Explicitly SMS (IDA will be Later)
I must say, first and foremost, that most of Tennessee needs to get with the program.
I drove 175 miles north to a little town on the outskirts of Smithville called Liberty. In Liberty, on May 1st of every year, is the Beltane festival. It's not just anywhere though. As you pass the bucolic fields and farmers with their F350s, you realize that you should have gotten gas back in the last town before heading to the mountain.
I was not allowed to visually document my trip/adventure at Short Mountain Sanctuary. So, this is the only medium that I have to attempt to express my experience there.
Shawn had been a garden intern at IDA (Idyll Dandy Arts) which is just down the road from Short Mountain Sanctuary (SMS). Well, he had heard that this totally huge gay week-long party was going down this past week at SMS. Of course, being his right hand gay, I was invited to share the festivities and to experience Shawn's lifestyle as a gay free-loving hippie.
After getting lost about 3 times on my way there, I finally made it. The graffiti sign at the entrance said "Welcome Home." Some unofficial man told me where to park, told me I was awesome, and also told me to just follow the drums once I parked. So, I parked "Mini" the Van, and I have to say I was shaking almost uncontrollably. I was very anxious about the experience ahead. I had heard rumors of explicit public sexual acts and communal living with no electricity, and I was scared shitless. I had also done research on faerie communities and that just fueled my anxiety.
So, by this point, I was supposed to have met Shawn, but he had NOT called me like he said he would. So, I wandered into this supposed lust-filled orgy, when I finally stumble upon Shawn.
Ah! I hadn't seen him in so long, and he looked really great, and I was glad he was still alive. So, we caught up for a second.
The general gist of the evening that followed consisted of dinner for around 350 people cooked in one kitchen, a bonfire with gypsy music and talent show (or so it seemed), multiple dance parties with pro-DJs, and trying to find someone to make out with.
1. Aerial silk performers in the huge dance gazebo with pagan symbols painted on the ceiling. There was a male and a female, and they performed to slow electro music. Freakin' amazing!
2. Learning everyone's faerie names -- I met Sourpatch, Bear, Mockingbird (made out with him), Aurora, Sky, Waterfall, Iris, Coyote, and many more. I kept introducing myself as Justin, because I felt like I had to eitherbenamed orearna faerie name.
3. The sauna in the bathhouse -- felt so nice.
4. The open sexuality of everything. I have never been to a place where if you saw someone and thought they were attractive, you could actually just walk straight up to them and kiss them and possibly sleep with them. It wasn't "Oh this guy's a slut" or "Oh, he's so shy." Everyone respected your boundaries, but you could freely make out/sleep with anyone you wanted. I have honestly say that I was scouting a little, but I ended up only making out with a couple of people.
5. Camping with Shawn -- The first thing we did when I got there was drop my stuff off at the tent and apply my makeup. I also had to sleep there that night and wake up to the birds chirping and the sun through the shade. Amazing.
6. Music! There was a band from New Orleans - a guitar player, a fiddle player, and an accordian player - and they played the most intense set I have heard. It was all very well orchestrated, yet they sung from the soul, and it was refreshing. Their music was definitely folky with a very heavy southern gypsy feel to it.
7. Overall Feel - Everyone was so nice! There was no negative energy there, and everyone I met was very open with their lives, and I appreciated humanity and nature in a new light.
When I came back to my house the next night, I had a high from the trip there! I wanted to love everybody and change the way I live. The standard American life is SO WASTEFUL (as in clutter and trash), and we pollute and siphon all resources without a thought.
I will not get on a soapbox, but I will say that I am doing this again next year, and I plan on staying the whole week to get the full experience.
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