Special Report: Green Festivals

by David Kupfer

Festivals have been around since before the pagans and druids gathered to drink mead, celebrate the winter and summer solstices, and bonk the night away. Today there are an incredible number of weekend music, art, and cultural festivals -- running the gamut from accordian (www.cotatifest.com) to zydeco (www.zydeco.org)

Green festivals as a social and cultural phenomenon has grown as the environmental movement has matured. Today with the issues of global warming and renewable energy much in the public discussion, the notion of green living has evolved from freak to chic.

In earlier days, the hippies that started the festivals were not broadcasting their views and lifestyles via mainstream media, so the festivals proved a fertile environment for education. A trio of iconic hippie green festivals--UC Davis' Whole Earth Festival (Mothers Day weekend), the Oregon Country Fair ( held outside of Eugene, Oregon, in July), and the Rainbow Festival (celebrated over the 4th of July in some national park in the United States)--were established independently of each other in the late 1960s.

I myself was first exposed to the delights of such events working as a teenage volunteer for Stewart Brand's 10th anniversary party for the Whole Earth Catalogue--the Whole Earth Jamboree, in West Marin County in 1978.

Green festivals are a celebration of the index of possibilities, an escape into ecotopian dreams and sharing of wisdom. Inherent in their purpose is to educate and inspire people with positive solutions and a vision for tomorrow. They are characterized by kaleidoscope of visual images and activities, including: domes, multi-color banners, tipis, yurts, parades, jugglers, unicycles, giant puppets, windmills, solar panels and ovens, bicycle-powered machines, vaudevillians, kids and elders at play.

Opportunities abound: workshops on sustainable agriculture, food self-reliance, permaculture, alternative energy; demonstrations of alternative shelter techniques, energy-efficient building forms, human powered and electric vehicles, composting toilets, deep ecology, bioregional mapping, community currency, and a host of other tools, schemes, and techniques for living lighter on the land.

These festivals create a place full of rituals and fun where there is much room for serendipitous encounters, learning, relaxation, and celebration under the sun. At night fires are lit and people gather to make music.

Within the temporary villages that form for these fests, there is a keen sense of conviviality, affinity, and solidarity. Villagers tend to exude positive spirit, and one can leave with the clear sense that there are sufficient solutions, here and now, for civilization to make the necessary leap forward.

Such gatherings have helped validate the notion that another world, a more sustainable culture is not just possible, but rather is present now. They provide portals for people to investigate alternative ideas and escape present day dogmatism, playfully test out new environmental and social concepts. They encourage attendees to actively think about ways to operate our society and economy as if survival mattered.

The sidebar lists events that 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. They reflect a sustaining culture emerging around the globe, born out of the countercultural spirit of the 1960s and 1970s, representing the aspirations of several generations of people.

While by no means a complete list, the following represents the best of these events
occurring in the next few months.