Save the Date:
July 10-13, 2014
@ HomeGrown HideAways near Berea, KY
Photo by Tom Eblen, Lexington Herald-Leader www.kentucky.com
Lexington Herald Leader - July 17, 2013
"Whippoorwill Festival Taught about 300
Skills for Earth-Friendly Living"
by Tom Eblen
BEREA — How do you describe the Whippoorwill Festival? It is part Scout camp, part folkways festival and part family reunion, straight out of the pages of the old Whole Earth Catalog.
However it's described, the third annual event attracted more than 300 people from across the region to rural Madison County last weekend. They came for 3½ days of camping, communal eating, conversation, education, music, dancing and fun in a family-friendly atmosphere.
"It attracts an eclectic, interesting group of people," said organizer Dave Cooper of Lexington, an environmental activist and a former mechanical engineer. "You put them all together, and interesting things happen."
The Whippoorwill Festival (Whippoorwillfest.com) is held at HomeGrown HideAways (Homegrownhideaways.org), a 100-acre farm and eco-friendly campground west of Berea that is tucked away below tree-covered hills.
The festival is one of three that owners Nathan and Jessa Turner host each year. HomeGrown HideAway also has the PlayThink Movement & Flow Arts Festival (Playthinkfest.com) in June and the Holler in the Holler music and arts festival, Aug. 9-11.
Most people came to the Whippoorwill Festival to learn "skills for earth-friendly living," Cooper said. There were more than 75 classes and demonstrations.
Many classes harked back to Appalachia's pre-industrial lifestyle and heritage: cooking and bread-making over an open fire, making soap from goats' milk, beekeeping, composting, starting a fire without matches, making paper, banjo playing and ballad singing.
Johnny Faulkner, a retired archaeologist with the U.S. Forest Service at Red River Gorge, was teaching and demonstrating skills that Kentuckians were using long before the first white pioneers and settlers arrived.
He used a small billet made from a deer antler to chip or "knap" flint to make arrow and spear points for hunting. After he finished one, he showed me how they were attached to a spear made of native river cane and hurled at high speed with the help of a short stick called an "atlatl."
"With that, they could throw a spear at 100 miles an hour," he said. "I sure wouldn't want to be hit by one."
Norm Adkins of Richmond demonstrated a similar technique, but with materials beyond the traditional flint that Native Americans used. He had one bright green arrowhead he made from fiber optic plastic.
Other classes focused on food: oyster mushroom inoculation, hunting wild mushrooms, growing herbs and strawberries, making sauerkraut, growing nut trees, starting a community garden, composting, saving seeds and raising backyard chickens.
And still others were about skills for low-cost and back-to-nature living: basic bicycle and auto repair, wildflowers, spinning wool, knitting, making sandals and shoes, natural childbirth, stargazing through a telescope, hitchhiking and wilderness first aid.
"We live in Berea, and this is one of our favorite things to do every year," said Chris Smith, an emergency room nurse who taught the wilderness first aid class and came for the weekend with his wife, Katie Gardner, and their two sons.
They were staffing a first aid station among the tents of several social activists groups, including Appalachian Water Watch, Kentucky Heartwood, the Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition and Kentucky Mountain Justice.
"People see a lot of old friends here," Smith said. "It gives them a break from protesting what they don't like and learning more about what they do like."
There was a contra dance Thursday night, and traditional music concerts Friday and Saturday evenings. Pam Gadd of Nashville came to perform with the New Coon Creek Girls string band and teach workshops on banjo playing and songwriting. She also wanted to take the composting workshop.
Wendy Welch of the Tale of the Lonesome Pine Bookstore in Big Stone Gap, Va., led a "running a successful small business in Appalachia" workshop, a skill Cooper wants to emphasize more at future festivals.
"Many workshop leaders come to the festival and talk about whatever their passion is, and often they are making a little business out of it," said Cooper, who is trying to start a new organization, the Appalachian Small and Micro Business Alliance.
"It would be kind of a chamber of commerce to help nurture and grow these small startup businesses in the region," Cooper said. "As we look toward the end of coal, we're going to need lots of ways to create new economic models in Appalachia."
Tom Eblen: (859) 231-1415. Email: teblen@herald-leader.com. Twitter: @tomeblen. Blog: Tomeblen.bloginky.com.
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/07/16/2716526/tom-eblen-whippoorwill-festival.html#disqus_thread#storylink=cpy
However it's described, the third annual event attracted more than 300 people from across the region to rural Madison County last weekend. They came for 3½ days of camping, communal eating, conversation, education, music, dancing and fun in a family-friendly atmosphere.
"It attracts an eclectic, interesting group of people," said organizer Dave Cooper of Lexington, an environmental activist and a former mechanical engineer. "You put them all together, and interesting things happen."
The Whippoorwill Festival (Whippoorwillfest.com) is held at HomeGrown HideAways (Homegrownhideaways.org), a 100-acre farm and eco-friendly campground west of Berea that is tucked away below tree-covered hills.
The festival is one of three that owners Nathan and Jessa Turner host each year. HomeGrown HideAway also has the PlayThink Movement & Flow Arts Festival (Playthinkfest.com) in June and the Holler in the Holler music and arts festival, Aug. 9-11.
Most people came to the Whippoorwill Festival to learn "skills for earth-friendly living," Cooper said. There were more than 75 classes and demonstrations.
Many classes harked back to Appalachia's pre-industrial lifestyle and heritage: cooking and bread-making over an open fire, making soap from goats' milk, beekeeping, composting, starting a fire without matches, making paper, banjo playing and ballad singing.
Johnny Faulkner, a retired archaeologist with the U.S. Forest Service at Red River Gorge, was teaching and demonstrating skills that Kentuckians were using long before the first white pioneers and settlers arrived.
He used a small billet made from a deer antler to chip or "knap" flint to make arrow and spear points for hunting. After he finished one, he showed me how they were attached to a spear made of native river cane and hurled at high speed with the help of a short stick called an "atlatl."
"With that, they could throw a spear at 100 miles an hour," he said. "I sure wouldn't want to be hit by one."
Norm Adkins of Richmond demonstrated a similar technique, but with materials beyond the traditional flint that Native Americans used. He had one bright green arrowhead he made from fiber optic plastic.
Other classes focused on food: oyster mushroom inoculation, hunting wild mushrooms, growing herbs and strawberries, making sauerkraut, growing nut trees, starting a community garden, composting, saving seeds and raising backyard chickens.
And still others were about skills for low-cost and back-to-nature living: basic bicycle and auto repair, wildflowers, spinning wool, knitting, making sandals and shoes, natural childbirth, stargazing through a telescope, hitchhiking and wilderness first aid.
"We live in Berea, and this is one of our favorite things to do every year," said Chris Smith, an emergency room nurse who taught the wilderness first aid class and came for the weekend with his wife, Katie Gardner, and their two sons.
They were staffing a first aid station among the tents of several social activists groups, including Appalachian Water Watch, Kentucky Heartwood, the Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition and Kentucky Mountain Justice.
"People see a lot of old friends here," Smith said. "It gives them a break from protesting what they don't like and learning more about what they do like."
There was a contra dance Thursday night, and traditional music concerts Friday and Saturday evenings. Pam Gadd of Nashville came to perform with the New Coon Creek Girls string band and teach workshops on banjo playing and songwriting. She also wanted to take the composting workshop.
Wendy Welch of the Tale of the Lonesome Pine Bookstore in Big Stone Gap, Va., led a "running a successful small business in Appalachia" workshop, a skill Cooper wants to emphasize more at future festivals.
"Many workshop leaders come to the festival and talk about whatever their passion is, and often they are making a little business out of it," said Cooper, who is trying to start a new organization, the Appalachian Small and Micro Business Alliance.
"It would be kind of a chamber of commerce to help nurture and grow these small startup businesses in the region," Cooper said. "As we look toward the end of coal, we're going to need lots of ways to create new economic models in Appalachia."
Tom Eblen: (859) 231-1415. Email: teblen@herald-leader.com. Twitter: @tomeblen. Blog: Tomeblen.bloginky.com.
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/07/16/2716526/tom-eblen-whippoorwill-festival.html#disqus_thread#storylink=cpy
Folksinger Eric George from Vermont ericgeorge.bandcamp.com - Photo by Meg Wilson, http://blog.megwilsonphotography.com/
For more photos go to the Gallery page
Over 75 Earth-Friendly Workshops
Great Live Music every Night
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The Whippoorwill Festival, located in the beautiful foothills of Appalachia in Central Kentucky, teaches earth-friendly and sustainable living skills in a joyful, healthy, family-friendly atmosphere.
Please join our Riseup mailing list to stay informed about the festival! Click here The Whippoorwill Festival celebrates our Appalachian heritage and traditions while helping prepare our minds and bodies for a future world of climate change and a decreased supply of fossil fuels. Together we are building a community and working toward creating a society that will be more resilient in the face of climate change and upcoming resource shortages. The Whippoorwill Festival features over 75 earth-friendly workshops, tent camping, healthy, home-cooked meals, and guest speakers, plus campfires, three nights of Appalachian music plus contra dancing on Thursday night. To support the local economy, The Whippoorwill Festival features booths and displays from local artists and craft workers from Berea, Kentucky's artisan capital. The Whippoorwill Festival is low cost ($20 advance purchase per person per day, which includes all workshops, music, meals and tent camping. Tickets purchased after June 30 are slightly higher). Purchase your tickets now and save! A community kitchen provides three healthy meals a day, and all meals are included in the ticket price. We will also have a food vendor grilling fancy burgers made from Berea College beef. There are RV sites with water and electric available (no septic) for an additional $50 charge (for the entire festival). Children 16 and under are free. In order to promote a healthy and family-friendly atmosphere, the use of alcohol is discouraged at Whippoorwill - and there is a "Quiet Time" starting at 11:30 PM. We will have a family/quiet camping area this year. The Whippoorwill Festival was inspired in part by the book "Last Child in the Woods" by Richard Louv and its call to bring more children and young people into the outdoors. Many of our workshop instructors are experts - longtime Appalachian residents and community educators who live the Appalachian way of life every day and who understand the traditional self-reliant way of living in the mountains. Some workshops are led by young people who are relative novices, as a way of encouraging leadership development in a region that is rapidly transitioning to a post-coal economy. Please leave your pets at home or schedule a stay for them at Durham Kennels, just 8 miles down the road. Absolutely no pets! The chickens who live at HomeGrown HideAways are just sweet little ole chickens and they cannot handle the stress of big, scary, slobbery dogs. |
2013 Workshops
Running a Successful Small Business in Appalachia * Indian Curry Cooking * Crocheting * Wilderness First Aid * Kefir * Songwriting Circle * Weeds * Old Time Ballad Singing * Roots & Non-Timber Forest Products * Making Salve from Herbs * Growing Herbs * Atl Atl and Spear * Movement Workshop * Cacao Ceremony * Earth Ovens Field Trip * Oyster Mushroom Inoculation and Cultivation * Hunting Edible Wild Mushrooms * Basic Bicycle Maintenance * Dumpstering Discussion Group * Deepening our Connections * Growing Strawberries * World Neighborhood Free School * Stick Tag * De-escalation * Story Sharing: Hitch-Hiking Tales * Forest Gardening * Discussion: Recycling Humanure * Fermenting Kim Che and Sauerkraut * Permaculture in Action: Off Grid, Natural Building & No-till Farming * Shade Tree Auto Mechanic Skills * Breadmaking on an Open Fire * Straw Bale Construction * Making Sandals and Shoes * Long Distance Travel by Scooter * Appalachian Style Cooking Over the Fire * Knitting * Baby Talk and Alternative Parenting* Make Your Own Rivercane Flute * Astronomy/Star-gazing * Repurposed and Reused Materials * Cloth Diapering, Babywearing and Breastfeeding * Herbal Remedies and Tinctures * Tracking and Wildlife/Nature Awareness * Building Fire Without Matches * Foraging for Beauty * Living Gluten Free * Growing Nut Trees * Egrets Cove Intentional Community Tour * Snakes and Salamanders of Kentucky * Raising Backyard Chickens * Tree ID and Forest Ecology/Ecological Design * Wool Sewing: Belt Pouches * Paper Making * Beneficial Bacteria and Healing the Gut * Soap-Making from Goats Milk * Living on the Road Discussion Group * Dutch Oven and Cast Iron Cooking * Community Gardens * How to Play the Banjo * Making Mead * Bokashi Composting * Kentucky Wildflowers * Anarchy Discussion Group * Flint Knapping * Top Bar Beekeeping * Simple Living: Getting Your Needs Met
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The New Coon Creek Girls
The Tillers
The New Old Cavalry
Mitch Barrett
Saro
Possum Riot
Thursday Night Contra Dance with caller Joe Wilkie
Morning Circle at the Whippoorwill Festival 2012
End of the drought!
