“The Whippoorwill Festival – Skills for Earth-Friendly Living

Goals
The goal of the Whippoorwill Festival is to promote sustainable living in Appalachia by sharing earth-friendly living skills with one another in a joyful, healthy, family-friendly atmosphere.

About the Whippoorwill Festival
The Whippoorwill Festival celebrates our Appalachian Heritage and traditions while helping prepare our minds and bodies for a future world of climate change and a decreased supply of resources. Together we are building a community and working towards creating a society that will be more resilient in the face of these challenges.

The Whippoorwill Festival features over 75 earth-friendly workshops, tent camping, food and guest speakers, plus a community campfire, folk and traditional music plus contra dancing on Saturday night.
To support the local economy, the Whippoorwill Festival features booths and displays from local artists and craft workers from Berea, Kentucky’s artisan capital.
2015 is the fifth year for the festival.
The Whippoorwill Festival ticket includes all workshops, music and evening entertainment, breakfast and dinner – lunch is on your own – and tent camping.
There are 8 RV sites with water and electric (no septic) for an additional $50 charge (for the whole festival)
Children 16 and under are free.
In order to promote a healthy and family-friendly atmosphere, the use of alcohol is discouraged and there is a quiet time each night at 11:30. There is a family/quiet camping area.
Sorry, we do not do drumming. This is not a clothing-optional festival.

Last Child in the Woods
The Whippoorwill Festival was inspired in part by the book “Last Child in the Woods” by Richard Louv and its call to bring more children and young people into the outdoors. We will have some workshops specifically for children, but we cannot provide child care. We also encourage unstructured activities for children. The camp site is a large grassy field with a nice creek that usually has enough water for wading. There is also a playground with a swing-set, slide etc.

Workshop Leaders
Many of our workshop leaders are experts: longtime residents of Appalachia and community educators who live the Appalachian way of life every day and who understand traditional self-reliant ways of living in the mountains.
Some workshops are led by young people who are relative novices, as a way of encouraging leadership development in a region that is rapidly transitioning to a post-coal economy.

HomeGrown HideAways
For more information about our host site and all of the other awesome events that take place there, please visit HomeGrown HideAways website. Please note that there is not cell service or wireless on site, but cell service is available a short drive down the road. Individual fires are not permitted.

No Pets!
Please leave your pets at home or schedule a stay for them at Durham Kennels, just 8 miles down the road. Absolutely no pets! The chickens who live at HomeGrown HideAways are just sweet little ole chickens and they cannot stand the stress of big, hairy, slobbery dogs.

2015 Whippoorwill Festival Workshops

Permaculture in Action: Off Grid, Natural Building and No-Till Farming * Field Trip: Straw Bale House (under construction) * Healing Illness Through the Gut with Food and Herbs * Radical Self-Care for Activists * From Stress to Balance with Herbs * Walk: Roots and Non-Timber Forest Products * From Ferguson, Missouri to Clear Fork, Tennessee * Community Organizing to Build Collective Power * Thrift Store Sweaters to Abundant Fiber * Walk: Medicinal and Edible Weeds * Food Security * Enjoying Nature With Your Kids * Meditation in 10 Traditions * Intensive Natural Gardening * Butterflies * Cooking Over an Open Fire: Cast Iron and Dutch Oven * Hummingbirds * Unschooling * Herbal and Community Approaches to Disaster * The Healing Power of Writing * Making Cheese * Raising Urban Fowl * A Visit with Miss Edna * Flatfooting * Thai Massage * Tracking * Wilderness Survival * Tipi and Willow Domes * Hugelkulture * No-Till Farming * Vegetables First! Gardening with Children * Making Bead Earrings * Worm Composting * Making Things from Thrift Store Finds * Home Brewing Beer * Gardening: Soil Fertility * How To Make a Vision Quest * Natural Childbirth: Prenatal Yoga and Doula * Movement and Meditation – An Exercise in Self Care* Travel and Work in a RV Tiny House * Yoga for Anatomical Empowerment * Earthships * DIY Happiness * Fermentation * Aldo Leopold and Land Ethics * Tipi Living Skills * Wilderness First Aid * Practical Metalworking * Basic Bicycle Maintenance * Instant Poetry * Non-Violent Communication * Cultivating Resilient Communities * Talking About Transgender * GMOs, Organics and Monsanto * Cooking with Solar Ovens * Wild Medicinal and Edible Mushrooms * * Leatherwork: Bags and Moccasins * Shaker Singing * Astronomy/Star Gazing * Knife Sharpening * Bark Baskets * Ropemaking * Make Mead Like a Viking * Ramen Noodle Cuisine * Storytelling Circle: Folklore, Roots and Creating a Culture of Place *
Medical Marijuana * Knitting * Flint Knapping * Low Tech Mushroom Cultivation * Urban Cycling * Making Things From Shipping Pallets * * Primitive Longbows * Sewing Skills for Beginners *
Intro to Vegan Permaculture * Shelter Building * Insects, Spiders and Scorpions of Kentucky * Rain Garden Maintenance * Get That Fire Going * What Left THAT in my Backyard?”