User:Rosencomet/Starwood Festival

The Starwood Festival is a seven-day Neo-Pagan, New Age, multi-cultural and world music festival presented in July. Approximately 1,500 people attend including staff, speakers and entertainers. The Starwood Festival is a camping event with live musical performances, rituals, bonfires, multimedia presentations and social activities. There are also approximately 150 workshops offered on a variety of topics. It is a clothing optional event, and skyclad attendance is common. Some specific groups whose members regularly appear at and attend Starwood include the Church of All Worlds, the Church of the SubGenius and the Neo-Druidic group Ar nDraiocht Fein (ADF)

History
The Starwood Festival has been presented by the Association for Consciousness Exploration (ACE) since 1983 under its co-directors, Jeff Rosenbaum and Joe Rothenberg. It features entertainment, public ceremonies, and classes on subjects such as sensory isolation, Kirlian photography, Neopaganism, shamanism, Wicca, holistic health, tarot divination, Thelema, and past life regression. Among the first guest speakers and entertainers were Jim Alan and Selena Fox (founders of Circle Sanctuary), Raymond Buckland, Lee Bryan Grotte (Foundation for Research in Medical Botany), and music by Chameleon and The Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria.

The first festival was held in 1981 at Coopers Lake Campground in Slippery Rock, PA. From 1982 through 1985 it was held at Devil's Den Park in New Philadelphia, OH, a former state park run by Whispering Winds Nudist Camp. In 1986 and 1987 it was held at Bear Creek Amphitheatre (part of Bear Creek Resort Ranch KOA) in East Sparta, OH, and at Echo Hills Ski Resort in Logan, OH (on the Buckeye Trail) in 1988 and 1989. In 1990 the event was moved to Brushwood Folklore Center in Sherman, New York. Starwood 2010, 2011 and 2012 were held at Wisteria Campground in Pomeroy, Ohio.

The event began as a weekend festival, and grew over the years to a seven-day event. Attendance was 185 in the first year, and grew to about 350 during the next four years at Devil's Den Park. It rose to about 400 during the two years at Bear Creek, and topped 600 during the two at Echo Hills. The first year at Brushwood it exceeded 800 and Starwood became the biggest Neo-Pagan event in the country. The attendance leveled off at about 1500-1650 during the early 2000s.

Workshops
There are approximately 150 workshops offered on a variety of topics including alternative lifestyles, political & spiritual activism, spiritual traditions, consciousness-altering technologies and substances (such as biofeedback, sensory-isolation, mind machines, and entheogenic substances), martial arts & movement systems, history, magic, folklore, art & music, healing, metaphysics and environmental issues. Notable teachers on these and other subjects have included:


 * Gavin Bone
 * Isaac Bonewits
 * Raymond Buckland
 * Baba Raul Canizares
 * Dagmar Braun Celeste
 * Miriam Chamani
 * Phyllis Curott
 * Lon Milo Duquette
 * Janet Farrar
 * Stewart Farrar
 * LaSara Firefox
 * Bob Fitrakis
 * Selena Fox
 * Gavin Frost


 * Yvonne Frost
 * Stephen Gaskin
 * Ina May Gaskin
 * Michael T. Gilbert
 * Daniel Harms
 * Jesse Wolf Hardin
 * Ellen Evert Hopman
 * Sidian M.S. Jones
 * Anodea Judith
 * Amber K
 * Donald Michael Kraig
 * Paul Krassner
 * Stanley Krippner


 * Timothy Leary
 * Martin A. Lee
 * Deborah Lipp
 * Louis Martinie'
 * Terence McKenna
 * Ralph Metzner
 * Patricia Monaghan
 * Christopher Moore
 * Nema
 * M. Macha Nightmare
 * Jonathan Ott
 * Diana L. Paxson
 * Harvey Pekar
 * Christopher Penczak


 * Lauren Raine
 * Silver RavenWolf
 * Nicki Scully
 * Robert Shea
 * R. U. Sirius
 * Chas Smith
 * Ivan Stang
 * Jay Stevens
 * Patricia Telesco
 * Harvey Wasserman
 * Robert Anton Wilson
 * Fred Alan Wolf
 * Oberon Zell-Ravenheart
 * Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart

Entertainment
There are concerts presented on a variety of stages during the event, and other areas are set aside for drumming and performance and other activities. Starwood provides child care and children's and teen classes and programs in a playground area called "Kids' Village". Some past notable entertainers, many of whom also offered classes, include:


 * Matthew Abelson
 * Sikiru Adepoju
 * Amampondo
 * Babatunde Olatunji & Drums of Passion
 * Baka Beyond
 * John Bassette
 * Big Brother & the Holding Company
 * Muruga Booker
 * Brian Auger's Oblivion Express
 * Chicago AfroBeat Project
 * Cyro Baptista & Beat the Donkey


 * Yaya Diallo
 * Jim Donovan
 * Halim El-Dabh
 * Gaelic Storm
 * Michael Hinton
 * JiMiller Band
 * Stephen Kent
 * Kenny & Tziporah Klein
 * Lehto and Wright
 * Jeff Magnus McBride
 * Airto Moreira
 * Owain Phyfe


 * The Prodigals
 * Raq
 * Rainforest Band
 * Perry Robinson
 * Badal Roy
 * Merl Saunders
 * Tony Saunders
 * Jim Scott
 * Gilli Smyth (Gong)
 * Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius
 * Telesma
 * Trance Mission