The Carnival de Resistance is an “art intervention” experiment, a rip in the veil, throwing off the yoke of social niceties, restless sanitation, and religious piety to provide a raucous expression of grief and longing and hope for Creation. The Carnival de Resistance is an arts carnival, a school, and a village demonstration project. Using symbols, song, theater, poetry, music & dance, the Carnival makes “church” happen under the Big Top, and then spills out shape-shifting-trickster style to engage with all using games, performance and interactive art projects.

The Carnival de Resistance is a school that teaches about movement history, resistance cultures and creates a space for the “other” voices to be heard. The Carnival also offers practical skills to build community resilience, support sustainability and strengthen our imaginations. The camp becomes a village where we demonstrate energy alternatives and attempt various sustainable practices in regard to food, waste, and transportation. Come join the Holy Game, and the work to creatively live in tension against the culture of domination and expect for the Spirit to transform us in the process.

Click here for the Carnival Schedule.

Click here for more details about Carnival events.

Repeated Offerings:

Morning Meditations of Earth, Body & Soul
We will start our days at the Carnival with exercises and reflections to shake up and wake up your body, heart and mind. Come join our morning prayer times as we focus our Spirits through Qigong, poetry, sacred song and earth conscious meditations.

Skill Shares
If we are serious about liberating and decolonizing our lives, we need to know how to get back to right relationship with the land that provides for all of our needs, so we can stop being dependent on the domination system. Come learn from folks who have been re-skilling themselves and try your hand at Soapmaking, wild edibles, herbal tinctures, bike repair, candle-making, etc.

Interactive Art
With the guidance of our amazingly talented visual artists, come and participate in mural making, mask making, puppet and mask play improvisation. Be part of the Carnival’s creative transformation and prepare yourself to be involved in the parade at the end of the festival!

Carnival Midway
Visit strange side-shows, check out the clever twists on old Carnival games, get crafty at our creation station, help build a giant goose puppet, have your face-painted, enjoy storytellers, roving musicians, performers, and much more.

Featured Productions:

Special Appearance by Star of the Sea Studios: “The Shining Sea”
A celebration of the sacred waters of the world featuring a diverse collection of puppetry styles. Colorful fish puppets dart and dive in schools. A sea turtle gracefully swims the shallows. Crabs scuttle in soldierly formation. A Humpback whale steers its stately path through the deeps. The performance culminates with a community prayer / blessing on the sacred waters.

Ceremonial Theater: “Out of the Whirlwind”
This Liturgical variety act show brings a call to feel the pain of creation and the hope for resurrection through listening to the element of AIR. Stories told, sung, and danced from the perspectives of Raven and Dove – the two birds that Noah released the last time the world was destroyed. Come and feel the Holy Breathe, listen to the Spirit winds of change, and join us in songs of grief and hope on the opening night of this Carnival/Festival.

Ceremonial Theater: “Wade Through Deep Water”
Come follow the soggy footprints of a pilgrim people – performers who entreat you with deep love and concern for Water. Our songs and dances draw from various cultures and spiritual traditions, puppets and props help animate a dream of “living water”. You will hear the voice of water’s lament as told from the perspectives of Miriam and John the Baptist – two of God’s prophets whose water-logged lives kept them swimming towards liberation.

Ceremonial Theater: “Clothed with the Sun”
This is a fire performance that will amaze and inspire. We relate to the feverish explosions of military and energy exploits while also feeling the heat of spiritual revelation. By listening to the bones of the past and the fire-y vision for the future, we dance with whirling fire, sing with burning hearts, and struggle to know the difference between the fire of destruction and the fire of transformation.

Carnival Parade
Join us as we make a joyful noise and cry out for liberation. We have parade costumes and paraphernalia, puppets to manipulate, things to bang on, shake, roll and push! We need your voices and your embodiment and we head to the closing ceremony.

As well as Musical Presentations, Talks and Workshops!