I'm so curious to see what happens here on this 'Festival & Space Maker Network', and just in general our local cultural growth over time. Thank you to everyone that puts blood, sweat and tears into making it happen. 🥰 I decided to take a little time to share what this all <waves hands generally> means to me. Dancing under the stars and on the farms, getting sweaty and silly with friends and strangers, dressing up, showing up a bit bigger and bolder than usual (and closer to who I really am). For me, it comes down to this: I am seeking ritual, and I am seeking belonging. And these moments, these weekends, these hugs, these sunrises on the dance floor, are part of how I find them. To me it feels like the default world, western capitalist hegemony doesn’t make much room for ritual. It doesn't really teach people about marking transitions or tending to our longings in communal ways. And I've so appreciative to see people in my community putting time and care into this. From cold water dipping circles to cacao ceremonies, from Dance Temple to late-night fire-side truths, to men's and women's circles, we are building rituals together—sometimes clumsy, sometimes sacred, but always meaningful. These are small acts of collective re-enchantment and a reminder that magic and the mundane are both important (hopefully more and more magic though!) For me, festivals are not just parties, they’re temporary temples. They offer space for play, for presence, and for purposeful connection. I've been to Burning Man multiple times, and I'm curious about Shambhala and Bass Coast, however I have made a conscious decision to prioritize local festivals like Pachena Bay, Otherworld, and next year’s Dance Temple Gathering, because they connect me to the people I live alongside year-round. It just feels "right" to be dancing beside the same people I might run into at the farmers’ market or at a business mixer, or grabbing a coffee. We’re not just co-partiers, we belong to the same community... and to each other.

Hey all, we have plans to create a digital extension of Pachena Bay as well as add some info to the long shot learning lab for those who are interested in knowing more about HOW & WHY we do this work. At the moment that section is fairly dorment aside from some personal writings. As time moves forward we will be looking at ways of offering educational content with different presentions and classes held in this section by any number of people and topics (related to community building and music) Have any of you done much online workshops, classes or other interesting ways to learn indivigally and also as a group digitally? This platform has a decent live hangout where we could enable mic and video for group interaction. We are serious about building this site together and interested in your experiences with digital learning. Good and bad of course.

Most social platforms are engineered to hijack your chemistry — rapid dopamine spikes, cortisol loops, moral outrage, tribal validation, political drama, ads, and hyper-stimulating content designed to keep you scrolling long after you meant to stop. This network refuses to play that game. So yeah… to a brain hooked on slot-machine UX, it might feel “boring” at first. That’s not a flaw. That’s the detox phase. Stick around past that, and maybe notice something: Your nervous system settles. Your attention sharpens. Conversations deepen. You actually connect instead of react. This space is built for creators, collaborators, dancers, DJs, builders — people who want to strengthen the scene, not get drained by it. If you’re here for the cheap dopamine hit, there are plenty of apps for that. If you’re here to help build something real… welcome.

On the 15th of every month, we will go live and give away free passes to whatever events are coming up in the 30-day period leading up to the next 15th giveaway. Everyone in this group is automatically entered, and you dont need to go live with us to win. We will message you here. When we go live, admins can issue anyone a specific15% promo code specifically for them for whatever show they want to go to. It's not a big deal if you email or message us that day or the day after to request. The promo code is specific to your email and will only work for you once for one ticket. :) (BTW, the same sort of thing happens on the 30th of every month for Pachena tix. )

Finally taking a moment to zero in and really love what I am seeing! Thank you Ben for creating and providing an alternative space for us to connect . It feels so very refreshing !