August Festivals & Beyond
KALEIDOSCOPE GATHERING
Dates: August 1-August 6
Cost: 150 loonies for the whole festival, day passes and sliding scale after the festival starts. (Last years prices, as I’m on top of things!)
Location: Raven’s Knoll, Eganville Ontario Canada
Names: I have no idea, but there are over 200 workshops every year at Kaleidoscope. This year’s theme is “Cosmos.”
As of this writing, the pages dedicated to Kaleidoscope are being reworked and updated, and everything above reflects information from previous years. I do know that people are super passionate about this festival and that it will most assuredly be great.
Terrible Awesome Song From 1978: YOU NEEDED ME by Anne Murray. This was the number three song in Canada back in 1978, and the most successful pop single released by a Canadian artist that year. Since Kaleidoscope is a very cooperative sort of myself they probably need everyone who is there and when everyone leaves they probably say to themselves “you needed me.”
PAN PAGAN FESTIVAL
Dates: August 1-5
Location: Rising Sun Family Campground; Monterey, Indiana
Cost: 70 to 85 dollars depending on when you register, day passes
Names: Mama Gina, DRUM PAGANO
The Pan Pagan festival is 42 years old this August, and is one of the oldest Modern Pagan gatherings in the world. Think about 42 years for a minute, that’s longer than most Pagan institutions survive and is a grand accomplishment. I love this line on their website: “The gathering would be a “common ground” meeting place where all Pagans could share information on their tradition, occult knowledge, ideas, and experiences while communing with Nature and the Lord and Lady,” and I love it because it represents why I love Pagan festivals so much! They are a common ground for all the various traditions that are a part of today’s Pagan tapestry. It’s easy to get stuck in the bubble of your own tradition, but the Pagan experience is much richer when we venture out of it now and again.
Terrible Awesome Song From 1978: YOU LIGHT UP MY LIFE by Debby Boone. Even more than the vocal stylings of Debby Boone, the Pan Pagan Festival has been lighting up lives for 42 years! Round of applause folks!
PANFEST
Dates: August 3-6
Location: Near Edmonton, Alberta Canada
Cost: 100 to 150 dollars (last year’s prices)
Names: Pan?
As long as I draw breath, any festival named Panfest will be a part of this list. Part of me wonders if Edmonton’s first Pagan festival of the year is in August because things are finally warm enough for a festival by then? (I know I’m probably missing a festival Edmonton.) Did you know that Edmonton’s has had of this writing 167 days below freezing this year? I’m guessing by the time you finally read this there will have been several more. Probably have to have festivals with Pan in them just to warm up.
Terrible Awesome Song From 1978: I JUST WANNA STOP by Gino Vannelli. Gino is another Canadian artist, and as I cut and pasted his name into this article I thought to myself “I just wanna stop, being cold!” which is how I’d probably feel right now if I lived in Edmonton. Also, any festival with Pan in the title probably doesn’t have a whole lot of stopping!
SACRED HARVEST FESTIVAL
Dates: August 6-12
Location: Atchingtan Learning Center (90 miles North of Minneapolis)
Cost: 145 dollars for the whole week, 3 day passes and day passes also available.
Names: Ivo Dominguez, Angela Krout, Burning Sage
Did you know that I was actually invited to visit Sacred Harvest this year? But alas, I couldn’t make it because I had a previous engagement that I had signed up for. Over the last few years visiting festivals in Minnesotta and Wisconsin I’ve really come to love the Pagans in and around Paganistan. So having to write about Sacred Harvest is all pretty bittersweet for me today. Maybe next year! Of course, they have Ivo there who is much cooler than me, smarter too, and with a much better beard! (Which is not saying much, I can’t grow a beard.) One of the best rituals I’ve ever been to was lead by Ivo at a different festival also in August.
Terrible Awesome Song From 1978: SOFT & WET by Prince. Prince’s first album was released forty years ago, and it sounds timeless all these decades later, just like most Prince albums (with the exception of his Batman soundtrack album). Most of the songs on this list represent the top of the charts in 1978, but it’s Minnesotta so they get Prince by default.
HEXFEST
Dates: August 10-12
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Cost: $350.00
Names: Fiona Horne, LILITH DORSEY, The Dragon Ritual Drummers, JASON MANKEY
I couldn’t go to Sacred Harvest because I’ll be at Hexfest in New Orleans! Woohoo! As always Hexfest has an absolutely knock-out list of presenters and I’m looking forward to seeing Lilith for the first time in several years, my brothers the Dragon Ritual Drummers, and meeting Fiona Horne for the first time. Also, I just freaking love New Orleans, and by the time Hexfest arrives I will have been there four times in just under two years. If you can get down to the Crescent City in August please do because it’s going to be pretty epic! Also, we’ll be taking bets on whether or not I’ll even show up to my 9:00 AM Workshop on Sunday. That’s just too early for me, especially in New Orleans.
Terrible Awesome Song From 1978: COME SAIL AWAY by Styx. Hexfest opens up with a cruise on Friday night so COME SAIL AWAY seems appropriate. Also it’s an absolutely epic song and the weekend should be that way too. I have used the word epic way too many times in this write up. Oh, fun fact, Come Sail Away was probably my first favorite song as a young lad. I was a member of the KISS Army, but it was this song that ruled my four year old heart.
HARVEST GATHERING
Dates: August 23-26
Location: Camp Cedarcrest, Orange Connecticut
Cost: 140-300 depending on meal plans and how one camps (tent or cabin), Day passes are usually available though I don’t see them listed, but it’s early.
Names: Jimmy Clark, Gina Martini
Absolutely one of my favorite festivals, Harvest Gathering is a gem of an event at an awesome location just an hour or two from New York City. What’s crazy to me is that one can fly into the Newark airport and then drive for an hour and feel like you are totally out in the country almost in the middle of nowhere. I like it when a place can seem rather isolated and yet only be a few hours from one of the busiest cities in the entire world. Also, I’ve never been to a festival that does more for its campers than Harvest Gathering, and most festivals go out of their way to be hospitable. Gina is just great.
Terrible Awesome Song From 1978: WE WILL ROCK YOU/WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS by Queen. It amazes me that this double A side was a huge success on the popcharts, mostly because it’s too awesome for the pop charts. Queen is absolutely one of the greatest rock bands to ever exist. I chose this song because Harvest Gathering rocks (they will rock you), Gina is a queen, and they are a champion kind of gathering.
MOON MEET
Dates: August 24-26
Location: Forest Home, Healdsburg, CA
Cost: 94 dollars, includes five meals
Names: Mark Green
This year’s Moon Meet pushes the date back a few weeks, but everything else remains essentially the same. This is mostly a gathering of Atheo-Pagans, but I think everyone is welcome which is why it makes the list! I also try to be supportive of different interpretations of Paganism and wish my Atheo-Pagan friends the best of luck with another festival this year!
Terrible Awesome Song From 1978: IMAGINARY LOVER by Atlanta Rhythm Section. Perhaps I should have used this song for Mystic South, but I saved it for Moon Meet because Mark Green probably thinks my god Pan is an imaginary lover.
BEYOND THE GATES
Dates: August 30-Sept. 2
Location: Trout Lake Abbey, Trout Lake, Washington
Cost: 45 to 55 bucks in advance, 65 at the door, meal plans too
Names: GWION RAVEN, COURTNEY WEBER, LAURA TEMPEST ZAKROFF, Kirk Thomas, Michael J Dangler
Located at the stunning Trout Lake Abbey, Beyond the Gates was one of my favorite events in all of 2017. So nearly all of us presenter types ended up staying in the same room room at Trout Lake Abbey, and that list included me, Gwion Raven, Courtney Weber, Laura Tempest Zakroff, John Beckett, and several other folks and we just had the grandest time. I felt like I was 12 years old sending text messages to Gwion late in the night after we had all gotten into our bunk beds, and then there was John waking me up at 7:45 AM to go and talk about Cernunnos so we could take advantage of the sun shining directly into HIS shrine (C’s, not John’s) . . . . I loved the land, the hosts, the guests, everything about Beyond the Gates last year was just unbelievably stellar. I’m going to be friends with the people I met there last year until I die. So yeah, this event gets high marks from me all across the board, and I met commenter extraordinaire Woods Wizard there too!
Terrible Awesome Song From 1978: BABY COME BACK by Player. I hope everyone up there misses me as much as I’m going to miss them this year. If Courtney where to whisper to Gwion that our “Baby (should) come back” in reference to me that would be awesome. I mean baby as a term of endearment there, not as an implication that I am their child, because that would be not only impossible from a biological standpoint, but also weird for all of our spouses.
EARTH WARRIORS
Dates: Sept. 27-30
Location: 4H Camp Graham, Clarksville, Ohio
Cost: 125 in advance, more at the gate, meal plans & coffee plans, also cabins available
Names: LAURA TEMPEST ZAKROFF, Chas Bogan, Storm Faerywolf, Devin Hunter, Jacki Smith, Brian Henke, Burning Sage
This is another one of my favorite festivals, and while it’s not quite a Summer festival I still sort of think of it that way. Camp Graham is a super nice spot, and everything about this festival is pretty boffo. There’s always fantastic presenters and musical guests, not to mention some really fun late night entertainment with great music. I half expected to see Byron Ballard as a presenter just to put a cherry on top of the Summer of Byron. Love these people, if you are in the Midwest don’t miss this event. Also, you get to see Devin, Storm, and Chas who are all great.
Terrible Awesome Song From 1978: RUNNING ON EMPTY by Jackson Browne. There’s nothing empty about Earth Warriors, this song selection just reflects where I’m at in the process of writing this piece! Earth Warriors was also the first festival to fly me out to their event and treat me like I was worth two shits, and because of that writing about it tends to make me contemplate my life, my mortality, and all the things rock and roll song writers like Jackson Browne think about when they get all reflective.
HEXENFEST
Dates: September 27-30
Location: Geyersville, CA, Isis Oasis Campground
Names: JASON MANKEY, Sharon Knight, JENYA T. BEACHY, ANGUS MCMAHAN
I have no idea if Jenya and Angust are speaking at Hexenfest, but they write here and are friends of mine and I like name-checking them when I can. Also, I feel pretty selfish putting my name first, especially since this is really Sharon’s event, but ya know, it’s my blog and all that. This will be my first Hexenfest, and I’m guessing that I’m taking the spot usually filled by Tempest, except that I won’t be belly dancing or selling any awesome art, or talking about sigils because I really can’t do any of those. Hexenfest really lost out when Tempest decided to go East instead of South this September. I’m really looking forward to this event, and hope my phone gets a good signal so I can keep up with football on Saturday and Sunday.
Terrible Awesome Song From 1978: BAKER STREET by Gerry Rafferty. This song has nothing to do with Hexenfest or anything else, it’s just getting late in the writing process and I’m desperate to shoehorn as many of my favorite songs from 1978 into this article as I can. Baker Street has an really good (and often overlooked) rhythm track, and a saxophone solo that just grips you by the throat and won’t let go. I’m hoping Hexenfest grips me like that this year because we need more events out here in California.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you on the road this summer, and I’ll be in Florida in November for the Samhain edition of the Florida Pagan Gathering! (And this thing is nearly 8500 words long and took about 12 hours to write, please share this on social media!)
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