Hi all,

This might not be about ConFest as such, but it is enlightening to see that the
whole spirit of it is definitely alive and well in other cultures around the
world. I would love to learn a few things from this guy being a musician myself
who wants to see ConFest succeed with Brisbane people too.



www.lawrence.com/news/2008/jul/18/music_environmental_awareness_spirituality_col\
lide

http://tinyurl.com/5mpsbf

http://www.campgaea.org

When Chris Yager decided to launch a music festival, he experienced a
rude awakening.

He proposed the idea to Earth Rising Inc., a group that owns Camp
Gaea, a 168-acre spiritual retreat center 10 miles north of
Tonganoxie. Yager hoped to stage his festival at the scenic, isolated
sanctuary that once functioned as a church camp.

The concept did not go over well.

"They were concerned about it turning into this big party," Yager
says. "I understand. I've already been through the big party stage,
and I'm ready to develop and move forward. They said, 'The challenge
is for you to educate and have a point - then we'll agree to it.'"

So after enduring several board meetings, Yager and his staff finally
convinced the proprietors to embrace the Gaea Retreat and Music
Festival, which begins at noon today.

"We've spawned into this weird festival where it's a mesh of cultures.
We have introduced education through imagery by focusing on things
like the environment, free energy, energy conservation alternatives,
performing arts," he says.

"It's more of a social experience than a music festival. I think of it
as a cultural brothel - though I hate to use that phrase."

Those at Camp Gaea might not be too comfortable with the phrase
either.

The venue has spent years living down its reputation as a haven for
nudists and pagan rituals. This was in part due to the publicity
revolving around a 2001 lawsuit Earth Rising filed after neighbors
pressured Leavenworth County to revoke Camp Gaea's permit. (A
compromise was eventually reached out of court.)

Since then, the site's board of directors has worked hard to alter its
anything-goes notoriety.

"We have a little of that reputation which we're hoping to break,"
says Chris Byram, president of Earth Rising.

"We have a lot of people come out there who are Catholic or Christian.
They come out there just because there is not the cultural hold over
everything you do. You don't feel like you're constantly being judged.
We're not a nudist camp. Personal nudity is a spiritual and personal
choice. It's not anything we encourage or discourage. We have certain
areas that are clothing-required, such as the main public buildings
and areas around the outlying gates."

[My note: the only difference here is that I want Brisbane ConFest to have some
areas where nudity is mandatory such as a mud pool, a hot tub, and a sweat tent
for health and hygeine reasons. Everywhere else will be clothes optional]

In fact, Byram admits he has never gone nude on the Camp Gaea
premises.

"I have clothes on right now," he says, laughing.

Pooling talents

Yager was initially distressed that his festival was forced by Earth
Rising to head in a different direction.

"We weren't prepared for it. Then I turned it into a positive. Now we
have a point. Now we have a purpose," he says.

So Yager, a former Lawrence resident who recently moved to Kansas
City, adopted the concept with reckless abandon by turning to his
staff and determining what talents they had to offer.

One was an advocate of the energy crisis point; another an expert on
entanglement theory.

For Yager, he had just experienced a home birth with his girlfriend
seven weeks ago, and he decided to speak to the benefit of that trend
by recruiting a midwife activist for the festival.

"If one girl goes to the festival and decides to have her baby at
home, my job is done," says Yager, who named his daughter Merridy,
which means "a happy song."

"She was named after this thing," he says of the concert event.

Other education-oriented aspects to the Gaea gathering (which is taken
from the ancient Greek word for Mother Earth) include performing arts
preservation, fine arts preservation, drug decriminalization and ways
to improve gas mileage by building hydrogen cells.

In addition to various speakers, Yager has assembled informational
DVDs to air on projection screens in-between the bands.

"We're going to open up some really touchy subjects that most stock
model events wouldn't even touch," Yager says.

Increasing scope

A year ago, Yager was simply another guitarist in Lawrence trying to
start a band.

He threw a few house parties to get the word out about his group, Bad
Sushi, and the events started to balloon.

He marshaled three Lawrence bands - Truckstop Honeymoon, Fast Food
Junkies and Deadman Flats - and took them out to Perry Lake for an
event called Lost Family Reunion.

"There wasn't enough food for everyone. There wasn't enough light," he
says. "But for being underbudgeted and amateurly planned, it went way
good. ... It hit about 400 people. It didn't make it to my idea of a
festival; it was a gathering."

For the upcoming event, Yager says he's recruited a staff of about 100
people that includes such necessities as emergency response teams.

He's also increased the amount of musical acts from three to more than
40. Bands and DJs are trekking in from places such as Michigan and
Nebraska.

"Most are friends or people I've done gigs with," Yager says. "The
others came from posting bulletins on MySpace."

Despite the increase in artists and activities, attendance at Camp
Gaea (pronounced guy-uh) is capped at 750.

Byram says, "When speaking with Chris Yager, he's just got such a
really good sound mind for finding that even balance between having a
music festival that has a community behind it. It's not just music for
him; it's also about building that community. It's getting the 18-year-
old kids to find that realm of evenness and spiritual soundness."

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