Jo and I just returned from the Starwood Festival XXIX, which spanned July 21-26, 2009 in Sherman, New York. It was our third Starwood Festival and hopefully not our last!

The event, though thoroughly enjoyable, was somewhat marred by incessant rain. The rain kept quite a few attendees and vendors away. A hail forecast before the final night saw even more people leave. The hail, however, fortunately bypassed the event. Some attendees referred to this Starwood as “Squishwood II” (named in honor of Starwood 2003; which was washed out) or “Wetstock” (in homage to Woodstock).

The Starwood Festival on its website claims to be “the largest Pagan/Magickal/Consciousness gathering in North America (perhaps the world),” although Wikipedia amends this to “the largest annual Neo-pagan gathering and festival on the East Coast of the United States.” Whatever the case, Starwood Festivals provide incredible multifaceted experiences for the 1500 or so people who attend.

The Starwood Festival is put on by the Association for Consciousness Exploration (A.C.E.) and the Chameleon Club.

A.C.E. is directed by Jeff Rosenbaum and Joseph Rothenberg. They are assisted by numerous people, many of whom are members of Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship, Inc. (ADF), such as the prolific author Ian Corrigan and his wife Liafal, as well as master brewer A J Gooch and his wife Steph. Other contributors are the developer of the infamous tag and release program for Hippies, Bruce, and his wife Linda, as well as expert photographer Mike.

There are so many people who contribute to the success of the Starwood Festival that it would be an onerous task to list them all. There are those who take care of administrative tasks, the builders of the bonfire (the climax event on Saturday night), security, and the all important sanitation people and garbage collectors. The arrival of the garbage collectors was always heralded by their Monty Pythonish cry “bring out your dead!”

Jo and I were fortunate to camp at “The Grove,” which is where many of the A.C.E. staff are based. The epicenter of The Grove is the soup kitchen run by Norm, who while a saint to many, prefers the title Bodhisattva. His reward in <insert name of afterlife of choice> will surely be great. Norm’s task for A.C.E. is to provide transportation for many featured guests. He is an unsung hero who provides nourishment for the hungry, which he pays for out of his own pocket, so please remember to make a small contribution to help him out should you find yourself sampling his famous soupe du jour.

The Starwood Festival caters to a wide range of ages amongst attendees, who range from youngsters and teenagers up to those who are former flower children and deadheads.

The older attendees have given rise to the perception amongst many that the Starwood Festival is all about recreating the Hippie experience. While this is undoubtedly true for some, the younger attendees provide a totally different spin to things. As an example, assisting Norm in The Grove was a young gentleman in his 20s called Ben. On bonfire night Ben revealed that he was actually a Space Ranger who had been sent from the future to look after us, in what should now be referred to as “Sector 4.” Ben’s peers were quick to jump on the bandwagon, excited to be part of a Space Ranger camp. The exciting thing about Starwood is that on bonfire night, everyone parties together regardless of age and proclivities. What a wonderful tolerant place the world would be, if it was more like Starwood. <sigh>

The Starwood Festival experience is all about partying for some. There’s no need to wait for bonfire night, however, as there are small drum circles centered around fires every night of the week. There are also numerous bands to enjoy, which this year included The Rainforest Band as well as Raquy and the Cavemen.

I heard apocryphal tales of those who have been known to disappear for the duration of the festival and go feral, turning temporarily into a modern day wild child, only to reappear on the last day looking somewhat dishevelled. While these tales smack of urban myths, they may well have a kernel of truth, and so it’s important to keep an open mind.

Sadly lacking at this year’s Starwood Festival were the monkey clan, so named because of their propensity for producing monkey-like hoots at the sight of intruders to their camping area. Present, however, was their best known member, Mark a.k.a. “bucket man” so named because of his plastic bucket filled with magckal jungle juice, which he holds aloft with all the solemnity befitting the Holy Grail.

Others attend the huge range of workshops available, which typically number about 150. The workshops range from the serious, such as those put on by Isaac Bonewits, to those aimed at children such as those by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, to the absolutely hilarious put on by the ever popular Rev Ivan Stang and his Church of the SubGenius.

With Jo’s help, I ran four of my workshops, which were well received:

* Introduction to Graeco-Egyptian Magick

* Set: Evil or Misunderstood?

* Selênê

* Necromancy in the Ancient World

It seems that there is always a market for a scholarly approach to authentic ancient magick. Speaking of scholars, I was thrilled to have my friend Elisheva, seer chieftain and mediator of the USA Am Ha Aretz a.k.a. AMHA a tradition of Israeli Nature Spirituality attend my workshop, Necromancy in the Ancient World. She is a veritable walking encyclopedia of Hebrew spirituality.

As always, I incorporated short chats about the important work being done by Cherry Hill Seminary (CHS) within all my workshops. Supplementing the CHS chat during my first workshop, Introduction to Graeco-Egyptian Magick, was Rev Kirk Thomas, ADF Vice-Archdruid and President of CHS.

During the week of the Starwood Festival, the campsite takes on the appearance of a small village. Many attendees come to the festival year after year, and camp in exactly the same spot. This leads to an eerie sense of familiarity and a definite feeling of a home away from home. Friendships were easily rekindled after a gap of a year. Attendees caught in sudden rainstorms would find themselves running into strange tents to find shelter, and invariably finding a warm welcome with the occasional dry towel and hot drink being offered.

While the downpour was challenging for humans, it created a bountiful feast for a couple of tenacious robins who took full advantage of the propensity of the rain for forcing worms out of their hiding holes. The robins looked distinctly plumper by the end of the festival!

Having survived bonfire night, Sunday morning saw most of the attendees bringing down their tents and packing. You can’t help but have a sense of sadness watching the Starwood village disperse to the four winds, knowing that it’ll be a year before you see most of the people again. While the Internet facilitates keeping in touch, there’s something impersonal about it that cannot match up to actual face to face contact.

Those of us who were still at the campground on Sunday afternoon were treated to a rainbow as the rain finally came to an end. After a few minutes a second fainter rainbow appeared to the left of the original rainbow. It was a beautiful bonding moment for the large group of us standing next to The Grove, a moment which finally brought our Hippie experience to completion…

For me, the Starwood Festival experience first and foremost is about family. It’s an event where you can be yourself in an accepting, tolerant and safe environment. In this respect it is like other pagan festivals, just bigger. While being bigger can sometimes mean impersonal, in the case of the Starwood Festival, it means a large family, more close friends and a greater ability to increase the numbers of both!

Posted by Tony Mierzwicki
Filed under: Events, Starwood
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