Wild Goose Festival Reflection

This post is part of the july synchroblog – an eclectic bunch of bloggers writing on the same topic.  This month is centered on the wild goose festival, a justice-arts-spirituality festival held the last week of june in North Carolina.  This synchroblog will include stories from the gathering as well as from those who couldn’t go, centered on what the wild goose (the celtic image of the Holy Spirit) is stirring up for us.  The links so far are at the bottom of this post, with more to come as they get posted. 

My family recently came back from the first ever Wild Goose Festival in NC and I've got some thoughts about it. Rather than type them all out, I'll deep link to each topic of my reflection. If you don't have the time or care to watch the whole thing, clicking any of the below will open up the specific point. And if you are only going to listen to one, I guess it would be number five, on gatekeeping. That, or listen to Kristina in the second one.

First Topic: Thanks to Shay, The Anarchist Reverend, for his faithful (and tough) work to call us to acknowledge the lack of holistic inclusion of trans* and Queer folk at The Festival.

Second Topic: Families, nursing moms, and babies

Third Topic: Speakers vs. Workshops; Heirarchies; and Celebrity-less, Ground-Up design.

Fourth Topic: Time for reflection, silence, contemplation, and prayer

Fifth Topic: Gatekeeping

Sixth Topic: My intense gratitude for the Festival and all who were a part, in any way, shape, or form.

Thanks goes out to Kathy Escobar, a fellow Synchro Blogger, from whom I copied this list: 

• Kathy Escobar – Dreamers, lovers & status quo rockers

• Anna Snoeyenbos – Wild Goose Festival – A Spirit of Life Revival

• Lee Smith – Goose Bumps: Opportunities Everywhere for Offense. A Fair and Objective Review

• Ryan Hines – 30 Years Later – “Controversy” at Wild Goose

• Karyn Wiseman – Flying With the Goose

• Kyla Cofer – I went to the Wild Goose Fest and came back in love

• Brian Gerald Murphy – Born Again (Again) at Wild Goose

• Chris Lenshyn – Chasing the Wild Goose

• Cherie at Renaissance Garden – Wild Goose Return

• Deborah Wise – Wild Goose Chasing

• Custodianseed – “every day they eat boiled goose”

• Will Norman – Back from the Wild Goose Fest

• Martin Turnidge – Greenbelt and the Wild Goose

• Kerri at Practicing Contemplative – Waterfowl in My Life

• Allison Leigh Lilley – Chasing the Wild Goose and Catching the Wild Goose: Thanks and First Thoughts

• Abbie Waters – Jessica: A Fable

• Steve Knight – Why Wild Goose Festival Was So Magical

• Tammy Carter – Visual Acuity and Flying

• Michelle Thorburg Hammond – I heart Jay Bakker and Peter Rollins

• Matthew Bolz-Weber – Remembering Wild Goose

• Paul Fromberg – Celebrating Interdependence Day

• David Zimmerman – Wild Goose Festival: A Recap

• Dan Brennan – U2, the Wild Goose, and Deep Freedom

• Mike Croghan – The Wild Goose is Not Safe

• John Martinez – The Table

• Callid Keefe-Perry – Gatekeeping the Goose

• Eric Elnes – The Inaugural Wild Goose Festival: Recovering Something Lost

• Shay Kearns – The Power of a T-Shirt, Apologizing to Over the Rhine, and Public vs. Private (Part One)

• Glen Reteif – Duck Duck Goose

• Peterson Toscano – I’ve Been Goosed, What I Carried Into Wild Goose, and What I Blurted Out at Wild Goose

• Seth Donovan – About More than “The Gays”