Maiden Awakens April 23-26, 2009
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GUIDE (CON'T) Determine beforehand if you are going to party and drink a lot at the festival or is the festival going to be more spiritual for you. Camp with people of like mind. If you camp next to ten frat boys don’t be surprised at 3am if there is a whole lotta noise going on. Quiet camping spots will be available. On Saturday at Festival we highly recommend you come to Seneca's Newcomer's Meet n Greet held at the Caffeination Station at 11 PM. This is a great way to get first hand information about ESA, meet some of the Staff and get to know others, as well as plenty of caffeine to get rid of the previous nights cobwebs. You should know your own body’s nutritional requirements better than anyone. Bring the kind of food that you know that you’ll require, and bring sufficient quantities for the time that you’ll be at the Festival. Keep in mind the requirements for preparation. You will need some kind of plates, bowls, and flatware. Balance the environmental impact of disposable (picnic type) paper and plastic tableware, with the impact of washing dishes. If you do bring disposable, paper is a better environmental choice than styrofoam. Bring foods that require little on site work. If you are the kind of person who enjoys preparing large meals at your camp, be generous and plan on having friends! A final note on food—we share the planet and the site with many other species. Unless you want to share your food with the ants, keep it in sealed containers. Unless you want to share your tent with the ants, remember that they’ll find their way into any container eventually (food in your tent is a bad idea). The rules of basic food handling apply in the campground as well. Food that must be kept cold must still be kept cold. Periodically check the condition of your ice chest, and add ice when it gets low. The ice will keep much longer if you can keep your ice chest out of direct Sunlight, even a light towel thrown over an ice chest will add hours to the time that the ice in your chest will last. A wet towel is better and adds to the cooling effects due to evaporation. Ice may be available on site or ice runs will be made daily into town. You might want to plan on bringing at least on pre-prepared pot luck dish with you since pot lucks have become an ESA mainstay and there is usually at least one large community pot luck held during festival. Everyone at Evermore (ESA's festival village), is welcome to participate in the pot lucks. For a few days prior to the Festival, check weather forecasts. It will be cooler at night in Bastrop County than the nearby cities. Take this in mind when selecting your wardrobe for the weekend. It will probably be quite warm during the day, it will possibly turn quite cool in the evenings. Bring something warm to wear. On the ranch, clothing is optional only in Aphrodite's Grove, a large portion of the land, but secluded from prying eyes of neighbors and those members who are uncomfortable with total nudity. Nudity for spiritual purposes is acceptable at many rituals outside of Aphrodite's Grove but never in the community main ritual area , or any of the other common areas of the community. Remember there are those among us who do not include nudity in their spirituality; so please inquire at a ritual before tossing the loincloth. Toplessness both male and female is permitted anywhere on the Ranch with the exception of right along the road into the ranch where the public may look in. A sarong or rap pants, affectionately known as “Pagan Formal Wear” is acceptable everywhere. Remember, sunburn hurts. Bring sunscreen, and wear it, whatever else you wear or don’t wear. Renew your sunscreen after showering. However you may choose to dress, a comfortable pair of shoes is essential. The site is in near natural condition. You were planning to keep those feet weren’t you? There is no mesquite and nearly no cactus, but there are ants and sticker burrs. Shoes are a must have. There is now a dedicated "vendor's village", and vendors often attend festival. These people will have a diverse selection of wares for sale. In this area you can purchase everything from T-shirts to books to that perfect Magickal artifact that you’ve been seeking. Be sure to leave room in your budget for that. Please support our Pagan vendors and musicians. Our community is richer for their hard work, risk taking and artistry. Between Thursday and Sunday, most of us will choose to take at least one bath! The ranch has showers, but you will need your own towels, soap, and shampoo. Those who don’t shower, please stand downwind! If you have prescriptions, bring them if you have any chronic medical needs, but keep your needs in mind. Over the counter medications are available at the local General Store in Red Rock, but its safest to bring your own. If you have any condition of which you would like the first aid staff to be aware, be prepared to tell them. The a first aid station that can help with minor medical problems, but problems beyond basic first aide will require you to see your own doctor, drive to the hospital, or our first aide staff will call an ambulance in a dire emergency. Keep in mind that costs for an ambulance is astronomical and you will pay as much as $900.00 for the trip to the hospital. Your medications will be there only if you bring them. At ESA we stress personal responsibility so by looking out for your own needs first, you lessen the load on others. During the festival, we will have porta potties to supplement the flush toilets. The chemical toilets porta cans, etc. will be cleaned and replenished during the event. If you have children, please help them through their first experience with a chemical toilet. We don’t want any kids to turn into a turd wrestler at the festival. Remember the ‘LEAVE NO TRACE’ theme of our festivals. Should you find someone else’s bit of escaped trash, please place it into the nearest trash barrel. Since the site spends most of the year in a “natural state,” it is populated by a vast and varied quantity of the wonderful native flora and fauna that mother has endowed us with. The birds and mammals that live on the land present little danger to adults, but the reptiles, insects and arachnids could ruin your day. We have a flock of wild peacocks and a flock of wild turkeys that wander around the Ranch, so if you wake up at 5 am hearing a strange cookooing sound and see some freaky birds its not the drinks you imbibed last night unless the birds are real big and yellow, and then it may be that famous Greathorned yellow ‘BigBird’ I saw last festival. One trippy young lady swore she saw a monkey but I bet it was just festival staffers. But I digress..., remember this is their home, most of us are just visitors and guests of Mother Nature. Should you encounter a snake, do not antagonize it. Report it to festival staff and unless the snake has a ticket, it will be removed from the site. This is also true of the famous Texas Two Legged Snake, watch out for these guys especially at festivals. The ants are there to help remove any food that you may abandon (or simply leave out). The spiders and scorpions are not aggressive; if you leave them alone, they will return the favor. If you have children, explain the situation to them. We don’t kill anything at the Ranch for the sake of killing, even the bugs. If they are in your personal space, deal with them as your conscience dictates, but we don’t as an organization do blanket spraying of bugs before or after a festival. We have a flock of wild peacocks that wander around the Ranch, so if you wake up at 5 am hearing a strange cookooing sound and see some freaky birds its not the drinks you imbibed last night unless the birds are real big and yellow, and then it may be that famous Greathorned Speaking of kids, there is a kids play area, “Munchkinland”, with a dedicated fenced in area (located in the middle of the main common areas of the land for easy supervision by parents), and great play equipment. Childcare is not provided by the organization, but is usually a cooperative effort between parents. ESA has child activity coordinators who have volunteered through their love of children and whose main goal is to make a fun and safe activity area, with age appropriate activities to make it fun for the children in Munchkinland; however, they are not there for the exclusive purpose of childcare. That responsibility will always lie with parents. Finally, the members of the ESA’s Festival Staff, and numerous volunteers can easily be recognized by the laminated tags that they wear or by the golf carts [Webslinger note: Hey! Where's MY golf cart?!?] they are driving around in. If you have questions or problems, they can help. A special class of volunteers are the Green Men. These wonderful people have volunteered to provide assistance, and minimize safety hazards during the event. Greenfolk on duty have access to radios that can speed up the resolution of most problems that you may bring to them. Greenfolk are not cops so don’t freak. They are there to help and can bring needed resolution to most minor issues requiring a decision. After reading all of this, I hope that you will prepare a checklist for yourself, with a list of all of those things that you may feel that you need. The Festivals sponsored by the EARTH SPIRIT ALLIANCE are wondrous weekends of Magickal experiences shared with Magickal folks. After your first festival, you will look forward to all your festivals where you will meet people, and their ideas, and share in the experiences and share in the wonderful diversity of mindset, philosophy, lifestyle and surroundings that make our way of life special. Med Man is a solitaire, who follows a Stregan (mostly) drug free path, paradoxically, with a drug addict best friend twin brother from a different mother and a pharmacist lifemate. He is usually good for a funny story, a beer and advice on politics, religion and the local restaurants in the Blarney, Texas area. When you are in the Blarney area, look up the Med Man and lets have a pulled pork BBQ Sandwich and a big red red <Page 1
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