Lineup*
Musicians/Speakers/Storytelling&Performance/Kids&Youth Making Art/Social Justice/Sacred Space
Welcome to the lineup page of the Wild Goose Festival! Within these pages you will find everything you need to know about the incredible people who are giving of their time and talents to be at this first year festival. The lineup speaks for itself...The Wild Goose Festival promises to be a truly extra-ordinary event. Be sure to check back periodically as we continue to confirm musicians, speakers, and performers.
But we're not stopping at an incredible lineup...we're working hard to carry that unique flavor into every dimension of the festival. Our food vendors and exhibitors are being drawn from the local area to represent the character of North Carolina. From a vendor who serves ostrich and emu burgers, to southern barbeque, and a local brewery with whom we are currently negotiating to create a specific Wild Goose brew for the festival...prepare to have your mind, soul and tastebuds dancing.
Beyond the incredible food, artisans from across North Carolina will be coming to the festival to showcase their wares and art and local non-profit organizations will be on hand to talk about the work being done in this incredibly vibrant and diverse state.
So get started by taking a look at the lineup and we'll look forward to seeing you at The Wild Goose Festival!
*all muscians, speakers, and performances are subject to change
You might be wondering about these occasional messages you're getting from the 'Wild Goose Festival.' Perhaps they've been heading straight to the 'delete' bin - which is one reason that I wanted to reach out to you personally today. You're getting these messages because someone who cares about you has invited you to the inaugural happening of a most unique event. We all get unwanted messages, so I want to help you out: If you can take 90 seconds to read what I have to say about this festival that your friends are attending, you can either be all-in as attending yourself, or mark yourself as 'Not Attending' and never get one of these messages from us again. Sound like a deal? Let's proceed...
As you may have heard, the Wild Goose Festival is taking place for the first time this June 23-26, at Shakori Hills, near Raleigh-Durham, NC: We're gathering at the intersection of justice, spirituality and art with the firm intention of becoming a unique and significant space promoting social change in the US and elsewhere. Our roots in the traditions of social justice, creativity, and Celtic spirituality are perhaps most clearly exemplified by our friends at the Greenbelt Festival in the UK. Greenbelt has had as many as 30,000 people attend, and has become a culture-shaping movement in Europe. We want Wild Goose to do the same in North America. I’m writing to you today to ask you to be part of the founding Wild Goose community by buying your ticket and encouraging your friends to do the same.
Greenbelt has, over the years, seen provocative engagements from speakers, performers and musicians like Rowan Williams, Anita Roddick, U2, Bruce Cockburn, Richard Rohr, and Michael Franti. The Jubilee 2000 campaign to end developing world debt was launched at the festival; Greenbelt has become a UK center for spiritual activism on climate change, poverty, social inclusion, and prejudice. But it wasn't always like this. Once upon a time, Greenbelt had only a few hundred people show up to a farm in England, in 1974. This original Greenbelt community gave birth to the festival that has become the axis of the year for so many people. A space where tens of thousands of people come to connect with friends and make new ones; to experience kaleidoscopic art; to be intellectually transformed and resourced for activism; and to have a fantastic time.
Wild Goose can become something similar - but not without your help. Just as Greenbelt depended on early adopters to get the festival off the ground, Wild Goose will only take flight if people like you come to the first festival.
I'm privileged to serve as Executive Director of the Wild Goose Festival, and I can say without hesitation that this first year has the most diverse, provocative, entertaining, and just darn exciting lineup of speakers, musicians, performers (and food vendors!) I've ever seen in the US. (Haven't seen our just-rolled-out lineup yet? Stop reading this & go to http://www.wildgoosefestival.org/festival-info/lineup/ right now!) We're seeking to build a festival that will collapse hierarchies between performers and the audience - so we'll all have the chance to interact with each other as equals. This really is your festival to make of what you wish. If you want to debate Jim Wallis about the future of US politics, go to a workshop led by Richard Rohr, have a conversation with Phyllis Tickle about the future of spirituality in America, or listen to civil rights hero Dr Vincent Harding imagine how we can pursue the teachings of his friend Martin Luther King today; if you want to perform your music in the same programme as Michelle Shocked, Derek Webb and David Wilcox; if you want to interact with Native American liturgy, or interfaith conversations, or engage with our major social justice theme of prison and restorative justice; if you want to be part of conversations about urban violence and foreign policy, movies and spirituality, or sexuality and theology, then you should come to Wild Goose, because we're offering all of this and more.
Your willingness to come, and to contribute financially by buying a ticket today will make you part of a potential tipping point in the history of justice, faith and creativity in North America. Just as it is for the people who came to the first Greenbelt, being part of the first Wild Goose Festival will carry a significant legacy.
So I'm asking you to become part of the original Wild Goose Festival community: to join the group of people who are and always will be responsible for kicking off this important movement that already has a great history through our sister festival in Europe. It's a chance to be part of something bigger than yourself, and to genuinely help make it happen. We're not asking you to join a church, or to make a daily commitment, or to do something that you don't already want to do. We're asking you to become part of something that could actually help change our society for the better. And because - like it or not - the US still extends huge influence around the world, maybe Wild Goose will have a reach far beyond the borders of the country where it's taking place.
Can I count on you to do two things?
1: Please buy your ticket to the festival TODAY at http://wildgoose.eventbrite.com/ Our ticket price is subsidized to be as low as possible; there are good rates for families and groups; and the price must go up as we near the festival. In fact, if you can purchase your tickets before next Wednesday, March 23, at midnight, you can get a significant discount by entering the code 'Original-Goose' at the checkout.
2: Please commit to recruiting 3 other people to attend. We have limited the number of tickets to help nurture a community spirit - but we want you to bring your friends. We expect tickets to sell out, and after this has happened, we cannot add anymore tickets for sale. So don't wait: buy your tickets today. Copy & paste this message to your friends, or let them know about the EventBrite discount code above.
This first Wild Goose Festival will be a gathering we all remember - I hope you'll want to be a part of the original Wild Goose community. We can only do this together; and if we do it, the possibilities are endless.
Please feel free to contact me at any time with your questions or hopes for the first Wild Goose Festival.
In peace and anticipation,
Gareth
