FESTIVAL ACTIVITIES

We have designed this event as both a conscious party and a community adventure in alchemical creativity, the intention of which is to evoke wonder and inspire us to radiate joy....which might be one of the most powerful actions we can take in these crazy times.

Here is the initial activities guide for the event. Band times and additional playshops to be announced soon:

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES

• OPENING CELEBRATION – Telesterion Amphitheatre, Thursday PM This festival starts with an audience-participatory ceremonial celebration on the field of the Telesterion Amphitheatre. To participate: register with your theme camp leaders in the Peak Experience web board discussion area.

• GROOVE IS IN THE ART – Late-Night Friday, Venue-wide
When the music ends on Friday night the entire venue will be transformed into a gigantic adventure game through which all attendees are invited to explore the five phases of the creative process. This surreal adventure will be hosted by: Jeff and Abbi McBride, The B-Town Circus, The Oracle Gathering Community, The Pono Players, Pyrosutra, El Circo and other amazing talents.

• NEW MOON DREAM DANCE – Telesterion Amphitheatre, Saturday PM
This festival will climax on Saturday night when hundreds of costumed event attendees (that’s you!) collaborate with professional performers in THE NEW MOON DREAM DANCE, a mystical theater spectacle in which we will synergize the real and imagined worlds together as one.  W/ El Circo, Pyrosutra, Guildworks Aerial Dance Troupe, The Oracle Gathering Community, Ecstatic Inferno, The B-Town Circus and many more talented performers. To participate: register with your theme camp leaders in the Peak Experience web board discussion area. To participate: register w/ your theme team leaders via the Peak Experience Web Board.

• LIL’ WIZARDS PARADE – Telesterion Amphitheatre, Sunday PM
Calling children of all ages: Don’t forget to pack your Wizards wands, faerie wings and kazoos for this wonderfool tradition. The Rising Coyote Puppet Troupe will lead a grand parade from Family Camp to the Telesterion Amphitheatre in order to welcome The String Cheese Incident to the stage. For more family activities check out the family camp schedule.

• ARTS AND CRAFTS – Arts and Crafts Shed, Daily
Isis Buckwheat returns with her “Art Attack” creative expression headquarters. Stop by the arts and crafts shed by the lake and flex your creative muscle.  All theme camps (including Family Camp) have their own daily arts and crafts session scheduled.

• COMMUNITY MANDALA PROJECT – Telesterion Amphitheatre, daily
Mandalas (sanskrit for "whole world" or "healing circle") are an ancient symmetrical art used to ward off evil, achieve enlightenment, or find inner peace and psychological wholeness.  Carl Jung suggested that by creating an image of wholeness in the imagination and then projecting it outward as artwork, we could focus on the image and take it back into ourselves, thus achieving integration.  We invite you to help create this beautiful installation.  Please bring offerings from the natural world: ashes, dried flowers and leaves, feathers, bones, shells, driftwood, sand, earth, crystals, incense, candles…use your imagination.

• WORLD’S LARGEST GROUP HUG - Telesterion Amphitheatre, during the Sunday evening SCI set break
Join us as we once again form the world’s largest group hug! If it’s your birthday please get in the middle so we can all focus our love on you.

CREATIVE ACTIVISM PLAYSHOPS

• PLANETARY TRANSFORMATION: A 3 DAY SYMPOSIUM ON SUBSTANTIVE SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM - w/ Mark Thompson PhD, John Barlow, Caroline Garcia, Mike Sammet, David Kupfer, Brian Bontempo PhD and many activists still to be announced.

This three-part Activism symposium has been designed to empower the individual to envision and manifest daily activism that embraces the individual, the local community, the bioregion, the hemisphere and the planet as a whole.

• ACTIVISM - DAY 1: THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY
So many of us think these days: I feel so powerless…what can I do to change this horrible world? This first activism panel session is designed to help us manifest a healthy, happy world starting with ourselves and our immediate environment. As we craft a vision of movement towards positive change we will discuss how to access information and resources that will assist us in acting sustainably, limiting dependence on fossil fuels, supporting local and community social justice issues, etc. Secondly, we will discuss ways to keep one's own body, mind, spirit and soul in the best shape-fitness-condition in order to free the being to more consciously active in daily life.  Freeing the Being from so many senseless fears embraces possibilities of actions that were once unthinkable.

• ACTIVISM - DAY 2: PARADIGM SHIFTING IN A CRAZY WORLD
This second activism panel session will expand the scope of our attention and consciousness to the bioregion, state and national levels of activism.  We all know there is something hideously wrong out there; we know there is a power within us that opens our hearts and minds and spirits to possibilities we imagine or hope to imagine.  That power that is both lost in our greater culture and still found within us is LOVE.  Love is an energy that can direct action in the most positive of ways to improve the health of a bio-region, bring peace to conflicts, and reshape the integrity of a nation and an economy.  This playshop will explore the use of energy as it relates to ecosystems, human resources, and economic cycles hoping to inspire the individuals to contribute their energy to change the conceptual consciousness of our society and culture.

• ACTIVISM - DAY 3: WHOLE IN ONE — THE BIG PICTURE
This activism session explores the hemispheric and global significance of our daily actions, what social, environmental and sociospiritual changes we can expect to Experience during our lifetimes and how we can create the paradigm required for substantive positive change. How do our current daily actions impact rainforests and indigenous cultures around the globe and how do we change our actions to create positive balance in the flow of energy throughout the planet. How do we build meaningful communities of consensually minded, considerate beings to propagate tidal waves of positive loving change in the flow of human action and history? 

• THE POLITICS OF ALTERING CONSCIOUSNESS – Panel discussion with John Perry Barlow and Friends - Join us for a wild ride through the history and politics of altering consciousness.  This playshop, which was wildly popular at last year’s event, will explore why some core lifestyle choices and worldviews are so severely rejected by the dominant paradigm in our culture while other more destructive ones are dearly embraced.

• COMMUNING WITH OUR FESTIVAL TRIBE w/ Brian Bontempo PhD.
This playshop will explore the history and tradition of festival communities and the different archetypical festival subcultures.  We'll map out a typical festival concert and visit the tapers, rail riders, hula hoopers, and others.  We'll find out how these communities formed, how they have developed, why people become a part of them, and what it means to be a good member of the community.  Lastly, we'll visit the relationship that these subcultures have to the larger community and celebrate the value of the Whole Festival family.

ART PLAYSHOPS

• THE POWER OF SOUND — Spoken Word & Music Pro/Am Jam
w/ Thalyn, Tye North, Scott Law and Friends
Here’s you chance to make wonderful art with an all-star cast of professional musicians and performance artists. Each day, by the lake, Thalyn, our Bard–in-Residence, and all-star house band will host a laboratory in aural creativity. Poetry, comedy, song and spoken word will all blend together in a swirl of delicious expression. Please bring your own poetry, life stories, songs and/or other inspiring words/music to share.  

• VISIONARY ART SYMPOSIUM – w/ Mark Henson and Friends
Leading visionary artists will host a symposium on how to create visionary art. We invite you to bring meaningful photos and magazine clippings to use in creating your own visionary art during the playshop and throughout the weekend.

• DRUM CIRCLE MAGIC  w/ SCI’s Travis – String Cheese’s drummer will share his techniques and perspectives for raising a focused drum circle groove.

• FIREDANCING w/Pyrosutra
Pyrosutra professional fire dance team will teach basic candle dancing for beginners as well as numerous fire dance prop techniques for dancers of all skill levels.  Particular emphasis will be put on the spiritual nature of dancing with a prime element.

• SONGWRITING w/ Liza Aratow
Join Liza and special guests for useful insights into
song crafting and wordsmithing

BODY/MIND/SPIRIT PLAYSHOPS

• YOGA w/Nikki Ruter
Yogini Nicki Ruter will lead us each morning though a gentle program of heart opening, blood circulating, breath and body play.

• SHAKTI POWER! – WOMEN AND CREATIVITY w/– Imani, Spinner McBride, Isis Indriya and Friends
A women’s creativity empowerment playshop that will draw upon a wide-variety of powerful strategies and techniques. Led by an all-star cast of highly adventurous women!

• ACCESSING THE DREAMTIME w/Jeff McBride and Abbi Spinner
Since the dawn of time, humans seeking spirit-vision have developed many diverse ways of entering into “The Dreamtime.”  This hands-on workshop will provide you with experiential techniques that will help you on your personal quest. Together we will blend movement, sound and trance techniques to expand our state of consciousness.  Please bring drums, rattles and come prepared to open your mind, open your body, and open your heart.  

• CULTIVATING A MYTHOPOETIC LIFE w/ Jeff McBride, Abbi Spinner, Imani, Johnny Dwork and Mike Sammet
Buckminster Fuller once said, "If success or failure of this planet and of human beings depended on how I am and what I do, how would I be? What would I do?" What distinguishes ordinary life from that which is of a mythic proportion? This playshop will explore strategies for stepping out of the small stories of our ordinary personal lives into the Big Story of a life lived boldly as a heroic adventure!  

• ALCHEMICAL CREATIVITY w/ Jeff McBride and Abbi Spinner
Tips on how to use the elemental forces of Air, Fire, Water, Earth and Ether to create the world we desire to manifest. We will look at the alchemy of the elements as co-creative partners in life's great adventure.

• EMBRACING NATURE’S CREATIVE GENIUS w/ Michael Sammet
When Western culture (cars, shopping malls, TV, stock markets) cuts us off from the natural world we become deprived from Experiencing the brilliant creativity of Nature.  In this playshop we will reawaken us to this universal intelligence.  We will explore nature’s actions as a language of color, sound, movement and form that can be used  to create a new life-centered culture of abundant beauty that supports ritual and performance art, sustainable eco-design, holistic health and breathtaking adventure. In doing this we will  reinhabit, reaffirm, and reinvigorate our relationship with our planet.

• THE MAYAN CALENDAR w/Tito
Take a spiraling journey into time with the money scribe, as he peels away the layers and the harmonics of the calendar. No, its not the end of time, but it is quite a lively discussion about the end of a great cycle of the Maya, the astrology of the Dreamspell Maya, and developing a new perspective on the values we ascribe to time.

FAMILY CAMP PLAYSHOPS

• THE CREATIVE FAMILY – Family camp comes together daily to share fun, innovative and meaningful ways in which to maximize your family’s creativity.

• HAND PUPPET HILARITY! – The amazingly funny Fungineers Beat Box Puppet Troupe will lead daily playshops in over-the-top hilarious hand puppetry for children of all ages! Bring pre-made hand puppets and/or an old sock and fasten your seatbelts for some MAJOR whackiness!

PLAYSHOP LEADER’S BIOGRAPHIES

• Carolyn Adams (aka Mountain Girl) is serving as tribe elder for Earth camp. Many of you already know Mountain Girl as one of the great elders of the counter culture.  She’s one of the original Merry Pranksters, the mother of two of Jerry Garcia’s daughters, author, nurse, engaged philanthropist and hard-core String Cheese Incident fan. Mountain Girl has one of the sharpest wits and most infectious laughs we’ve yet encountered.  She’s a down to Earth activist who roles up her sleeves and wages peace with a radiant smile and eternal optimism.

• Tito Anders (aka the Cosmic Monkey Scribe) has been transforming and taking people on journeys into Natural Time. One of the foremost teachers on the west coast of the Mayan (Dreamspell) matrix, Tito brings a familiarity and humor to an ancient and complex system of divination and timekeeping. He is also a body worker specializing in postural alignment and sports medicine. Additionally, for the past four years, has assisted with conscious dance party productions in the Portland Metro area. In his spare time he works with his bee hive, goes to Burning Man, and is building a collection of monkeys(no silly, not real ones!). More information on the Mayan Calendar go to his website
http://www.galactichardware.com or you can email him at: scribe@galactichardware.com.

• John Perry Barlow is a retired Wyoming cattle rancher and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He speaks, consults, and writes for a living. Since May of 1998, he has been a Fellow at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, following a term as a Fellow with the Institute of Politics at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. From 1971 until their demise in 1995 John co-wrote songs with the Grateful Dead.  He is a recognized commentator on information economics, digitized intellectual goods, cyber liberties, virtual community, electronic cash, cryptography policy, privacy, and the social, cultural, and legal conditions forming in Cyberspace. He also writes lyrics for The String Cheese Incident.  For more info explore: http://www.eff.org

• Brian Bontempo, PhD is the founder and principal consultant for Mountain Measurement, Inc., an environmentally conscious research and statistics consulting company, where he has been engaged in research pertaining to community development activities, social capital, and public health.

• Amy Hatfield and Jay Benham are members of Pyrosutra, a family of experienced fire dance professionals who contribute their skills and love to fire. They believe in being beautiful, down to earth, and speaking with their art. They are able to exceed personal and group boundaries through creative choreography and costuming….making the Whole so much more than the sum of their parts. For more info explore: http://www.pyrosutra.com

• Mark Henson is known widely for his spectacular visionary paintings, cards and shirts. Mark paints in the classical tradition, millions of brush strokes per painting. For more info explore: http://www.sacredlight.to

• - Isis Indriya is the cofounder of the Oracle Gatherings, a Seattle-based music and performance arts festival. Se serves as Artistic Director, Performance Coordinator, Costume Designer, Ritual Performance Artist, Fire Performance Coordinator and much, much more. For more info explore: http://www.oraclegatherings.com

• David Kupfer is an environmental activist who has worked to design and implement the greening of the this event. He has worked as an Environmental Consultant for businesses such as Madison House, Bill Graham Presents, HBO, Hollywood Center Studios, Propaganda Films, etc. He is a writer for national magazines including Hope, Earth Island Journal, Whole Earth, Common Ground, Progressive, SingOut, EarthFirst! Journal, Talking Leaves, Annals of the Earth, Backpacker, and AdBusters.
 
• Jeff "Magnus" McBride is a performance magician and educator in ritual theater, known around the world for his extensive magical work with masks. Jeff is also founder of The Mystery School of Magic, a conference for the advanced study of magical arts. Jeff has been facilitating magical fire circles at Festivals throughout the world for the past decade. Jeff worked on the Discovery Channel's Mysteries of Magic, where he served as a consultant on shamanism and ritual magic. Jeff has also been seen on many other TV specials, including ABC's Championship of Magic, NBC's World Greatest Magic, and PBS' The Art of Magic, and Jeff has been voted Magician of the Year by Hollywood's Magic Castle.  For more info explore: http://www.mcbridemagic.com

• Abbi “Spinner” McBride is a musician and healer, based in Las Vegas. She has fifteen years of experience working in the performing arts field, creating music and magic. Abbi is a highly skilled facilitator of fire circle technology, and the co-author of The Magical Alchemy of the Fire Circle. Her latest album, “Enter the Center,” is a collection of her original music that has been inspired by the fire circles. Abbi is also the lead singer and percussionist for Zingaia. Her recent release, “Dancers of Twilight,” has won critical acclaim. She travels worldwide, performing magic, dancing, and teaching drumming and movement workshops. She spends her free time practicing the art of levitation as lead assistant to magician Jeff McBride. For more info explore: http://www.mcbridemagic.com

• Steven Nikalau is a dedicated enthusiast for spontaneous play and the transformational magic of celebration.  Embodying a fool spectrum of performance artistries from Shakespeare to Comedy Improv to Opera to Beatboxing, he is committed (and is feeling much better now) to living his own myth, and inspiring others to adventurously boogie across this game board of life.  Steven is currently a professional actor, theater teacher and improvisation trainer on the rainbow isle of Maui. For more info explore: http://www.organiclaughter.com  

• Nikki Ruter has been practicing yoga for the past ten years.  She trained and became a certified instructor in LA with Gurmukh Khalsa.  Through her practice Nikki delivers a message of hope to people who wish to become healthy, happy and consciously elevated human beings.

• Michael Sammet is an art and revolution activist, home school teacher, and progressive political talk show host who lives with his wife and daughter in the Santa Cruz Mountains. He is currently working with Daniel Sheehan at the New Paradigm Institute.

• Mark M. Thompson has a PhD in Educational and Cultural Philosophy, an MA in Ethnohistory/History of Religion, and a BA in History of Religions of Native American. He taught several courses in the Anthropology of Religions and Cultural Anthropology of American Indians for various colleges and presented numerous courses in Speculative Fiction, Shamanism, Mysticism and Native American Arts and Dance. He has published a variety of writings in numerous journals, such as the LA Times, Harper's, the Nation, Utne Reader.

For additional information and up to date schedules of these playshops as well as all other activities at this festival please revisit this site in the near future.