This was my third year at what has become my favorite festival*, Waking Life. Having come for the first time in 2023 through invitation by Marcello / Konstantin, it’s the place where I met and connected with many from my cosmic (Giegling+) family at Outro Lado, the best stage in the world.
Year One was very much about that discovery: that we are linked on a soul level, and in ways that feel otherworldly, to people and groups on this planet.
Year Two was the best festival experience of my life. I also arrived to an understanding that there are other cosmic families who meet up near Crato for their annual family reunion. Jane Fitz, DJ Marcelle and Margaret Dygas are matriarchs, although I’m not yet sure which planets they are from. Annabel and I created a chat that year for attendees coming through Lisbon, and I helped a bit with stage management and volunteered for the build-down/strike at Outro Lado. It felt like Waking Life launched into a new dimension.
A month after Waking Life 2024, the switch went on at a different gathering (Hedone) and I decided that after ~25 years, it was time to stop drinking alcohol. It had become routine/a habit. I didn’t drink a lot, I didn't get drunk often, but I constantly had a drink in my hand. It had become routine, even mandatory for arriving in a new space, in order to feel comfortable. But I realized that for as much as alcohol lubricates things/softens the world, it also blurred and lowered my vibration and connection to energy, and that quitting it would actually somehow be exciting/countercultural.
Since last summer the world has opened up and aligned in new ways that feel amazing physically and energetically. The clarity of not drinking plays a big part in that, and has also given me more acute sensitivity and awareness of the world. I realized that festivals, burns and retreats are not just an escape, they are filled with life and potential, and creating safe spaces for them to come alive is one of my purposes. By the fall, I was involved in Those Who Dance, Maria had discovered EORS, playspace was birthed … and then the idea for Everywhere landed.
This New Earth constellation aligned even as the world of negative frequencies — extraction empire, hoarding of capital, control, fear, separation/exclusion — take over the headlines. Every day and increasingly every moment now presents a choice between these two forces: love and fear.
And so Year Three of Waking Life came with a lot of expectations. I arrived almost directly from an Ecovillage tour in Portugal, stopping briefly in Lisbon to support Those Who Dance and our Origem of Everywhere Market. I gave a ride to a friend and two new contacts, and then I dove in. It started out so well by creating a mini-camp on Wednesday in campervan world with Bharath, Shahin, Lana, Mici, Maria and Lou Lou, seeing lots of old friends inside, then seeing DJ Marcelle mind-f*cking the entire festival … and continued on Thursday when Leafar Legov and O.bee opened Outro Lado. It lasted throughout the night, but then something in me shifted. After Konstantin’s set on Friday morning, I noticed the moop on the ground: mainly cigarette butts and beer cans. I spent Elli’s entire set mooping, and while some people pitched in, it wasn’t enough to clean things up. But I had fun doing it and felt good about it; it was one of my favorite sets (my top 3 were all females: Sonja Moonear, Willow and Elli … Konstantin and Mr Scruff rounded out the top 5).
From that point, I couldn’t unsee the trash, and also felt my involvement in it somehow. I had also come to consume the festival rather than firstly giving/contributing to it. I’ve been to every party in the world by now — I don’t need or want another one that isn’t somehow moving things forward and transforming things. We can’t take these things for granted and leave it to others to do it for us.
So I set an intention to never again attend something I’ve been to before as just a spectator. I encourage you to do the same. What can you share, what can you contribute, what can you bring? It might seem like work, but you get out what you put in, and the more you put in, the more you get out.
There were very few phones on the dancefloors at Waking Life, which is an incredible achievement. Many will have been touched and transformed by the energy there, even if they were still also trapped in the cheap dopamine vortex of cocaine, alcohol (especially beer) and cigarettes (rollies being somewhat different because they require some attention, craft and artistry). I don’t want to judge: everyone has their path, their vices, including me. I want to meet it all with curiosity and an open heart, but also the intention to help our collective consciousness. I don’t want Waking Life to become another commercial festival. It has an opportunity to become something unique in the world — a path forward. An Ecovillage — that also throws the world’s best festival — where people are present, switched on, aware of energy, in the flow, creating, building together.
There were many, many more positives this year.
Mimo (the new ambient stage) was life-giving
Suna expanded, and the Hedone family met Waking Life via the Thyme Travellers; it’s important we welcome the tantric/temple energies to these spaces
No flags / Free (your mind, via) Palestine (obviously)
The sauna was delicious
I met Ivan!
So nice to see many people from Lisbon/Portugal coming for the first time, or even to their first festival
The food was much improved and the queues super manageable
I saw my Ecovillage tour guides and we came up with the idea that next year one of these tours could incorporate or even end at Waking Life
Zach wrote a co-living manifesto which ties in perfectly with Everywhere
What other reflections do you have? The festival is over, but integration is not. It’s a time to reflect, respond and then get involved. The countdown to Year Four has already begun.
*festivals, for me, are limited by the central production aspect. They are dependent on a small group of people working together, creating the space and the moment. Those people must have impeccable taste (as they do at Waking Life) … but it’s a big, big ask and task. Burns, through their Principles/Frequencies, de-centralize things by giving everyone full permission to co-create, which means the potential is endless.
Wowww was nice to read this article about your experience!
I have a little question, how could you incorporate the eco tours at waking life?
Could you share the manifesto that you talked about Zach
Thaaanks mil
What’s up with the sauna? Why was it delicious ? 😂??
Nice read Eric 🙏🏼