Sweater Fest 2012 (Sept 28-30) Ithaca, NY

I’ve spent the last 5 and a half years of my life travelling across the country, primarily by foot. I’ve stayed for three months in 3 different locations, and other than that, I don’t stay anywhere more than a few days or two weeks. In that time I’ve participated in about 4 Rainbow Family Gatherings a year. I’ve built kitchens, from the ground up, with my own hands that have fed hundreds of people. I know proper sanitation procedures, and how to quickly set up, and begin serving in a very fast and efficient manner. In fact rainbow gatherings are the only place I’ve been known to stay for as long as a month, between set-up and cleanup, participating in any number of “jobs” that make the gathering work. Whenever I’ve had vehicles in that time, I’ve always carried kitchen gear, food, water jugs, and am always prepared to serve. Any of the vehicles I’ve had, also happened to break down often and in different ways, so now I know a little something about proper vehicle maintenance, and I can do a lot of mechanical work myself along with the manual and a phone call to a good friend.


I’ve also learned a lot about community, and about learning how to spontaneously work independently, and interdependently with whoever happens to be around. I’ve been going to music festivals everywhere I go around the country, and particularly throughout the North East I’ve spent a few seasons hopping from festival to festival, sometimes for 3-5 months out of a year. In these spaces, we are given a more open forum than in everyday life in which to be creative, whimsical, magical, spiritual, and imaginative beings. Along with all of this, there is a network of individuals spanning across the globe, that all form very strong bonds and connections in these moments which can never be replaced. This is a network we are all part of. Our unity and diversity gives us strength.


I think of the Acid Tests as being a pinnacle moment in American history, redefining how we explore and celebrate together. In San Francisco, The Grateful Dead played a backdrop to a stage, for so many, to come be “art”. I don’t mean art in some philosophical, or high, or scholarly sense. I’m talking about people doing stuff simply for the enjoyment of it, the only purpose being to find some harmony, or even a certain kind of discord with the others around you. When the Acid Tests left San Francisco to travel to other parts beyond, the Grateful Dead, and much of the community came with it. This is a little part of the story about how so many different communities have risen up, all out of a special moment in time.


What I am helping to facilitate in Sweaterfest, is taking a number of different activities that I have loved and known, and bringing them, as well as all of the different types of people who participate, together. As One Living Family, we all share so much in common, even if sometimes we have different preferences in music, or dress. There is an element in our society which would be happy to keep us all separated. My hope is for Sweaterfest to challenge us all in embracing diversity, and to focus on this world which we all love and share together.

 

There'll be a regional in ithaca around then too......