Lightning in a Bottle was like nothing else I have ever experienced. Words cannot capture what I have witnessed, felt, been a part of for the last four days. It was so much more than just a party; it challenged me, enriched me, gave me a safe and enchanted space to grow as a person. The people and the culture really make LIB what it is. It’s a beautiful place where everyone is smiling and welcoming, and everyone you meet will have something nice to say and a hug for you. The atmosphere is one of gratitude and the joie de vivre, and it is a very spiritual space. One of my most special moments was sitting in a geodesic dome, set to vibrate to the earth’s frequency, with 6 others, in various yoga poses, chanting, or sitting cross legged on the floor, breathing in the energy as one man played Tibetan singing bowls. The conversations around the Temple of Consciousness were so enlightening and new for me, with different worldviews such as shamanism and Hare Krsna, all engaging and seeking spiritual growth together.
Meditation at the lake at sunset The people. Festivals are always a space filled with diversity and alternative lifestyles, but this really was a whole other level. The words that kept ringing in my mind were, ‘these people are SO GOOD at being themselves.’ Everyone was so free, open, confident and spontaneous. It was beautiful. I have never seen so many grown adults engaging in play. One of my favourite spaces to observe this was ‘Frontierville’, set up like an old frontier town with a saloon, which hosted the LIB Frontierville Mayoral election. My vote was for the flamboyant Italian Amori, with the campaign slogan ‘vote for love’, who ran the Frontierville Casino and Burlesque Parlour, and handed out condoms with his campaign slogan on. His opposition candidate was the patriotic Thornbush, with the slogan ‘let us do the thinking for you’. The mayoral debate featured hilarious banter about topics such as the right to bear arms (“I see many beautiful bodies around here – if the people want to bare their arms, let them bare arms!”), and the future of LIB, particularly the imposed ban on public nudity (“let the people derobe!”). All characters stayed wonderfully in character throughout the festival, and the Frontierville saloon was a festive playground in the evenings. Frontierville Another favourite of mine was the Psychedelic Friendship Bingo, which kicked off after midnight when the main stages close down, and was a wild anddebaucherous affair featuring some of the craziest costumes I have ever seen. The bingo panel featured musicians (including one of the members of Beats Antique) and organisers of LIB and other big festivals, and each round began and ended with everybody reading the friendship bingo mantra – “Friendship like the setting sun sheds kindly light on everyone.” The DJ was dressed as a lucha libre fighter, and Vegas style characters walked around with megaphones giving commentary on what was happening, creating a disorienting atmosphere of insanity. The games lasted far longer than any game of bingo I have ever witnessed, the prizes were ridiculous, and the rounds were frequently interrupted by extended dialogues between the main actors, improv singing performances, and spontaneous dancing outbursts where everyone was up out of their seats, dancing on the tables etc – and you should see the reaction when someone called bingo! I haven’t laughed so much in a long time. Psychedelic Friendship Bingo The music. There were more ‘zones’ than any other festival I have been to, so the musical diversity was phenomenal. What’s more, the dance floors were full of smiling faces reflecting the joy of movement. One of my musical highlights was a group called Tropo, who were playing electronic music with live violin and rapping – a combination I never thought I would see, but which absolutely blew me away!! At the end of their set everyone would not stop asking for more, so they played about three encores, where they were just jamming and freestyling lyrics about the festival, before they were finally forced off the stage. The Wookie stage – DJ in a treehouse! Not only did I expose my ears to new music, but I also learned to truly free my body on the dancefloor. In particular one night I was sitting toward the back of one of the music zones, talking with a couple of guys and watching this group of people dancing together. They were really fantastic dancers, so free and expressive, and interacting with each other in a beautiful way, much like contact dance, each reacting to the movements of the other. I said to the guy beside me, “I wish I could dance like that,” to which he replied “you can.” Maybe fifteen minutes later a song came on that I just could not stay sitting down for, so I commenced dancing by these people. Their energy was infectious, the music was fun, and I quickly lost myself in the experience. One of the girls who I had met earlier came and danced with me and told me, “Girl, I love the way you move!!”, and we both danced together, sharing in the elation and grinning like madwomen; at that moment I realised that I could and WAS dancing like that! It was such an empowering and wonderful feeling that I will never forget. Later in the night my fave place to be was Silent Frisco, a silent rave where everyone has their own set of headphones tuned into the one DJ. It was SO. MUCH. FUN. Every time I removed my headphones I could hear everyone giggling, humming and singing, and watching people rock out in their headphones was GREAT! This group holds Silent Frisco throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, in warehouses where they wouldn’t be allowed to hold a regular rave because of noise regulations – genius. The glowing lights of a few hundred pairs of headphones on dancing bodies My personal growth. I feel like this environment truly taught me how to be more open to my fellow human beings, giving me much more confidence to approach people, and to be friendly and open right from the outset. I went to some great workshops and had some amazing conversations with people, including a guy who almost died in Indonesia after 6 months travelling the world on a soul-searching journey, and has written an Amazon bestseller about his experiences. I met him at a talk by a woman from the Rainforest Action Network, and I learned that he had been one of the almost one hundred people arrested (including James Hansen, Bill McKibben and Naomi Klein ) in the 2011 protest in Washington D.C., against the planned Keystone XL Pipeline. For those of you didn’t see this, thousands showed up, with more arriving each day in reaction to the arrests. It was fantastic. I approached him to thank him for being there, and to tell him how inspiring that action had been for me, witnessing it from NZ. We talked about the value of such actions for movement building, and the challenges of remaining motivated when the mainstream media refuses to acknowledge / cover such events. He gave me a copy of his book and it is a really uplifting read (‘Into the Wind’, by Jake Ducey). Being around such people was such a truly magnificent experience that I really cannot put into words. Every person I met is actively creating the life that they want to live, and the world that they want to live in. I was remarking to one woman how so many people are doing amazing things, and a man nearby overheard and told me ‘you’re doing amazing things’, and came over and gave me a hug! That moment epitomized the atmosphere of gratitude and appreciation of one another. I can only hope that each person who was there can carry that home with them and influence the people around them with that wonderful way of relating to one another. A note pinned to one of the noticeboards I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to attend this wonderful event, and encourage anyone who plans to be around the West Coast next summer to check out LIB!! Unfortunately my backpack was taken on the last night, a rare occurrence of negative energy in an otherwise fantastic five days, taking from me my notebook containing contact info from the people I met there. So for me LIB is to remain a magical moment in time, spent in the company of wonderful souls who I am not likely to ever see again in my life, but with whom I experienced and shared so much. And actually that’s kind of lovely.
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I am a conservation field worker in New Zealand. I love mountains, sunrises, river swims, barefeet, cold beer, campfires, live music and whiskey. Archives
December 2014
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