FARMINGDALE – You could make seed bombs, play the drum, practice Reiki and listen to some local musicians sing during the recently held Touch Mother Earth Positive Vibe Tribe Festival.
The event blended over 50 interactive workshops and activities such as live music, drumming and dancing, classes, outdoor yoga, plus food and artisan vendors. The three-day event was set in the forest of Monmouth County at Camp Sacajawea.
The festival kicked off on a Friday evening with a drum circle around the fire, held at the Drum Camp facilitated by Mamoudou Konate Simbo, Mark Wood, and Clyde Williams Jr.
Saturday’s stage performances included Sean Dobson, the twenty6 band, Amanda Conti, Dan Leyes and Friends, Ladell Mclin Band, Swardas and Friends, Bele Bele Rhythm featuring Drumlady Kristen Arant, Tony and the Trees and the Gypsy Funk Squad.
Performers on Sunday included Scott Pehnke, Dennis McDoNoUgh aka Jung Wombats, Tommy and Mommy, Spook Handy, the Sawmill Run Old Time Band and Gaia Raga.
The festival’s Drum n Dance program was sponsored by Hub City Drum n Dance of New Brunswick and included Mark Wood African Djembe, Rhythms and Technique, Jack Lowry providing an introduction to Middle-Eastern Doumbek and Mamoudou Konate Simbo providing West African Djembe Rhythms.
There were several camps set up that offered workshops and other activities. The Sacred Moon Camp featured Karolina “Reverend Kae” M Honerkamp, a Shamanic Sound Healing Ceremony, Ksenia Yanchis and introduction to Menstruation Magick, Rediscover Power Within, Working with Your Cycle, and Lois Wilson whose program was Embracing the Crone: Aging with Beauty and Grace.
Other workshops at that camp included Rachel Tice who conducted Shadow Work: an insight into Ourselves and Reverend Dhyāna Kluth’s program of Your Gyroscopic Merkaba Light.
There was also a workshop focused on Body Quantum Soul Alignment Practice while Lorraine Heinrich performed a Moon Ritual for the Super Blue Moon.
The Mother Earth Camp featured nature studies by Hugh Brenner and Sky Schenkel’s program about Safety and Awareness in Respecting Plants. The program Forest Bathing focused on a Relaxing Awareness of Nature.
You could also learn about cultivating mushrooms and learn about wild and harvested mushrooms. You could even take home an inoculated log mushroom. Jim Furey of Integrated Herbalism led attendees in a herbal plant identification walk.
There were also workshops concerning how to play the native flute by Rodger Heckman.
You could also learn how to make your own wildflower Seed Bombs and collect some Vegan-to-go no cooking easy recipes. There were also creative writing and drawing workshops and a program on how to build a rattle or egg shaker.
There was also a drum circle for kids and Stephen Hoog conduced an edible plant in the forest program for kids and supervised adults.
Attendees browsed through a variety of vendor tables at the Sacred Moon market that featured tie dyed apparel, T-shirts, custom jewelry, beads, homemade wellness products, room sprays, soaps, salves, tinctures, oils, crocheted items, tote bags, clothing, and inspired fashions.
You could also get your tarot read. There was pottery, ceramics, crystals, gemstones, minerals, fossils, botanicals, teas, art, prints, books, incense, and candles.
Beyond that you could also find runes, medallions, charms and pendants, chair and Thai massage, Shiatsu, muscle testing, sound and energy healers.
The organizers of the event described the Positive Vibe Tribe Festival as being not just a fun and learning experience but as a bonding experience “where your facilitators, teachers, leaders, vendors, and others are all together in the communal forest.”
“You get to come for a day or camp, hang out with a tribe, learn together, share meals, and talk together in one place and all workshops are included,” the organizers stated on their social media page.
Touch Mother Earth is a non-profit organization that states that they “provide innovative workshops, events, enriched cultural experience through the humanities, presentations and performances geared to assist mental health.”
