Press release follows for the annaul Firefly Gathering outside of Asheville. The event got a nice mention on Boing Boing yesterday:
Survival is only the beginning. What we are talking about is re-discovering what your body, mind, and spirit were made for. Exposing yourself to skills that may make your heart sing, you can help make our world a better place and learn to thrive in any environment, no matter the state of the world. And you can have fun doing it. Wild foods, gardening, archery, shelter-making, wilderness medicine, bowmaking, animal tracking, Cherokee storytelling, and canoeing, are just a few of the classes and activities scheduled for the fifth annual Firefly Gathering being held over the summer solstice, June 21-24, 2012, at Camp Pinnacle outside of Asheville.
The Firefly Gathering is a multi-day instructional and community-building event in the mountains of North Carolina, offering a diversity of programs to support grassroots sustainability. The weekend features over 200 educational classes for young and old alike, from the arts of our ancestors to classes in modern-day sustainable technology like solar energy, permaculture, and biofuels. A day might be spent making woodcarving, shooting arrows, and sustainable urban gardening, while evenings might be spent “round the campfire,” with other like-minded families and individuals, waltzing, listening to a talk on wild foods, or off doing one’s own thing.
All activities at Firefly are optional. Almost 100 master-teachers from across the region are contributing their skills and talents to this event including: naturalist and storyteller Doug Elliot, Juliet Blankenspoor (www.chestnutherbs.com), Natalie Bogwalker (www.WildAbundance.net), Steve Torma (www.TheRealCenter.org), Alan Muskat (www.AlanMuskat.com), Patricia Allison (www.PatriciaAllison.net), Chuck and Peggy Patrick (www.ChuckandPeggyPatrick.com), Miranda Norlin and her pack goats (www.sites.google.com/site/2creeksgoats/testing), musician and flute maker Hawk Hurst (www.hawkhurstflutes.com), and the Brittain family, who will be doing traditional archery all weekend long. The four-day event starts June 21.
For those who want to go deeper with these skills, post-camp intensives sessions are June 28 to July 1. Intensives include shoemaking, traditional building, bow-making, animal husbandry, and when there is no hospitial – wilderness medicine in uncertain times. Also, an exciting first-ever kid’s program intensive. Admission is based on a sliding scale and includes on-site camping, facilities and access to all classes. Cabins are available on the website. Pre-registration is recommended for those wishing to stay overnight, as space for camping is limited.
To register go to www.fireflygathering.org. WHAT: Fifth Annual Firefly Gathering
WHEN: June 21-24 with post-camp intensives June 28 – July 1
WHERE: Camp Pinnacle, Hendersonville, NC COST: Full Pass $100-300 sliding scale, Day Pass $35 -$100, Kids reduced rates
FOR MORE INFORMATION visit http://www.fireflygathering.org