Starwood Festival

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Logo from 1999

The Starwood Festival, or "Starwood", is a six-day festival presented by the Association for Consciousness Exploration LLC (ACE) along with many volunteers, usually during the Tuesday through Sunday that contains the 23rd of July, but always either the third or fourth week of July. It is a camping event, featuring over 150 classes on a variety of subjects ranging from magical, spiritual, and New Age topics to politics, art & music, healing, and the environment. It has been held in several locations, but since 1990 it has taken place near Sherman, New York at Brushwood Folklore Center LLC.

There are usually around 1,700 attendees including staff, speakers and entertainers each year, making Starwood the biggest festival in the American Magical Movement, and the broadest in scope. Starwood has been a ground-breaker in the Neo-Pagan Movement, though it serves other communities as well, and has demonstrated the range of possibilities for a summer festival possessing a special-interest audience, providing a common ground for networking and interaction between these communities. It recently celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2005.

The Starwood Festival has provided an important interface between members of different groups and their spokespeople, promoting cooperation on projects of common interest, and discovering that their similarities and more important than their differences and their differences are a strength and resource to be celebrated.

Many attendees and presenters have reported sunsequent involvement in the activities of other represented groups; for instance, Halim El-Dabh and Gilli Smyth of the band Gong with Timothy Leary in the early nineties. Harvey Wasserman has been interviewed and quoted in books and publicatons of the Neo-Pagan movement, an audience he was unaware of before speaking at Starwood. Halim's first-ever work with a rock group, Einstein's Secret Orchestra, began at Starwood, and Stephen Gaskin was able to promote aid for Katrina victims through Plenty International at the festival. Synergistic relationships occur regularly there, and the attendees get the opportunity to interact directly with many authors and artists at once in ways that they could not afford to or arrange for individually.

Thousands of people (some of them naked or skyclad) interested in alternative culture and spirituality converge to attend workshops and live musical performances, to sample the rituals and customs of a variety of cultures, to see the spectacle of a large bonfire, to experience multi-media presentations, and to meet with new and old friends at various social events. (The festival has, in recent times, been preceded by a smaller event run by the campground called Sirius Rising, originally created to take advantage of the many people arriving early for Starwood, especially among the merchants. This event has some similar features, and attracts an audience of similar interests; many people attend both.)

Scheduling

There are several workshops going on at almost all times of the day, totaling over 150 1-1/4 hr slots in its schedule, and an all-night drummers’ bonfire is held every night in a structure of Celtic design called the Roundhouse. There are concerts held at lunchtime each day and every night, and midnight programming that includes public rituals from at least three different spiritual paths, and all-night parties in an inflatable structure called The PufferDome. Friday night features a multi-media presentation on Brushfire Island (often including fireworks, lasers, and synchronized music), and on the final night a torchlight procession leads to a huge fireworks-stuffed Bonfire that can be seen from space that burns all night. There is drumming and dancing from Africa and many other locations, and multi-cultural presentations and classes of all sorts. Children and teens all have their own workshops and activities as well. Child-care, 12-step meetings, 24-hour first aid, and a radio station for information updates and entertainment are just a few of the services provided at Starwood.

Many well-known performers and speakers have been known to attend, such as Timothy Leary, Paul Krassner, Isaac Bonewits, Jeff Magnus McBride, the Reverend Ivan Stang (Chief Scribe of the Church of the Subgenius), Babatunde Olatunji, or the Celtic band Gaelic Storm. There are parties, Pagan rituals, and workshops covering almost any topic on alternative lifestyles, politics, pagan activism, consciousness-altering devices and substances, history, magic, and folklore. Several different religions are represented, from Wicca, Druidism to Ifa, and anyone with an open mind is welcome.

Facilities

Brushwood Folklore Center LLC provides a large wood-roofed pavilion at which the concerts and certain workshops are held, a small stage and another small wood-roofed pavilion, a poolhouse (with Jacuzzi & showers), an outdoor food court with three options (see below), the Roundhouse fire circle, a “Didge Dome”, a shower-house, a first aid station, a few flush toilets, and a non-swimmable pond with a small island. ACE brings a huge inflatable “PufferDome” and an FM radio station, a large audio-visual system at the main pavilion including P.A. and 2-screen video projection (and recording), over a dozen pavilions, and lights luminaria that line all the roads each night. Most attendees and staff sleep in tents or campers, though a few speakers and entertainers sleep in the limited rooms up the hill or off-site.

Electricity is available if needed from Brushwood (for a $10-$15 fee), and almost everything is handicap-accessible (unless it rains). Fed Ex and UPS will deliver to campsites at Brushwood, and some local food merchants will deliver to the site.

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Annual Giant Bonfire Saturday Night

In addition to the facilities provided by the camp, outside providers offer food and shopping. The central portion of the main field is designated "merchant's row" and has roughly 50 venders selling a wide variety of goods ranging from clothing, incense, religious items and mead. While many choose to embrace the camping aspect of the event and cook their own food, several options exist for those that would prefer not to.

• Phil's Grill specializes in American influenced Middle Eastern food, including many gourmet items not usually found at a campground, like portabella mushroom ravioli. On the weekends they fly in lobster to the site.
• The Blue Lady Cafe serving coffee, tea and espresso drinks as well as sandwiches, burgers and hotdogs (as well as a version of the Rochester, NY special the "garbage plate" which they call the "Pagan Plate").
• Java Junction controls a hut next to the Blue Lady Cafe that serves only pastries, coffees, and teas.
• Shelley's Cafe, located between the bar and the Java Junction hut, sells smoothies, shakes, sundaes, and assorted baked goods from sunrise to sunset.
• At night the camp opens a bar which often has pizza.

In addition many of the local Sherman New York eateries will deliver to the camp. It is not difficult to feed oneself at any of these places for less than $6 a meal. The Food Court also features a small “General Store” where many necessities can be purchased, and what isn’t there can be ordered to pick up in 24 hrs. Admission is quite reasonable considering the vast amount of offerings (under $200 pre-registered, over that at the door), ACE offers limited work-barters for those who can't afford it, doing work such as registration, child-care, information, luminaria, set-up & break-down, and other functions. Brushwood has a similar program for first aid, trash runs, guarding the gate, cleaning the showers, or watching the poolhouse.

People

At Starwood several different religions are represented, from Druidism to Ifa, and anyone with an open mind is welcome. All ages attend Starwood, and it has become the yearly vacation for some folks, with more than a generation growing up with Starwood as a part of their lives. The racial and cultural mix has become more diverse as the years progressed, as has the mix of singles and families. The event is designed for members of all spiritual orientations to share their customs and beliefs, hence neither proselytizing nor disrespect of the ways of others is tolerated. The intent is to create a community made up of very different people, all celebrating their diversity and the company of each other.

Some specific groups that regularly attend Starwood include the Church of All Worlds (CAW), the Church of the Subgenius, several Wiccan Covens, various neo-Pagans and some Druidic sects. Also, those who frequent non-religious cultural events like Burning Man, Grateful Dead concerts, Hookahville, Hempfests, and the Society for Creative Anachronism (S.C.A.) events are often participants at Starwood.

At Brushwood there are attendees called Seasonal Campers who often get the choice camping spots, as they have bought them for the summer.

There are also the fire-tenders called Woodbusters, who wear their trademark Red Suspenders, and both build the spectacular Saturday-night Bonfire and feed the Roundhouse and other ritual fires throughout the event.

The festival organizers identify themselves as a part of the Chameleon Club, which is the extended family group that created both the Association for Consciousness Exploration and its events, such as The WinterStar Symposium, The Thing in the Woods, and the SpiritDrum Festival.

Featured Speakers

Past featured speakers include:

Sikiru Adepoju, Jim Alan, AmyLee, Gavin Bone, Isaac Bonewits, David Jay Brown, Raymond Buckland, Baba Raul Canizares, Shawna Carol (Spirit song), Dennis Carpenter, Dagmar Braun Celeste, Priestess Miriam Chamani, Dennis Chernin, Phyllis Curott, Ian Corrigan, Kenn Deigh, Jim Donovan, Sally Eaton, Skip Ellison, Taylor Ellwood, Phillip H. Farber, Janet Farrar, Stewart Farrar, LaSara Firefox, Selena Fox, Gavin Frost, Yvonne Frost, Laurence Galian, Stephen Gaskin, Ina May Gaskin, Michael T. Gilbert, Jesse Wolf Hardin, Charles Hayes, Ellen Evert Hopman, Mike Ingalls, Anodea Judith, Richard Kaczynski, Lansana Kouyate, Donald Michael Kraig, Paul Krassner, Stanley Krippner, Timothy Leary, Martin A. Lee, Dr. Leisure (George Harker), Liafal, Deborah Lipp, Louis Martinie', Terence McKenna, Ralph Metzner, Patricia Monaghan, Christopher Moore, Nema, M. Macha Nightmare, Jonathan Ott, Diana L. Paxson, Christopher Penczak, Lauren Raine, Silver RavenWolf, Jeff Rosenbaum, Joseph Rothenberg, Rob Roy, Tannin Schwartzstein, Nicky Scully, Robert Shea, Elie Sheva, R. U. Sirius, Chas Smith, Abbie Spinner, Ivan Stang, Jay Stevens, Patricia Telesco, Harvey Wasserman, Don Waterhawk, Robert Anton Wilson, Fred Alan Wolf, Oberon Zell Ravenheart, Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart

Featured entertainers

Past featured entertainers, many of whom also offered classes, include:

Matthew Abelson, Todd Alan, Alma Melodiosa, Amampondo, Anima Mundi, ArcheDream, Armor & Sturtevant, Awen, Babatunde Olatunji & Drums of Passion, Baka Beyond, The Bardos, John Bassette, Michael Bettine, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Big Village Band, Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express, Buddhahood, Burning Sage, Centrak Lasers, Chameleon, Changeling, Chaotic Good, Darryl Cherney, Cyro Baptista & Beat the Donkey, Yaya Diallo, Djoliba, Drumplay, Einstein’s Secret Orchestra, Halim El-Dabh, Felonious Bosch, Gaelic Storm, Green Crown, Brian Henke, Incus, Janah, Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius, Stephen Kent, Kenny & Tziporah Klein, Kiva, Lia Fail, Life in Balance, Maggi, Pierce & E.J., Jeff Magnus McBride, Merl Saunders & the Rainforest Band, Airto Moreira, Muruga Booker, Nada Brahma, No Reservations, One Hat Band, Oroboros, Paprika, Wynne Paris, Owain Phyffe, P.L.U.S. Band, The Prodigals, Raquy & the Cavemen, Real Magic, Rhythm Alive!, RhythmQuest, Rogue’s Cross, Badal Roy, S.A.F.M.O.D., Jim Scott of Paul Winter Consort, Seeds of Time, Shaman, Ron Slabe, Gilli Smyth of Gong, Something Else Again, Sona, Trance Mission, Tribe of Spirit, Victoria Ganger & Revelry, Jim Volk, The Working Theatre, Yokeshire.

External links

• The Starwood Festival web page