaggs, Los Lonely Boys, the Neville Brothers and Mickey Hart from the Grateful Dead are among the headliners for eight simultaneous Earth Day festivals planned at major cities around the country on April 20, organizers said yesterday.

The flagship event will be the Earth Day 2008 celebration on the Mall in Washington. Other free events will be staged at parks in New York, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco. Earth Day falls on April 22 this year.

Organizers hope to get more people talking about global warming.

"I think the issue of the environment hopefully crosses party lines," producer Peter Shapiro said. "Our goal with this event is to make Earth Day more prominent."

The events are being billed as the nation's largest Earth Day celebration. Producers of the Green Apple Festival, which began three years ago in New York, and the Earth Day Network, a nonprofit created by the founders of the original Earth Day in 1970, are putting on the shows.

The Roots will headline the Washington event with the U.S. Capitol as their backdrop. Speakers will include Richard Cizik, vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, members of Congress and possibly some presidential candidates, said Kathleen Rogers, president of Earth Day Network. (They're still trying to book Al Gore.)

In New York, country singer Ricky Skaggs will perform in Central Park, and the Latin group Menudo will take the stage in Miami with hip-hop group Arrested Development. Los Lonely Boys will be the headline act in Dallas; the Neville Brothers will bring their funk and R&B to Denver. Mickey Hart is slated to perform at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.