Bridge Update #2: Bridge Fest - Help us build a bridge!
On dancing with neighbors when things are tough.
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Bridge Fest Details are here!
When:
November 9th
12 pm - 5pm
Where:
address with ticket purchase
Newtown, CT
The event takes place at the future home of Mushroom Microfarm. There is parking onsite and we are capping attendance at 200. The ticket price is tiered with three price options. There is also an alternative way to pay if you want to pay an amount for the ticket that isn’t represented in the tiers.
If you’d like to go and do not want to pay, please donate your time to help us put on this event. Alternatively you could vend, donate to the raffle or silent auction, or offer other help. Select a $0 amount and this will alert us to contact you.
There will be food trucks (Goni’s Gourmet and Khemi’s Vegan Cousine), live music ( Laura Schuler, D’Pew, Dan Tressler and Friends), vendors, and a silent auction. All money raised, from tickets, auctions, or raffles, goes toward putting on the event and building the bridge. You do not need to attend Bridge Fest to show support, you can donate at our site.
Why a festival right now?
As I pen this announcement, I’m of two minds.
I am excited about Bridge Fest.
And also,
This year is heavy. How can we party at a time like this…
Most of us have heard about the devastation caused across five states by hurricane Helene. Previously we may have heard about a weather-related disaster and thought that it had nothing to do with us if we live outside the range of damage.
The scale of recent storms means that we are needing to band together to support each other in the aftermath. In the same way that intense flooding in Connecticut changes the landscape of our local farmer’s markets, so too does national level flooding affect what’s available in grocery stores. For better or worse, we are in it together as we recover from these disasters.
Climate disasters are teaching us about how connected to our global neighbors we are and on a scale and at a frequency we haven't seen before.
With hurricane Milton on the horizon, I’ve got my heart in my throat thinking about everyone with family in the path of both Milton and Helene (including James and I). And there’s that thought again:
This year is heavy. How can we party at a time like this?
I am reminded of the lyrics of a favorite song of both of ours:
“That's why we dance
That's why we give peace a chance
That's why we keep living in the romance of "everything's gonna be ok"
As long as you fight through and through
For things that are bigger than you,
Then I say keep living in the romance.”
That’s Why We Dance - Calliope Musicals
I am reminded of an interview circulated in Ecstatic Dance communities on Facebook in which, supposedly, Picasso said “who dances, lives.” And whether he really said it or not, I’m here for the sentiment.
“Some, just some, do on this earth what they were created for. These live. Others survive. Who dances lives.”
I am reminded of every time I’ve dragged my tired self to any dance floor, nursing wounds as deep or deeper than the whole of me, while smiling brighter than anyone else in the room.
Yes, I am afraid. And this year is heavy. That’s why I intend to dance, to dream, and to ask my neighbors what they might need moving forward. And, when I need it, if they might help me, too. Because in the end, science and politics won’t matter as much as our connections to our actual neighbors.
On that note, I pray you and yours are safe this week.
And maybe you might help us build a bridge and come to Bridge Fest? Only if you are able. And once we build that bridge, together, we can work on the nonphysical ones.
You're right, things are heavy right now. The world is imploding, it seems. We are allowed to have some fun though.