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Published: March 14th 2007
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After changing my ticket a second time to stay in NZ longer, Bradley and I headed up the north island to Raglan, a little community on the west coast right over the beach, to spend 3 days of pure extacy at a REGGAE FESTIVAL!!! YEE HAW!!!
Driving up to the festival and finding the best place in the campground, right at the edge of a cliff over looking the ocean, the positive vibe around us was all encompassing. Each day that i speant in New Zealand continually proved to be the best experience thus far....and this was more than true with the Reggae Festival. We found a perfect hole that our back tire fit into, providing the perfect levelness we were in search of for a comfortable sleep in the car. Began making friends with Kiwi's who were camping around us, and made our way to the music. It was so fantastic to see new New Zealand reggae performed- one of my favorites being Lady 6 - you guys should check her out!
We didn't quite get our camera situation together- we didnt have batteries! SO frusterating because there was so much beauty around us the whole weekend- but
Bradley
Bradley was very proud that he found that hole that leveled our car out perfectly- nice spot, eh? it will have to be something that we remember in our hearts and through stories.
Walking into the concert bowl- a grass stadium like bowl with beautiful people dancing and smiling, lots of colors and just such a positive community of people. Got down to the stage and started letting loose- it felt SOOOO good to dance to some reggae again! During one of the set breaks the crowd started to clear out and behind us i spotted a group of 5 or 6 chicks running around chucking a big water bottle at each other- damn that looked like fun- 'i think their playing rugby' is what i thought....i want to try!! Big strong girls greeted me with warm smiles as i made my way over, and they started giving me lessons of how to throw to each other, how to catch it, how to hit each other and how to dodge a hit. We lined up in 3 and ran and passed the water bottle to each other through the crowd- Bradley and a few other boys played some defense at some point- it was so freaking fun! Playing Rugby with these cool ass chicks just made my
Some beach in the north island
(Since I don't have any other pictures from the festival I'm just going to include some other random pictures I've collected along the way!) night- the team unity and mentality is something that is such at the core of me- and it's the thing i miss most from my past. And playing with these girls brought back that vibe- and they were so welcoming and excited i was interested in learning. They invited me to play for their regular league team! but due to limited time in NZ i had to turn it down- so we tried to plan a scrimmage for me to play in while i was still in NZ, but the timing didnt work out....but one day i will play in a rugby game- and kick some ass 😉
First getting to the festival one of our neighbors had practice fire dancing wands- using them for the first time i loved the way my body moved while swirling these beautiful ribbons in the air- feeling them as an extention of my body and learning automatically where to move my arms and body in order not to tangle the strings. Getting a good practice run in, later in the night some people were doing fire dancing with REAL FIRE! and of course i wanted to try! SO AWESOME! i was loving
Coromandel
A beaufitul spot on the north island- this was one of the beach's we camped at....beautiful! it! limited movements, no burns, and a big smile on my face as i swirled burning fire balls around my body! i made my own practice ones with stockings and socks and have been trying new techniques....so hopefully sometime soon in my future i can also be a real fire dancer!
dancing to some drums nearby, then going over and looking at the beats these people were making...one of the girls playing made eye contact with me and encouraged me to join her on her drum- following her beat, and then playing by myself, finding my own beat inside me and expressing it through my hands. A beautiful expression of self and celebration of life. Then playing with this girl, each of us with our own drums, at one point got the dancing ladies into it again- DRUMMING a beautiful thing to move your body to!
My whole experience at the festival got me thinking...and i want to share with all of you my new idea- something i can hopefully make into a career. Taking breaks throughout the festival and sitting on the hill, interacting with such beautiful positive people really made me appreciate the purity of these
Bradley
Cooking the mussels we caught earlier that day...hmmmmmm types of festivals. It is a beautiful interaction of people and community, something that is missing so much from our ordinary lives, especially children's lives. So many children are being brought up in cities and never have exposure to these safe, beautiful communities of people. A glimpse and inspiration as to what our world could be like. There were a few families at this festival, but it takes a couragous parent, and one that has been to these reggae festivals before, to have the faith to bring their children here to camp out. So my idea.....is to put together a worldwide children's reggae festival. It would be a festival in the same manner of the ones already going on- but it would be kid friendly- maybe only families could get into the festival, there would be higher security (all the details still need to be worked out of course 😉 but it would be a 2-3 day festival where families would camp and it would be for children. So they could be exposed to the possibilities of how a community of people can interact, with love and different beautiful expressions of life, through positive music, drumming, fire/ribbon dancing, all of
Bon fire
one of the many in New Zealand that stuff. So in time to come i'm going to start looking into it- and then travel around the world putting on these children festivals! hahaha! i think i could do it! get a few big names in the line up and go from there!
Wish i had more pictures to share of the festival but at least a few for you all to feel the vibe! Here are some other pictures from other parts of the trip...
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Ellen
non-member comment
HELLO!!
Kee -- this is Ellen from Earth. Hello! You live in Fairfax - Everyday IS a Reggae Festival in Fairfax. Sounds like NZ is amazing!!!!!!!!!!! nice to be following your bliss.................. the blogs are also amazing!!!!!!