The 9th Annual Jackalope Freedom Festival kicks off this weekend, running through the next weekend (1st-10th), out in the beautiful forested hills of north-eastern Arizona!
From the description of Jackfest:
At Jackalope you will experience liberty loving individuals coming together to connect with each other. This years theme is art and music. There are no registration fees, or camping fees. Jackalope is completely FREE to camp, Vend, and Attend. Any artists, activists, musicians, natural builders, land patent specialists, agorists and other freedom loving people are welcome to come. Jackalopes abide by the non-aggression principle. Musicians, speakers, and performers can access the stage through spontaneous order and are encouraged to organize among themselves. People barter/trade as well as accept silver, gold, bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies. So bring your goods and services. There will be a Jackalope Hunt for the kids, a Survival Shelter Competition, and a Mesh Network Competition.
I attended once in 2016, just after joining STEEM, and wrote these two articles about that trip. This year, I'll be doing at least one presentation / Q&A on the HIVE blockchain, as well as creating free accounts for people.
But what I'm really here to tell you about is a beautiful co-creation that is unfolding, the...
This year's Rainbow Gathering had a huge amount of FB drama and COVID-Karens trying to stop it from happening. As a result, a HUGE portion of the kitchens & camps that often set things up didn't show up, including Instant Soup, where I usually spend my gatherings.
The beautiful thing that came out of this (besides the most peaceful & relaxed Gathering I've attended) was that a group of us came together to form a kitchen: Instant Tribe. The name referred to the way in which our project came together "instantly" (in just a week or two), as well as it being made up of folks from Instant Soup & Tribal Vision.
During that whole, wonderful, week-long experience feeding people & camping together, I was telling folks about Jackfest, since it was the next event I was excited to attend. Turns out, between how awesome decentralized events are, and how many events have been cancelled due to the Global Economic Reset of 2020, lots of folks were excited to come out as well. Since we had hundreds of pounds of food left over from Rainbow, and most all of us create things and do services of various kinds, we decided to create little marketplace.
After a little over a week on the 40' bus, we're now on the land (well, some of us), and building our structures, digging trenches (it's monsoon season), and creating the space for one epic time in the woods!
The view from our kitchen onto the meadow
The Cafe
There isn't a full menu worked up or anything, but obviously the food will be organic, vegan, and delicious. We're going to be offering dinner each evening, which will be pay-what-you-want / donation-based, as well as various super-food beverages, herbal teas, and some rotating options like salad rolls, and nut-butter-filled-dates.
Though many of the smaller things will be "sold," as I mentioned the meals will all be pay-what-you-want, and we are also accepting donations of food for those meals. My big rules for what I cook & serve are: Vegan, non-GMO, no un-named ingredients ("artificial" or "natural" flavors, colors, etc.) preferably organic, no soy, no gluten.
If you just need something real quick to eat, we will also have tons of bars, nut & seed blends, and other grab & go snacks at the market.
Some of the offerings you can expect
There are a pretty good number of us coming together to create this space, and I don't know what all folks are bringing, but so far I have this list of items that will be on site:
- Stickers & Buttons
- Literature
- Jewelry
- Tye Dye
- Silver Rounds
- Crystals & Gems
- Hemp wicks & other smoking materials
- Herbal tinctures & salves
- Hand roasted coffee
- CBD Honey
- Massage
- Tarot
- Various other things I won't list online