WAIKIKI — An overflow crowd with and without tickets swarmed the Waikiki Shell for the Kokua Festival yesterday that attracted thousands of people from all over Hawai'i and the Mainland.

For the environmentally friendly event, people came wearing T-shirts that said "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" and bags that said "I'm not a plastic bag."

Many hopefuls begged for tickets outside the gate.

With a sold-out concert yesterday, a thousand more people settled on their blankets outside the Shell in Kapi'olani Park with their coolers and food. They played catch and tossed Frisbees and bean bags.

Many said they were there because they were too late buying tickets, but others said they had planned to hear the concert in the park.

Lance Eby, a 23-year-old student at Hawai'i Pacific University, said he liked the outside scene but still would have preferred to be inside. After tickets sold out, the prices on the Internet were "obscene," he said.

His friend Phil Headback, 21 and also an HPU student, blamed greed.

"We got a good cause going and money grubbers came in to buy the tickets and try to sell them for big profit," Headback said.

Russell Dawson, 35, who was there with his family, said he was too late also and would have had to pay $450 for his family of four to attend.

Nevertheless, people said they were happy to be there.

Ken and Jamie Kooser, of Kane'ohe, said they weren't able to buy tickets last year but solved the problem by signing up for a cleanup that guaranteed participants a chance to purchase a ticket online.

Jamie, 31, a big fan of festival headliners Jack Johnson and Dave Matthews, said she loves the music and that the performers donate the proceeds to The Kokua Foundation, which educates youths about preserving the environment.

"It's really good that celebrities try to give back to the people," she said, adding that she does what she can to recycle.

Inside, about 50 food vendors, merchandise retailers and organizations sold products and educated the public about their mission to improve the Earth.

They included PRISM, Partnership for Reform Through Investigative Science and Math, which offered hands-on curriculum suited for Hawai'i's unique environment.

The organization Kahea, which aims to preserve Hawaiian cultural resources, is a perfect fit with the concert, said spokesman Evan Silberstein. Hawaiians have a lot to share about how to live sustainably on an island, he said.

"In a lot of ways we're representative of what has been and maybe the Kokua Festival is looking forward to what will be," Silberstein said.

In another area of the Shell, children learned through activities such as coloring butterflies that carried environmental slogans and assembling giant puzzles.

All around were reminders to protect and preserve the planet and to recycle.

Seattle residents Nancy Leon, 27, and Christina Cielo, 25, said they came to Hawai'i, for the first time, to see Matthews, who they saw a week ago when he played for the Dalai Lama.

"We're here for Dave," said Cielo. "We love Jack but we're here for David."

Leon, a caterer, said she had to borrow money from her sister to make the trip and Cielo said she used her tax refund.

"I think it's awesome that the artists here are giving back to do something for the environment and using their influence for good things," Cielo said.

Dave Legge, 28, from Canada, said he was vacationing on Maui when he heard about the concert and decided to fly over to see it.

"We agree with what (the festival is) doing," Legge said, adding that Canada makes it easy to recycle. "We want to do anything we can do to help the planet."