The Wild Goose Festival has been described by many as magical, emotional, life-changing, and more! It is the time of year where people from all sorts of backgrounds, denominations, spiritual practices, and life paths come together to celebrate the creative Spirit of the Living God, to learn what it is to engage with the struggle of being human.

And not to mention, it is a helluva lot of fun, too!

We recently asked on our Twitter, “What are some things first-timers should know?” And these were some of the responses:

Make a plan, but be flexible.

You’re going to have your program with all the talks, musical performances, presentations, panels, workshops, live podcast recordings, hymn-sings, and dance parties marked up. And yes, everything is incredible! But give yourself some wiggle room.

Maybe you’ll meet some new friends and decide to go to a different talk. Perhaps you’ll need some time to reflect on all you’re experiencing down by the river. Maybe you need to take a nap. (Trust us, you may want to treat yourself to that.)

As much as possible, go with the flow, do what you want, and listen to what your body is telling you.

Be prepared for the rain (because it always rains).

As much as we wish we could pray a hedge of protection over the Goose campgrounds, it never fails that at least a few times over the weekend, there is rain. So be prepared! Quick rain ponchos to pull over yourself, umbrella, rain jacket, rain boots, whatever is going to make you feel most comfortable.

And that means wear shoes you don’t mind getting dirty, or maybe break out those Chacos or Teevas you haven’t worn in a while. Those will be a lifesaver over the weekend.

(And btw- there are rain ponchos available in the book tent for sale.)

Eat “THE VEGGIE THING”

There are so many amazing and delicious food choices every year from a variety of vendors and food trucks. Not to mention, plenty of gluten-free and vegan options, and also tons of sweet and savory treats as well. But the crowd favorite of so many is the Veggie Thing!

Think of a giant grilled tortilla, packed with the yummiest assortment of fresh veggies, and it’s as big as your face. It’ll fill you right up.

Try it at least once. (Maybe twice.)

Bring some bug spray & a light jacket for the evening.

Friends, let’s make no illusions about our situation: we are in the forest, in nature. Of course, there are bugs. Of course, you’re going to get chilly in the evening. So come prepared with some bug spray, and if you forget, I bet your neighbor around your campsite will have one.

And seriously, bring that jacket. Even if you tie it around your waist and put it on later, you’ll thank yourself for it. Especially if you’re going to come to the fantastic nightly concerts. You’re going to want that.

Don’t be afraid to disconnect

You may have heard that in the mountains of Hot Springs, NC that there is not a whole lot of cell phone signal.

You heard right.

But that’s not always a bad thing. Wild Goose can be a great opportunity to disconnect from the rest of the world and refresh your soul. What would it be like to be present in your body, your mind, and what the Spirit is saying without the distraction of likes and notifications? (How many of you are stressed right now thinking about that?)

And, to ease your mind, we do have some wi-fi in our office and phone in case you need to get in touch with folks back home. No worries.

BYOC (Bring Your Own Chair)

There is seating under the tents for presentations, but in front of the main stage, that’s on you. Not to mention when you’re sharing food or drinks around a campfire, having your own seating is going to be essential. It doesn’t have to be big or fancy, it just has to be functional.

We suggest bringing one that folds up and swings easily over the shoulder. And if you’ve got little ones, this will be helpful for when they get tired.

Be open to surprise

The wild goose (as in the animal), if you didn’t know, is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Wild. Unpredictable. (And might bite you in your backside when you’re not looking.) And the Wild Goose Festival is no different. There’s always something new, beautiful, and profound happening.

Between the main stage talks, the musical performances, the workshops, and the friendships you’ll create, it is a time of renewal and new beginnings.

Be open to it. Be looking for it. And be ready to experience it. This is a place to come and get a fresh word for your life and some fresh ideas on how to reimagine the Church.

So if this is your first time at the Wild Goose Festival, welcome. There’s a seat at our table for you.

(…as long as you bring your own chair. )

By Lenora Rand

One word you won’t see mentioned a lot on the Wild Goose Festival schedule this year is “worship.” That’s not because we won’t be having times in which the Goose community is invited to come together to sing and pray and speak and move and open ourselves up to God, and to each other, and to another way of seeing the world, another way of being in the world, a way that’s true and empowering, that promotes justice and makes a difference…which is an activity which you might refer to as “worship.”

We will be doing that a lot. It’s just that we won’t be calling it “worship.” Intentionally.

Why not? Not just to be different. Or difficult. It’s because we are honestly not sure it’s a word that really works anymore. It may be too weighted with history and hurt, like a broken piece of stained glass…it may still be pretty, but watch out…it cuts deep.

For many of us who find ourselves at the Goose, the word “worship” doesn’t feel right because it conjures up images of rooms full of people who all look very much alike in the color of their skin, in their socio-economic status, in their politics and world-views, where people talk about how God loves them and no one not like them, so that it seems like, when they sing words like “how great is our God,” what they really mean is  “how great is our tribe and the God of our tribe.” In these rooms what goes on is meant to make everyone feel better, reinforce a particular insular worldview, call people to personal piety, and not challenge assumptions about race, or inequality or gender or power or privilege.

It also often brings to mind gatherings where people remain silent about their unbelief, about all their doubts and questions and sadness and shame, where God is offered up as the ultimate escape, a way to avoid whatever is too painful to look at, whether that’s the NOT-miraculously-fixed-by-the-love-of-Jesus shit inside us, or the deep systemic issues of our society.

Also there’s the fact that the word “worship” actually comes out of a time of kings and rulers and gods who demanded subservience and adulation in order to let their subjects continue living…in order not to slay them on the spot. It is a word born of violence and oppression, perhaps first adopted by Christians as a way of subverting the belief that the kings and rulers of the day had any ultimate power over them, any power to harm them or to save them. It was, perhaps, a way for the fledgling, rag-tag group of Jesus-followers to thumb their noses at the whole world order. Much like many in the LGBTQIA community have reclaimed the word Queer, taking a word that was once hurtful and subverting it into a proclamation of pride, this was a way for the early church to basically say “we won’t bow down to the ruling class’s view of people, of what’s important, of what’s acceptable and good and just.”  

Unfortunately the word “worship” seems to have shaped and interpreted our gatherings through the years, more than our gatherings have reinterpreted and reshaped it. Too often in our Sunday morning worship times we sing songs of praise to God as if our lives depended on it. As if God needed it. We often seem to miss the point that our coming together is not something we do to appease the gods. Or to celebrate our power and might to win the war for our tribe, our point of view, our exclusive hold on the truth.

So, at the Goose, we have been making space throughout the weekend when we can come together as a whole community, not to appease a kingly God of wrath, and fall down at God’s feet in submission and fear, but rather to join in praise that our God doesn’t need appeasing. We have a team of people, the TOGETHERINGS Guild, who have been imagining and creating these gatherings as celebrations of the God who loves us desperately, and loves this whole wide world. Gatherings meant to disrupt the status quo and help us stop worshipping the gods of violence and greed and division and exclusion and scarcity that surround us. Gatherings meant to build our courage to live our lives under a different kind of rule –  the rule of love.

You will find these Goose-wide Togetherings happening every day on the main stage – Gathering the Goose with Nadia Bolz-Weber on Thursday night; Waking the Goose with William Barber on Friday morning; Waking the Goose with Otis Moss III and the Trinity UCC Choir on Saturday morning: and Sending the Goose with Sister Simone, Trinity Choir, a full Community Parade, Jeff Clark, and more on Sunday morning.  (If you want to sing in the choir for these gatherings, by the way, you can come to a rehearsal at the main stage Friday and Saturday afternoons at 4:30.)

You’ll also find many other opportunities to come together throughout the weekend to sing and dance and pray and lament, to offer praise and confession, share bread and wine and hopes and fears, to welcome Spirit…in all kinds of different ways, everything from a Catholic Mass to a  Christo-Shamanic Transfiguration Ceremony, to, late Friday night, a Wild & Holy Rite of Resistance with Claudio Carvalhaes (a participatory performance art meets liturgy meets music experience, culminating in communion) — and so many more it would take too long to list them all here.  

We hope you will find time to join in some of these scheduled gatherings… though who knows where and when and how many other unplanned ones will happen in tents and around campfires, over a beer or an ice cream.

Oh, and if you want to call any of these times “worship” you’re more than welcome to. No judgment. Plus, if you’d like to join in some conversations about worship and justice and inclusion, you’ll find several workshops on that topic at the Goose this year too.

Finally,  if you have any brilliant ideas for a word (or symbol) to replace the experience formerly known as “worship,” (“Togetherings”? “Openings”? “Love Feast”? “Disruptions”?) we’re all ears.

Bringing kiddos to the festival? Between our Kids Tent programming, playing in the mud, and creating music and art, there’s plenty to keep them busy. We recently caught up with Emily Griffin, one of our Kids Tent Co-Coordinators. Emily, Nancy St. John, and Sally Thomas, are ready to guide our goslings with tons of creativity and joy: it will be an experience your children never forget!

 Wild Goose Festival: What’s your vision for your role at the Goose?

Emily Griffin: We want to invite children to see and hear biblical stories in a new way in the Kids Tent, to wonder authentically about them (rather than being told what they mean), to find their place in those stories, and to use their God-given creativity to respond in some way – whether through art or play. We use a method called Godly Play to help kids name and value their experiences of God and then practice how that God calls us to live with each other. By being playful and creative, we connect with our playful Creator!

WGF: How did you first hear about the community? How long have you been involved?

EG: A member of my church works with Jeff Clark (Wild Goose President/Producer) in one of his day jobs and told me about the need for help with children’s programming last year. 2016 was my first Goose, and I’m looking forward to coming back with at least a year’s worth of experience under my belt.

WGF: What kind of work do you do the rest of the year?

EG: I’m a priest in the Episcopal Church and work primarily with kids and families at St. Alban’s in Washington, DC. I also (along with Nancy and Sally) moonlight as a trainer for the Godly Play Foundation.

WGF: What’s your favorite thing about the Goose?

EG: I love the openness of the community to anyone of any age who is on an honest search for truth or goodness or beauty – who wants to help create a more just and peaceful world. No one has to leave any part of their identity behind to be here.

And outside of the Kids Tent…Don’t miss bestselling author Matthew Paul Turner give a reading of his latest book, When God Made You. Also a gifted photographer, Matthew travels across the globe documenting the vast effects of poverty and marginalization. Written in whimsical rhyme young readers are sure to enjoy, When God Made You celebrates children’s burgeoning gifts with tenderness and charm.

Don’t forget your tickets to Wild Goose 2017!

Say hello to our new Volunteer Coordinator, Bec Cranford, a self-identified “Bapticostal misfit preacher” from Atlanta, Georgia. Though Bec’s new to this role, she’s a veteran community member and committed to bringing radical welcome and hospitality to our volunteer family and the Goose at large.

Wild Goose Festival: What do you consider your vision for your role or offering at the Goose?
Bec Cranford: Stirring apocalyptic hopefulness and co-conspiring subversive hospitality.

WGF: Can you say a little more about what that means to you?
BC: Spreading apocalyptic hopefulness manifests itself every time we offer love to others and contribute to the well-being of our community during difficult and uncertain times. It’s an unwavering optimism despite political climates or power hungry structures.

I hope to inject volunteers at the Goose with this kind of crazy joy in action.

Volunteers will engage in subversive hospitality by making everyone feel like they belong. From making sure we feel safe, and keeping the grounds clean, to stooping down to actively listen to five year olds, we will practice a radical welcome!

WGF: How long have you been involved?
BC: Since the very first Wild Goose festival in 2011, held at Shakori Hills, NC. Anybody else remember those tics?

WGF: What kind of work do you do the rest of the year?
BC: I make my green by engaging community at one of Atlanta’s homeless service agencies (Gateway Center), hosting mission teams for educational and experiential learning, occasional preaching, and teaching a contextual education practicum for Candler School of Theology. The greenness stored up inside comes from painting acrylic and chilling with my dog, Basil.

WGF: What’s your favorite thing about the Goose?
BC: I enjoy the conversations on the trails and watching hurting souls transform into wounded healers and servant leaders of justice.

Ready to join Bec and the rest of our volunteers? Apply now or email Bec here with questions.

 Want to volunteer? You might just meet people that are like family…Check out the application here. 

Meet Jenna. We’re pretty thrilled that she’s a part of our community. She brings an endless well of energy, and a deep love for others and for God. Jenna truly helps us create this festival – we couldn’t do it without her, or people like you!

1) Tell us some about how you first heard about the Goose and why you were interested in volunteering.

I heard about Wild Goose from my then youth pastor, now friend and mentor, Papy Fisher when I was in high school. It was first presented as an opportunity to go and practice for a trip to Romania with what my team had been training to do – bless others with free dream and tattoo interpretation. We also offered encouraging words, prayer coloring, destiny prophecy, foot washing, and really anything to bring love and peace to others. Since we were mostly all young (broke) kids, we decided that volunteering would be a great way to get tickets to the festival; and we fundraised before the festival to be able to have a vendor spot. We also saw the opportunity to love, encourage, and bless others by offering our time. I signed up to work as a volunteer with the Set-Up crew so I could have the festival off to work in our team’s tent.

Jenna Bowman, Site Operations Team

2) What’s your current volunteer position with the festival? 

Currently, I have the pleasure to work with Site Operations for the festival.

3) You’ve lived all over the world and have a variety of interests and skills. Can you tell us about how your travel and past work relates to what you do at the Goose?

Ever since I was 12 years-old, I have had the crazy blessing to travel and share love to people all over the world. I’ve worked with churches, missionary non-profits, festival ministry, and just being Love where, or should I say when I travel, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. To me, it seems to all be a beautiful quilt woven together. I tell most people that the Goose helped raise me. I started going when I was 15 years-old and feel like I had the unique opportunity to “grow up” at the Goose, as a wild gosling.

While I have held other jobs that are similar to my role at the festival, but the heart and love of the Goose and its community has helped build me into who I am today. Being a part of the Goose is this beautiful relationship of giving and receiving. Whether you want it or not, you get family. A dirty, hard, beautiful, and true family. I was taught to love just simply because I was loved by others. I experience community, peace, and fresh air, and ever since I was 15 I have been loved, encouraged, challenged, and supported to doubt, grow, and change. I’ve absolutely loved and cherished the support aI received from the Goose. It helped me discover who I am. When my “work” is to love and you have a group that helps you love, everything seems to work out.

4) Are you in school? What are you studying? Any favorite topics?

I am a part-time college student. I completed my Early Childhood Education credential back when I was 17 before I moved to Kenya and did a few other college classes then as well. Since being back in the States I have continued to take classes for an associates in arts degree with the hope to transfer to get an official interpretation degree for Sign Language.

I hope to not only know American Sign Language, but to continue to expand my love and knowledge of Kenyan Sign – I worked with the deaf in Kenya for 6 months. I also hope to learn some Indian Sign Languages as well, along with Swahili. It’s possible I’ll work toward having a double major in Global Sustainability or work around public policy and international relations.

The other parts of my time go to working 25 hours a week to pay bills and building my relationships and my favorite festival ministry community, Desanka.

5) Who are your favorite artists, musicians, or writers from the Goose community?

My favorite artists? Oh, there are so many. I got introduced to amazing singers, songwriters, poets, and leaders of all sorts at the festival so it’s hard to narrow it down. But a few are David Wimbish and The Collection, Songs of Water, Run River North, Gungor, The Brilliance, for music as well as wonderful friendships. For artists/speakers Emily Wimbish is a close friend and sister to me and extremely talented. While I’m running around the festival, I don’t always catch the deep discussions, but I love the representation of inclusion from all different backgrounds, styles, and beliefs.

6) If you could be an animal, what would it be?

Hmmm, to pick one animal – that is hard! I would have to say…after growing up at the Goose, having a goose tattoo and goose gauges I should say that my favorite animal is a goose, right? And in one way they are (like the symbolic way), but they terrify me in real life when I have to walk past them! While I cherish that geese are solo mate creatures, I would have to go with an elephant. That’s been my favorite since I was young.

Questions? Email our volunteer coordinator. Or, sign up here to join us!

The Wild Goose Festival is staying in Hot Springs this summer and we hope you’ll stay and stand up with us. As you may know, an attempt to repeal “HB2,” the highly controversial and offensive North Carolina “Bathroom Bill” failed in the days just before Christmas leading to some questions as to whether we should stay or go.

We’ve examined alternative sites in some other states and we face logistical and financial challenges in making them happen BUT we stay because we ought to – we stay to stand and to fight. We stay because it’s our battle and it’s our cause and it’s our calling and it’s our community – not because we find it inconvenient to go. I can’t find it in my spirit to believe otherwise.

We’re calling on you to walk toward the need, to stake your position, to show your commitment, and to DEVELOP your plan of action. We’re committed to offering practical sessions on how to run for office, how to lobby a legislative body, how to organize opposition, and more. We’ll leave Hot Springs more deeply connected, more highly motivated, and better equipped!

We‘ll stay as a watering hole for the beleaguered fighters and we’ll stay to help provide a safer space for the thousands of people hurt by this hate-filled law and the overall current socio-political climate.

Possible Economic Boycott

Rev. Dr. William Barber, a revered leader of our community, is negotiating a possible economic boycott. I’ve been in extensive conversation with him and he’s specifically given a “thumbs up” to our decision to stay.

He’s reminded me that while he’s asked the national office of the NAACP for an economic boycott, that decision hasn’t yet been made and further emphasizes that the specifics of the boycott have not been worked out. Based on my personal conversation with Rev. Barber, I’m confident that our presence in North Carolina this summer will be an important factor in this vital cause!

Status Report: HB2 Repeal

In 2016 North Carolina elected a new governor who is committed to the repeal of HB2. As I write this, I’m aware of serious on-going efforts to bring the repeal of the bill to a vote. There’s some hope for significant progress before we gather in Hot Springs this July.

When we made the decision to stay in North Carolina last year after the bill first passed, we did so in the hopes that we could move the needle toward justice by our voice, our votes, and our civic engagement and many in our community were deeply involved in doing just that in the recent election cycle. We would’ve liked more progress, more quickly but progress is being made and I think we’re in some small way a part of it.

Audre Lorde put it well, “Without community, there is no liberation.” We will stand strong, and we will do it together, a visible expression of God’s radical love for us all.

We hope you’ll join us this summer.

For Justice,
Jeff Clark
President and Producer, The Wild Goose Festival

Our winter ticket special will end March 20, 2017: $229 festival admission + camping. Grab your tickets now before prices increase.

Would you like to make a donation to help impact the fight? You can do so here – thank you for your support!

We are deeply disappointed that North Carolina failed to repeal HB2 in a special legislative session just before Christmas.

In response to this and other undemocratic actions by the State of North Carolina, Reverend William Barber, a friend and mentor to the WG community, has called for an economic boycott of the state.

We’ve communicated with the management of our festival site, the Hot Springs Spa, letting them know that we are investigating sites outside of North Carolina and asking them to increase their pressure on state government leaders to repeal their offensive legislation. They have been most gracious in their response: they are holding the dates for us as they add their voices to those calling upon the legislature to take positive action.

We’ll keep you posted on the progress of both the legislative battle and the Wild Goose site deliberations.

We ask your patience and your grace as we prayerfully stand against this injustice and continue in our effort to provide safer spaces for everyone – not just a “safer festival site” but a safer life, every single day!

Be assured the Wild Goose will gather this summer!

Jeff Clark, Wild Goose President and Producer

P.S. As you can imagine, this turn of events is adding “above and beyond” expenses to our budget. Please click here if you can help.

We’re so excited that Jasmin Morrell has recently joined the Wild Goose Festival staff, and she has certainly hit the ground running. But she did manage to slow down one day long enough to answer some questions on who she is and what brings her to us.

So what made you want to come work for the Goose? Probably not the money…?

Jasmin: Ha. No. But since Wild Goose’s conception, I’ve loved the idea of art, justice, music and spirit intersecting with a community of people hungry to explore those themes together. In 2011, I led a creative writing workshop at the festival around the idea that “your daily life is your temple.” We talked and wrote about where we saw Spirit in otherwise mundane or ordinary found objects. In 2012, I helped curate the festival’s “sacred spaces” and worship services. Now that I’m on staff, I’m enjoying the dynamic, co-creative process of building a movement that welcomes everyone’s scared humanity and unique visions for how to make the world a more just, safe, and beautiful place.

What were you doing before the Goose?

Jasmin: I was serving as the Director of Communications for Love Wins Ministries in Raleigh, NC, a community dedicated to hospitality for people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity. My experience in community there changed me in ways that I’m still processing, but suffice it to say, I was profoundly impacted by my role bearing witness to and amplifying the voices of our friends who live outside. It was my honor and privilege to work and form relationships there, and I’m grateful to play a similar function with the Goose.

What kinds of things do you think have been helpful in preparing you for this job?

Jasmin: I studied English, Journalism, and Creative Writing in college, which, without the Education component, pretty much prepared me for slinging mochas at Starbucks after graduation while I found myself. Which is exactly what I did before I got a job with the local school system’s department of Public Relations. I’ve always loved telling stories through the written word, but I learned there that I loved planning events and creating warm and hospitable spaces for conversation and connection to occur. Anybody who knows me knows that I love to host a party, and working for the Goose is like a giant extension of that love. If I could live in Middle-earth, it definitely would be as a celebration-loving hobbit in the Shire.

I’ve also done some ghost-writing and a lot of freelance editing over the years for publishing houses and authors in our community, so I’m fairly familiar with a lot of Goose people, which is helpful when it comes to the programming side of things.   

What do you think makes you and Wild Goose right for each other right now?

Jasmin: I’m personally invested in several central themes of the festival. The meeting of art, creativity, and Spirit has nourished and challenged me throughout my faith journey; I feel closest to God in the creative process, and I relish the incredible power of imagination.

As a person of color, issues of racial justice and equity have always loomed largely for me as I’ve grappled with them in daily life and considered my identity, the identity of my ancestors, and my place in the Church and culture at large.

Once I discovered feminist and womanist theology, it was nothing short of a spiritual awakening. “Smashing the patriarchy” is good for us all, and living a more embodied faith has been life changing.

Lastly, when my daughter was born in 2014 with Down Syndrome, a whole new world opened up to me, and I was suddenly a part of a community I knew very little about. Jean Vanier’s work has been particularly influential around inclusiveness of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the Church.

All that said, I suppose I have a pretty diverse lens through which I view the world, which I think is important for someone with my role in the Goose community. I love the metaphor of serving as a midwife, and I hope my versatility can help birth new expressions of the kind of love in action we are known for.           

What aspect of your job are you most excited about?

Jasmin: I’m most excited to help draw more people to the festival. People say that our community is an invigorating and generative experience, and when they leave the festival they are inspired to do good in their own lives and communities back home. It’s like this lovely ripple effect that has the power to touch so many. I see the Goose becoming a tsunami for holy goodness, an unstoppable force across our cultural landscape.

Do you have any sort of  hope or vision for the Goose?

Jasmin: I have the audacious hope that we can change the world!