Hi everyone,

Two and a half weeks to go until the festival 🙂

There is now a Telegram group for you all to share tips , ideas, doubts and fears 🙂

The Telegram group is great for asking all kinds of questions about the festival and people who have already been will be happy to answer…and it has the added bonus of allowing me to concentrate on putting up teepees 🙂

The welcome info page has now been updated with guides on how to get there – just I’m waiting to take some more photos to guide you along the forest paths to the festival itself.

Please note that car drivers may only drive to the parking area and under no circumstances whatsoever drive up to the festival field itself – it’s a forest road that needs special permission and we want to keep the forestry people happy 🙂

Our community

One of the reasons I started the Festival of Creativity was to create an event I wanted to go to.
What were my criteria?

– a place where the only social media we have are each other
– where all the people are sober and conscious
– an event where it doesn’t matter if you’re a financial advisor or a monk walking the world barefoot
– where the program and vibe is co-created by a welcoming, supportive community

So if you’ve been to the festival before please make newcomers feel welcome. That can be as simple an act as inviting them to sit with you at lunchtime or offering to go and get them some tea 🙂

And let’s extend a net of support and kindness towards one another. For some of you, this will be the hundredth festival of your lives. For others it will be a huge and terrifying challenge to camp with 100+ strangers.

A little love can go a long way 🙂

Health and Safety

We’re gathering to share and celebrate and we do that best when we’re safe and healthy. There will be first-aid trained people at the festival and you can take responsibility for your own health by

– carrying a small bottle of hand sanitiser with you and using it, especially before meals
– bringing your pair of tick tweezers
– making sure you drink enough water

We also have a lot of children at the festival and we can all make sure they stay safe by keeping an eye on them when they’re playing nearby. Please remember not to share online any photos in which children feature.

And in no circumstances by day or night is any child allowed to go into the fire pit. All parents must explain this to their children.

The festival itself

The festival is a co-creation which means around half of the participants make workshops. To announce yours all you need to do is walk up to the workshop board, take a white board marker and write in where, when and what 🙂

And it would be good if those who are confident enough propose their workshops for the first few days of the festival – it often happens that people are shy and then we have too many events towards the end of the week.

And what kind of workshops?

Well, anything creative as you understand the word. Even if you haven’t planned a workshop you can still propose something if you get inspired once you’re there.

However, it’s not the place for deep, psychological workshops dealing with trauma. We just don’t have the necessary support team for the aftercare.

At night we’ll be making music around the fire and in the nightime tea teepee (still working on a catchy name..). Everyone is free to make music, sing and dance as they feel in the moment.

And… that’s more or less it for now. Answers to your questions can be found on the website’s FAQ and also by asking in the Telegram group 🙂

Just please remember not to bring dogs, alcohol or drugs and to only use your phones out of the festival area itself.

If anyone wants to come a few days early there are always ways to help set up and you’re also free to stay an extra night at the end to help pack up.

See you soon,

Tom Thumb