I wrote this ages ago and simply forgot to post it. Bunches of you were curious what the Harmony Festival is Santa Rosa was all about, so here are the details so you can put it on your calendar for next year!

This week, I left work behind and spent two days enjoy the Harmony Festival in Santa Rosa, California (which my three year old Siena calls “The Hominy Vegetable”- tee hee). For those who couldn’t make it, I wanted to share a little of the groovy love you missed. Since I’ve never been to a Dead show or Burning Man, I figure this is as close as I’m gonna get- and DAMN, it was fun! Contact high aside, I just loved the peaceful vibe, the Goddessy energy, the inspired music, the raw foods, and the kick-ass people watching. Made me feel like a total PINK GODDESS with majo MOJO!

What To See


The festival was divided up into the Healing Sanctuary, the Crafters Village, the Kids Village, the Harmony Altar, the Goddess Grove, the Eco Village, and the Wellness Pavilion. Guess which was my favorite? (Bueller….Bueller….) YOU GUESSED! Yup, it was the Goddess Grove, where Siena and I got our faces painted by way cool Pink Goddess Ronnie.

The Red Tent, where they did programs for Moms and their adolescent daughters, was a way cool place to chill out, meditate, draw and appreciate your Yoni, and absorb the energy of awesome Goddesses. In fact, there was massive Goddess energy everywhere in the Goddess Grove. Even Matt loved the girly vibe there. I had to drag him out kicking and screaming (Okay, so Matt loves women. He’s never been a drag-your-knuckles, let’s-watch-sports kind of dude. He’s much more at home with the Goddesses. Lucky me!)

The other two places I loved were the Harmony Altar and the Healing Sanctuary. The Harmony Altar was a six-pointed star meditation tent surrounded by a series of altars- the release altar, the grief altar, the growing altar, and so on. We passed by it, and Siena said, “I want to meditate!” I asked her if she knew what meditation was, and she shook her head. When I told her it means you have to be still and quiet, she said, “I wanna be still and quiet,” so off we went to the meditation tent. I have to give her credit. While she wasn’t still, she was indeed quiet. She poked around the tent, peaking at the meditating folks, but mostly enjoyed lying on pillows, closing her eyes, and snuggling with us. Nothing like a bit of down time in the middle of a crowded festival- my kind of festival! Me, I did the altar rounds, writing things I wanted to release on slips of paper to add to the bowl that would be burned later, and writing what I still grieve to honor those I’ve lost. Lovely.

The Healing Sanctuary had a hanging bed (that Siena totally freaked out over- couldn't get her off it without a fit), massage therapists, energy healers, sound healers, and all sorts of other goodness.

Of course, needless to say, Siena’s fave was the Kid’s Village, where she laughed to a magic show, played in a giant caterpillar float, and decorated a car with recycled magic markers.

What To Hear

My favorite performer at the Harmony Festival was Astarius Miracularus (isn’t that the best name? Aren’t you jealous you don’t have it? I am!) Astarius, a sound healer, played the digeridoo over in the Healing Sanctuary, and I sat up front to make sure I got fully healed by his beautiful tones. What started as a small crowd of meditating folks turned into a huge ring of soulful spirits who listened to Astarius and his Acension rap, which was like beautiful performance poetry but in the form spiritual teaching. The energy he created under that bamboo temple was holy. Can’t really describe it in words, but if you ever get the chance to see him, you’ll see what I mean. Way cool PINK God. I bought 2 CD’s.

My other fave was Matisyahu, the Hasidic Jew reggae singer, who kicked some reggae butt. But his was more of the big stage thing. Astarius in the bamboo temple was more my style. What about you? Any of you go to the Harmony Festival? What did you like? I had a three year old in tow, so unfortunately we couldn’t stay for Michael Franti and India Arie, the singers I most wanted to see, since we had to get Siena home to bed. Bummer (but oh, she's so worth it!)
 

Matisyahu

What To Eat?

You gotta love an outdoor festival where you have a hard time choosing between the multiple vegan, even raw, foods. I chose Lydia’s Lovin’ Foods, where I had the raw marinated curred veggies with raw “rice.” YUM! At another Bliss booth, we snacked on raw hummus, a raw “taco” with nut pate, and a veggie nori roll. Wow- choices! Gotta love that (but Lydia's was the bomb!)

What To Drink?

So there was plenty of beer and organic wine around, but around mid-day in the hot sun, Matt and I were missing our green juices and were fortunate to discover the Billy’s Infinity Greens booth. They were serving up ice cold green superfoods drinks- we had three cups each and bought two big containers to take with us next week when we’ll be away from our trusty juicer. That way, although we won't have easy access to kale, cucumber, celery, and sprouts, we'll still have spirulina, blue-green algae, stinging nettles, maca root, goji berry, acai berry, kelp, dulse, probiotics, essential fatty acids, and all kinds of other good green stuff.Will we come back next year? My PINK crystal ball tells me yes, indeed.

Groovy PINK Love to you,

Lissa