I am in the midst of the most profound and awe inspiring event I have ever been too. Right now, I have this knowing feeling that in this moment, I am literally in the best place you could possibly be right now. Amongst just 1500 other like minded and each incredible individuals, I am sitting in a tent in paradise taking advantage of the fact that I feel totally safe to leave my laptop here. I realised that because of that I needed to start to document this as I go. I’ve only been here just over 24 hours and it’s already been such an incredible ride, and as the momentum increases as the days go by, we still have another 10 whole days in this heaven…. So much is going to happen in that time that it would be a long job writing it all up together, and of course my memory would have faded somewhat as the whole experience becomes one long moment… making it difficult to recall everything that occurred. I feel this experience is especially important to record because, as far as I know this event is the only one of it’s kind in the whole world… and what they’ve created for us to experience here is beyond incredible… it’s absolutely phenomenal!

There’s been a few ‘firsts’ for me from the get go with the decision to come to this festival. Firstly, shortly after buying a ticket my application to run a creative writing workshop was accepted, which I’ve never done before, but I’d been extremely excited about since receiving the nice confirmation back. I actually applied after they’d finished taking applications, but they like my proposal so much and there were no other writing workshops planned so they gave me the green light anyway 😃 . I’d set the intention to manifest the opportunity just a few days before. When I finished reading the e-mail, I was pleased to have more proof that the time between setting the intention and expressing gratitude for my desired result and the physical manifestation of that intent is definitely continuing to shorten 😃 As with anything in life, the more you practice, the more you progress.

I’ve never been to an 18 day festival before, I’ve never been to Panama before, I’ve never been anywhere near a tribe before… never mind 60 of them! I’ve also never been in a place where ancient plant medicines are readily available to the participants, and with 18 days together and people going through life changing healing and transformation experiences, which of course I knew could only be a good thing… and if you’ve not been to tribal gathering, I bet all of the above are true for you too!!

I’ve never met a stranger who happens to have seen my ‘Blood’ poetry video, I’ve never met a dominatrix (those last 2 were actually fulfilled by the same person). I’ve never just ‘winged’ public speaking before, I’ve never met so many amazing new friends within the first day at any festival, I’ve never been to a festival with such diversity in terms of the many different nationalities of all the people in attendance. I’ve never been to a festival that is situated on what really is a utopian beach, with powerful, revitalizing waves and the softest, most welcoming, wet and cooling sand bordering the onslaught of crashing waves. The kinda sand you sink about 3 inches into with each step. This is a first. I’ve never had to dodge crabs on the way back to my tent at night before. I’ve never had a laptop at a festival and created the opportunity to do what I’m doing right now… keeping a record and sharing it with others who may find some value in it… it feels good.

I’ve also never listened to native tribes people do a presentation and share their views of the world (which of course is that we are all family originating from the same source and we are in desperate need to realise that now if we want to heal the damage we continue to do to our cherished and only home Mother Earth.) I’ve never been brought to tears of pure joy and gratitude, provoked by said presentation ending in the cutest little old tribes lady playing us some of their indigenous music, and getting the whole room to stand up so she could teach us the way they jig and step to the music, as the group of 25 odd people all mimicked her step and rotated round in married rhythm in a circle. At one point, she switched it up and we went clock wise, which really screwed everyone up. But it was so beautiful my eyes welled up as I thought of how grateful I was to be having this experience. The smiles on everyone faces were glowing with pure joy, creating a micro-collective energy unlike any other I’d felt before. It was so magic, and I was filled with great hope for the future of this planet, and the preservation and celebration of all the ancient cultures here that have been slowly dying out and face the prospect of disappearing completely as the years pass by.

All of these new experiences have happened in such a short space of time, and I know many more will have been added to that list by the time I leave. After my short time here, I just wanna say this… Come here! Next year, or the year after, or some time. This shitty blog post is not going to do it any justice in any way, but if I could even inspire only 1 person to go through it due to my account of it, I’d feel like it was all worth it.

The journey here was interesting, I stopped off in Panama City for one night, to get some rest and wash my incredibly dirty and soggy laundry from a week at Envision (my GOD it was humid there). In the morning I took a taxi to the main bus station, got a bus to a town called Sabanitas about one hours ride north toward the Caribbean coast. The buses here are crazy, all proper old school big heavy fords completely graphed and painted up in all sorts of crazy colors and images, neon lights flashing random locations I’d never heard of. In Sabanitas I got some essentials for the festival, and went outside the find out which bus I needed to get next to get to Cuango, the last town on that bus route before having to change to ‘dudes in trucks waiting to picking you up’. I befriended a guy selling ‘Arroz con Leche’ - Basically ride pudding, with some raisins and cinnamon on top… it was high grade. As buses were stopping he was letting me know if they were the right one. In the end I was there over an hour, and in that time we got to know each other a little. At the end, like most native people I befriend, at the end he gave me his number to contact him on WhatsApp and told me I was welcome to stay with him any time. It’s so wonderful that that kind of behavior and gesture is so common here… especially to ‘foreigners’. He lives in northern Venezuela which is convenient because it’s not far from an island I’m keen to visit called Aruba… If and when I decide to make that happen, I’ll be sure to contact him!

Just before my second bus finally came a couple appeared from round the corner and I was instantly pretty sure they were probably headed for the festival too. Within 10 minutes of them turning up, the right bus finally arrived and we boarded together. The bus was packed, loud latino music blasting, air con on, actually a really badass ride, full of local families and us 3 headed to what we have all agreed is going to be something very special.

When we arrived at the end of the line, Cuango, which was the last tiny village before the festival, It wasn’t long before we were offered a ride by a ‘dude in a truck’, and with a full car, the 3 of us and 4 other locals in the back of the pickup, we speeded off onto a dry dusty dirt track and had made it stress free to the final leg of the journey. I could feel the excitement of welcome anticipation that signified our knowing that we were all headed to the right place right now. When we arrived, we were taken straight through to get our wristbands and within minutes were all set and ready to settle in. The moment I walked through the gates and got the first glimpse of the people around, the size and perfection of the location for it, I was literally blasted with adrenaline and pure gratitude for what at first glance was beyond doubt going to set the stage for something that I would never quite have imagined prior to arriving here… I had the thought that I had in fact arrived at the best place on Earth that anyone could possibly find themselves during this particular period of time when this event is staged.

It’s a celebration and a collaboration. It’s about education, connection, inspiration and deep reflections. It’s about connecting with people that you never even knew existed, and having the opportunity to learn about their culture and history, and to dance together in harmony, merging as one into the pure unconditional love that lies at the core of us all.

At 10am the day after arriving I had my first workshop. It went really well, I felt so privileged to be given the opportunity to share and to serve, to connect with a big group of people at once, inspiring and providing tools that combined got around 15 people participating in the writing and sharing exercises, located in a big open hut of about 60 people in total, the rest of which ‘just happened' to be there chilling and eating breakfast, and because when people were writing it created a nice, quiet, tranquil atmosphere that also had the buzz of creative energy flowing around it, they all ended up staying until the end and I could tell were enjoying having something a bit different to entertain them as they refueled themselves for the day ahead. I really loved doing it so much, I didn’t prepare anything in terms of what I was going to say, just a little mini brainstorm in my head for a few minutes the day before. I know that when you forget rigid scripts and strip yourself of unnecessary guidelines and tasks you believe you must do in preparation for something like this… in order to make sure everything goes ‘right’, you free yourself to be totally present in the moment and this is when the real magic flows through you.

Without all that structure and pressure to follow a pre-set guideline, the only option you’re left with is to speak from the heart, which actually formed part of the workshops title - ‘The Art of Speaking from the Heart - Dealing with trauma through Poetry’

Almost everyone there apart from 4 friends I’d met were there because they happened to be in there eating their breakfast in the time leading up to my slot which was 10am. So about 5 minutes prior I went round to give them all a brief idea of what was about to happen there. By the end I would estimate a crowd of around 60. I felt comfortable and at ease connecting with them, sharing the short story as to what lead me to poetry and why I believe it’s such a powerful tool for transformation, performing one of my poems to get their creative juices going and sparking inspiration from the get go… everything flowed perfectly smoothly. I originally envisioned me and about 3 or 4 other people sitting in a tiny little space somewhere, but when I saw the space it was going to be held in, which is the main hut for chilling in, I realised there was going to be more there than I thought… Which was a massive bonus!

I have set myself the benchmark of from now on only going to festivals that I can perform and / or host this workshop at. I don’t mind paying for the festival still if I have to, but I want to have more of an agenda and be more connected to my purpose when I go to festivals now. They are one of the best platforms for connecting with large groups of people that will appreciate hearing anything you have to share. It will motivate me to stay more level headed so that I can show up my absolute best and give the best that I’ve got, which at least with poetry recital, I know from experience is done best when completely sober, moments of which are usually few and far between at your average ‘festival’. But it would be unfair to call this place an average festival. The concept alone is beyond anything I’d ever be given the chance to experience, but the fact that idea has been successfully turned into reality the past 5 years in a row and this insane idea involving a lot of logistics, communication and organization in order to actually pull off transporting all these tribes from 30 different countries to join here together. Whoever they are… they’re absolute legends! Though I do know that to my surprise many of the organisers are from England… and we have our own tribe here from Norwich representing the UK, sharing their pagan way of celebrating life, just as every other tribe here is also doing. To be around so much diversity, yet bathed in a sense of acceptance, appreciation and unity that I have felt at any festival before.

I just realised this has gone on pretty long, and I’m only writing about the first day's experience. I still have 10 to go, and I of course have no intention of documenting each and every day in this much detail. But when the time feels right I want to be able to remember the most important aspects of what’s coming… Though I had heard that in the last 5 days when all the music only people turn up, suddenly the risk of theft by desperate mash-head will increase. I don’t think about getting robbed… ever… I don’t worry about it… Why think about what you don’t want to happen right? But still… that doesn’t mean I don’t prepare for the possibility that I could get robbed, especially if I don’t make smart decisions concerning my valuables that I want to remain with me indefinitely… which you can end up doing if you believe that you won’t get robbed… you let your guard down and forget that even though your faith is strong… we still truly never know what’s going to happen in the future. Often I think I know, and many times as the clock ticks by it turns out that I was correct… but not always. I believe it’s possible, anything is, but I don’t think we’re quite at that point of the evolution of human potential whereby we can choose to know what’s going to happen in the future… but actually… would you really want that ability?

Anyway, I’m rambling, up late and so energized from the dancing workshops and incredible bands I non-stop boogied to this afternoon and evening, I don’t really feel like sleeping. This was a better option that just rolling around in my ‘bed’ - I truly screwed up and decided against buying an airbed… not the best decision I ever made, but on the plus side it’s kinda nice to sleep almost directly connected to the Earth. Uncomfortable yet… comforting.

Light and love to everything in existence and inexistent.

When you get it, please pass it on to your friends and family for me. Technically even if one person does that, within not much time at all the whole world will have felt it on one level. That’s a cool thought... So thank you for making that possible for me

❤️

^^ This was the group tribal photo. At this point it was difficult to get a good pic due to most of the festival being gathered round to see everyone together.