Great green gatherings

I first experienced the magic of collective gatherings at the Whole Earth Jamboree (Co Evolution Quarterly, Winter 1978) and the New Games Festivals in Marin County twenty-five years ago. I was quickly taken by the positive energy of shared group intent and utopian visions. Later, as a student at UC Davis, I became (and remain) involved in the now-33-year-old Whole Earth Festival, an annual free rite of spring produced on the campus for and by students over Mother's Day weekend. It features music, dance, holistic health, appropriate tech education and demonstrations, cottage art, and veggie food (www.wholeearthfestival.org).

There are an incredible number of music, art, and cultural festivals today. (www.festivalfinder.com lists thousands. They range from accordian (www.cotatifest.com) to zydeco (www.zydeco.org), to garlic (www.garlic festival.com), but I've been drawn particularly to the innovative educational environment of such festivals as the Oregon Country Fair, Britain's Glastonbury Festival, and the green gatherings that have grown out of them, organic fests in Seattle and Massachusetts, and the communitas of the Pacific Northwest's Barter and Herbal Faires.

They have become so etched into the contemporary landscape that one can spend every weekend from Memorial Day to Labor Day attending one. Usually well removed from the demands and distractions of modern life, they are places where idealists run free and artists and visionaries create and inspire.

The gatherings are characterized by a kaleidoscope of images: domes, multi-colored banners, tipis, yurts, parades, jugglers, unicycles, giant puppets, windmills, solar panels, bicycle-powered machines, vaudevillians, kids and elders at play, music and dance, rock and roll, spontaneous performance and merriment. Many are showcases for state-of-the-art ideas about organic agriculture, food self-reliance, permaculture, green energy, alternative shelter (including onsite construction), practical green and healthy housing, human-powered and electric vehicles, composting toilets, bioregional mapping, community currency, sustainable forestry, and a host of other tools, schemes, and techniques for living lighter on the land.

One of the most revered of these gatherings is the 33-year-old Oregon Country Fair (OCF). Attracting close to 50,000 people over three days, OCF is the Pacific Coast's paramount gathering of (mostly white) alternative tribes. Begun by hippies, the event now has full-time staff of six, and thousands of volunteers who work year-round to create the annual village.

"We are a reflection of the dominant culture and an alternative to it," says Leslie Scott, the Fair's general manager. When the land they had been renting became available for purchase in the early 1980s, Fair organizers launched a huge fundraising effort that led to their securing a permanent space for the community to enjoy all year. The Fair family meets regularly and publishes a monthly newsletter. Its strong commitment to community is key to its longevity.

Festivals like these create a place, full of rituals and fun, where you can camp for the weekend or visit for the day. The food and drink are healthy and natural. Organic producers abound. The music--from blues and folk to dub and organic house--plays all day. At night the fires are lit and people gather to make music.

2000 Festivals

Festivals have been around since the pagans and druids gathered to drink mead, celebrate the solstices and equinoxes, and bonk the night away. The following share implicit goals: to honor the Earth, further social transformation, educate and inspire with positive solutions and visions, and party and laugh in the face of global calamity.

While they were born and evolved independent of each other, they reflect alternative culture emerging around the globe, born out of the countercultural spirit of the 1960s and 1970s. They are for people, not for profit. None was dreamt up by local tourist boards or chambers of commerce, or grew out of corporate commercial culture.

I've tried to note features unique to each. Most of them offer (in various combinations) music, storytelling, crafts, local foods, and workshops and demonstrations of energy alternatives and other options for sustainable living.

June

Clearwater Great Hudson River Revival

June 15-16
Croton-on-Hudson, New York
Clearwater.org/festival.html

Westchester County's spectacular Riverpark at Croton Point is the setting for this multi-cultural extravaganza. Over ninety performers on five stages (Richie Havens, Maria Muldaur, John Hammond, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Dar Williams, Pete Seeger, Bread & Puppet Theater, among others) with a blend of contemporary, ethnic, and traditional music and dance, from blues to rock, funk to gospel, bluegrass to Cajun.

Fish puppets, drumming, and song call all to the water's edge for a blessing of the river. Workshops on sustainable energy as well as yoga, tai chi, and meditation. Vaudevillian players, jugglers and clowns.

Renewable Energy & Sustainable Living Fair

June 21-23
ReNew the Earth Institute
Custer, WI
www.the-mrea.org

This festival, sponsored by the Midwest Renewable Energy Association, is the world's largest venue to learn about renewable energy, energy efficiency, and sustainable living. Over 100 workshops, demonstrations, and entertainment, powered by a variety of mobile renewable energy systems.

July

Firemaker Primitive Skills Gathering

July 4-7
Near Victoria, BC
250/339-3197
www.firemaker.org

An all-ages family event to explore wild plants, beading, nature art and awareness, firemaking, wild survival, drumming, the medicine wheel, and community.

Eno River Festival

July 4-7
Durham, NC
www.enoriver.org/festival/

This festival, adjacent to the Eno River, educates locals about issues related to the river's health through interactive stream habitat and watershed activities. Besides quality music and camaraderie, a phenomenal spoken word assemblage of North Carolina's finest writers and storytellers is featured.

Oregon Country Fair

July 12-14
Veneta, OR
www.oregoncountryfair.org

Music, vaudeville, juggling, magic, and occasional mayhem on a dozen stages, spontaneous parades, salmon runs, arts and crafts, public art, a meditation area and spiritual getaway, theater, storytelling, educational presentations, a slew of kid and teen activities, and an onsite sauna known as The Ritz for the path-weary. Environmental, forestry, organic agriculture, renewable energy, and resource conservation ethics are taught through workshops and demonstrations. This year's Fair features a tribute to longtime supporter and former resident magician Ken Kesey. Speakers include Paul Krassner and Ram Dass.

SolarFest Renewable Energy Festival

July 13-14
Daisy Hollow Road
Middletown Springs, VT
802/235-2866
solarfest.org

Workshops on strawbale building, timber framing, sustainable agriculture, poetry, and self-publishing complement SolarFest's solar and renewable energy topics. Music on two stages, storytellers, puppets, theater, and workshops in a setting tucked into the woods.

The Wild Women's Gathering

July 20-27
The Earthen Spirituality Project
PO Box 516
Reserve, NM 87830
www.concentric.net/~earthway

Women of all ages explore and celebrate their sacred selves and sacred wildness in a place of power. Brilliantly colored cliffs, giant pines, and native petroglyphs of New Mexico's enchanted Gila Mountain are the backdrop for sharing circles, workshops, medicine sweats, spontaneous ritual, play, wildcrafting, incredible feasts, and ecstatic riverside dancing.

SolWest Renewable Energy Fair

July 26-28
Grant County Fairgrounds
John Day, Oregon
PO Box 485,
Canyon City, OR 97820
541/575-3633, www.solwest.org

The largest energy fair in the Pacific Northwest, with workshops on renewable energy and sustainable living topics and fifty exhibitors with tools for self-reliance.

August

Bikesummer 2002

All month
PO Box 786
Portland, OR 97207
www.bikesummer.org/2002

This month-long celebration/affirmation of cycling in the city has been held previously in San Francisco, Chicago, and Vancouver. Rolling adventures and cycle-culture exhibits, exchanges, workshops, camping trips, tours, and occasional radical anarchy (this is the Critical Mass crowd).

Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) Summer Conference

August 9-11
Hampshire College
411 Sheldon Road, Barre, MA 01005
978/355-2853
ma.nofaic.org

More than 150 workshops on basic and advanced organic farming and gardening, animal husbandry, homesteading, herbs and flowers, sustainable building, organic activism, nutrition, health care and spirituality. Parallel conferences for children, pre-teens, and teens.

Neo Humanist Ecology Festival

August 12-16
Jelenia Gora, Poland
www.ru.org/ecofest

The festival takes place on a 46-hectare organic farm located in a beautiful valley surrounded by pine trees--a center for ecological, educational, and social service activities of the Ananda Marga Society of Poland. The program includes organic farming, beekeeping, bread baking, animal rights, holistic medicine, neo-humanism, vegetarianism, yoga and meditation. Evening programs feature singing and acoustic music.

Ecotopia 2002

August 10-24
Glentanassig, Dingle Peninsula,
County Kerry, Ireland
www.eyfa.org/ecotopia2002.htm

Ecotopia, which has taken place in France, the Czech Republic, Holland, Hungary, Germany, Romania, and Finland, is a functional model of a self-sustainable community: waste recycling, vegetarian kitchen, consensus decision-making, and use of alternative energy. This year will focus on conflict resolution.

The Welsh Green Gathering 2002

August 8-11
Margam Country Park
75A Terrace Road
Walton on Dames
Surrey, KT 12 2SW, England
www.big-green-gathering.com

Alternative technology, wind, solar, pedal power, clowns, the arts, permaculture and sustainable homes, alternative therapies, tipi circle, greenmarket, and a special Green Wales Forum on energy, food, farming, transport, education, and the environment.

Sustain Up North

August 22-26
West Yorkshire, England
011-3-224-9885
www.ngg.org.uk

An annual green gathering on an organic farm in Yorkshire with workshops, exhibits, theater, all sustainably run on wind and solar power.

SolFest 2002

August 24-25
Hopland, CA
www.solarliving.org

The Real Goods Institute for Solar Living celebrates the sun's power with a two-day festival offering provocative speakers (including Paul Hawken and Amy Goodman) and workshops. Live music, children's activities, tours of the Solar Living Center, organic food, Earth-friendly product vendors.

Southern Enemy & Environment Expo

August 23-25
Western NC Agricultural Center
Fletcher, NC
www.seeexpo.com

Showcases modern, sustainable energy technologies and regional green enterprises for the Southern Mountain Region. Workshops and presentations cover solar energy, wind power, small-scale hydro, alternative building techniques, community activism. Children's activities and entertainment.

September

Seattle Tilth's Organic Harvest Fair

September 14
4649 Sunnyside Avenue North, Seattle
Seattle Tilth Association
206/633-0451
www.seattletilth.org/activities
/harvest2002

Highlights include an aU-organic farmer's market, a tomato taste-off, organic wine tasting, a festival of Seattle's bread bakers, live music, an Emerald City chicken contest, presentations such as double digging and soil prep for the winter garden, threshing and saving seed, children's activities and games (compost relay, three-legged morning glory tangle, squash car races), and a parade.

Green Nations Gathering

September 13-15
Frost Valley YMCA Camp, Claryville, NY
www.partnereartheducationcenter.com.

Green Nations are tribes and clans of plants and people who love plants: herbalists, gardeners, foragers, Earth-centered ones such as Native Americans. They gather to learn from each other, network, play, and renew commitments to live in harmony on the Earth. Workshops include transgenerational herbal therapy, apprenticing with the trees, natural hormone replacement therapy for men, botanical therapies for dysfunctional uterine bleeding.

Organic Faire

September 22
Rossinver, County Leitrim, Ireland
www.theorganiccentre.ie/

A harvest festival for organic producers and consumers in the northwest of Ireland. Organic producers, environmental organizations and craftspeople, music, children's activities, demonstrations. Guided tours around the center will showcase its wetland sewage disposal system, children's garden, taste garden, heritage garden, unusual vegetables and salads garden, display of composting techniques, willow sculpture area, and orchard.

Apple Festival 2002

September 29
Apple Luscious Organic Orchard
110 Heidi Place
Salt Spring Island, BC VSK-1W5
250/653-2007
www.appleluscious.com

Apple tasting, baking, history, identification, and displays of nearly 200 apple varieties, along with fourteen orchards open for tours. Called the "Organic Gardening Capital of Canada," Salt Spring Island--among the first areas in BC to grow apples--now grows over 350 organic varieties.

Prairie Festival

September 21-22
Salina, KS
www.landinstitute.org

Sponsored by Wes Jackson and other Whole Earth friends at the Land Institute, the festival features speakers, artists, music, dancing, guided prairie walks, children's activities, camping, music-making, a barn dance, and other activities centered on sustainability, environment, and education. The Land Institute is dedicated to reinventing a high plains agriculture that works like a prairie-a polyculture of perennial species.

Common Ground Country Fair

September 20-22
Maine Organic Farmers and
Gardeners Association (MOFGA)
PO Box 170
Unity, ME 04988
207/568-4142
www.mofga.org

Fairgoers visit farmers and their livestock, eat Maine-grown organic foods, enjoy music and entertainment, learn basic gardening skills and see vendors of Maine-made crafts, folk arts, food, plants, agricultural implements, and tools for environmentally friendly living. The Fair started in 1977 and now hosts 50,000 to 60,000 visitors each year.

Tho Okanagan Family Barter Faire

Date TBA
Tonasket, WA
509/486-2173
www.barterfair.org

A family camp-out and harvest festival. Bring your hand-crafted crafts and homegrown garlic, veggies and fruit, musical instruments, tipis, yurts, tarps, and tents. The organizers expect responsible, cooperative participants who will volunteer at least one hour of time to the Fair and the community. The Faire includes an onsite creation of a weekend Okanagan village.

Organic River Festival

January 18-20, 2003
Kimberly Reserve, Levin, New Zealand
www.organics.4t.com

Organic food and wine with over twenty cafes and restaurants situated along the river, supervised swimming holes, children's entertainment, music and dance, alternative entertainment, new sustainable technology, and workshops over the Wellington Anniversary weekend.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Point Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group