Category: Festivals

Paganistan Community Notes; February 7-13

Next Saturday night (February 12) will be the annual Bread & Brew competition at the Sacred Paths Center following their annual meeting. Bread! Brew! Pagans! That sounds like the basic recipe for a good time. http://sacredpathscenter.com/?page_id=1065

TC Pagan Pride normally has a booth at GLBT Pride, however this year none of the leadership is available that day, and they’re busily organizing Paganicon. This means that there will not be a clear representative of the local Pagan community passing out fliers from the myriad of different local Pagan originations (as Pagan Pride has done). Is there another Pagan group who would like to take up the Pagan banner at GLBT Pride? Please contact info@tcpaganpride.org and they will be happy to share all they know about working a booth at GLBT Pride.

This community has a huge Heathen population, but so far no heathen workshops have been submitted for Paganicon. If you’re a Heathen attending Paganicon, and you’d like to present a workshop, please go to: http://tcpaganpride.org/paganicon/programming

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Pagan Spirit Gathering Returns to the Upper Midwest

After an absence from the Midwest for over ten years, PSG, is back! At about a 7 hour drive from the Twin Cities, it will likely tempt those who have attended local festivals that have sprung up since previous site moves. The SE Ohio Wisteria, and Southern Missouri Camp Zoe locations represented about 730, and 850 mile drives, from Minneapolis.

In difficult economic times, festival attendance around the country was generally down in 2010. PSG has long had a loyal following wherever it has moved, and the new site will certainly draw more from the Chicago area. Confronting the classic dilemma, Pagans with either a shortage of time, or funds, will have a more difficult choice in the Midwest this year!

From Circle’s Press Release:

Pagan Spirit Gathering (PSG), a week-long national celebration of Summer Solstice & Community, has a new site.

PSG 2011 will be held June 19-26 at Stonehouse Park, a beautiful, rural historical re-enactment campground near Earlville in Northern Illinois, about 80 miles west of downtown Chicago.
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Midwest Author to Release Pagan Camping Book

Lori Dake, Chicago author and Independent Record Label owner, is set to release a book on Pagan camping by Ostara 2011.  The book is primarily focused on camping at Pagan festivals and gatherings, but also draws from years of camping at KOA’s and other non-Pagan camping and festivals.  Ms. Dake is seeking one last detail for her book, the cover, and she is willing to pay for the perfect photo.

A dining area set up at Sacred Harvest Festival - Photo credit, Cara Schulz

PNC – Minnesota interviewed Ms. Dake about her up coming book, why she wrote it, and the photo she is looking for as cover art.

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Major Local Events for 2011

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Many people will soon be submitting their 2011 time off requests, and so now is a good time to look at the major events scheduled for 2011. They are not all Pagan events, but they are events for which many people in our community have expressed extreme fanatical interest.

MarsCon

March 4-6, 2011
A local science fiction convention

Paganicon

Friday, March 25 – Sunday, March 27, 2011
The Twin Cities NEW Pagan gathering. For years the Twin Cities pagan Pride celebration has been the single largest Pagan event in the Twin Cities and one of the largest Pagan pride celebrations in the nation, but it was always torn between the desire to fulfill the Pagan Pride mission and the desire to provide top-notch programming. The solution was Paganicon.

Paganicon is an opportunity to build the programming beyond the Pagan Pride model. This is the sort of programming for which the nearest options were at camping festivals. Paganicon offers excellent programming in the far more accessible location of a local Hotel.

The Twin Cities already has the greatest Pagan community in the nation, and now we have our very own convention. This could become one of the major Pagan events in the nation. Come to Paganicon this year and you’ll be able to say that you were there at the very beginning.

Minicon

April 22 – 24, 2011
A local science fiction and fantasy convention

More events behind the cut

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New Council Brings New Theme to SHF

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Harmony Tribe announces new theme for the 2011 Sacred Harvest Festival,  Forest Family: Root and Branches Intertwined. New Council says theme changed due to attendee feedback.

PNC-Minnesota spoke with Jude K,  Marketing Director of Harmony Tribe, about why the theme was changed and what this means for the festival.  Jude says the old theme, Dreaming the Fae, was confusing to some festival goers.  He says people didn’t understand what it meant and questioned if enough rituals and workshops focused on the Fae could be created.  There was also concern about the precision needed to successfully and safely perform rituals honoring the Fae.   “I honor other religions and would not want to disrespect their ways. We thought making people adhere to extremely specific ritual protocol would take away from the joyous and easy going spirit that we try to establish at the Sacred Harvest Festival,” explained Jude.  He also said that the Council board wanted to make the festival more inclusive to all Pagan paths.

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