AMHERST — Renewable energy vendors, advocacy groups, and crafters and artisans will line the Amherst Town Common on Saturday as the Sustainability Festival, interrupted by the pandemic, returns for its 11th year.

Timed to Earth Day, the festival runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and will include a performance stage, with Turf Riddim at 10 a.m., followed by Red Loves Blue, Rockin’ Ron the Friendly Pirate, and concluding with the Piti Theater Co. at 3 p.m.

A demonstration area will begin at 10:30 a.m. with the Rainbow Players doing “Habitat Habitat.” Students from the Amherst Regional High School Environmental Club will showcase solar ovens at 11:30 a.m., and Henry Lappen will be stiltwalking throughout the event.

The Amherst Public Shade Tree Committee will have a booth where seedlings will be given out.

People will also have the opportunity to test-drive an electric vehicle, make a reusable bag, learn about aquaculture and ride the orbitron.

The festival is taking place on the opening day of the Amherst Farmers Market. The market, founded in 1972, will be in downtown Amherst every Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. through Nov. 18.

Dash and Dine fundraiser

University of Massachusetts Dining Services will again aid the Amherst Survival Center by staging the 12th annual UMass 5K Dash and Dine Saturday at 9 a.m.

The goal of the campus event is to promote health and wellness at the university while raising funds for the survival center, totaling $57,000 to date. The 5K features a USA Track and Field-certified course for runners, walkers and participants in wheelchairs. After the race, lunch is served at either the Hampshire or Berkshire dining commons.

“This event is such a perfect fundraiser for the center,” Amherst Survival Center Executive Director Lev Ben-Ezra said in a statement. “It is all about community, everyone pitching in, and world-class cooking.”

“We’re big believers in building community through food and promoting health and wellness, and this event is a shining example of this,” said Ken Toong, executive director of Auxiliary Enterprises at UMass.

The race fee is $10 for all UMass and Five Colleges students, $20 for UMass Amherst faculty and staff and $25 for the public, and includes registration, a T-shirt and lunch. Children 8 years and under may participate for free at the annual fun run at 10 a.m.

Walk-up registration is available on race day. To register, view the day’s schedule or make a donation, go to www.RunUMass.com.

MSBA meets

The Massachusetts School Building Authority meets Wednesday to give its final authorization for the $97.5 million elementary school project subject to a Proposition 2½ debt-exclusion vote on May 2.

More than $40 million is expected to come from state funding for the project, which would replace the 1970s-era Fort River and Wildwood schools.

Berlin Wall

A 12-foot segment of the Berlin Wall painted by French artist Thierry Noir will be displayed at the Memorial Hall patio at UMass on Tuesday at 2 p.m.

Sonja Kreibich, consul general of Germany to the New England states, will join UMass President Marty Meehan, UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy and other campus officials for the event, the highlight of a week of art exhibitions and film screenings related to the history, impact and legacy of the structure that divided Germany’s capital for four decades.

Donated to the university by the family of Eric Hanson, the wall segment painted by Noir is titled “The Power of Creativity over Concrete.” In the 1980s, Noir, credited with being the first artist to paint the Berlin Wall, risked arrest by East German authorities for painting on the west side of the wall beyond the western border.

The wall segment is being installed outside in an east-west direction — reflecting its placement in Germany — within a glass case next to Herter Hall, home to the history and German and Scandinavian studies departments and the DEFA Film Library.

Subbaswamy thanked the Hanson family for the gift. “This particular segment of the wall shows that inspiring art can be made amid terrible situations, and its presence at the heart of campus reflects UMass Amherst’s revolutionary spirit,” Subbaswamy said.

Open house

The Leverett Fire Department is holding an open house at the public safety complex on Montague Road on April 27 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

People are welcome to drop by to learn more about the services provided and to meet the firefighters.

Meetings

MONDAY: Town Council and Finance Committee, 6 p.m.

TUESDAY: Amherst Regional School Committee, 6:30 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Conservation Commission, 7 p.m.

THURSDAY: Community Resources Committee, 4:30 p.m., Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m., and Amherst School Committee, 6:30 p.m.

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