--- Experiencing Community

This article about
The Sydney Confester's Gatherings
was prepared in December 2003

Sydney Alternative Lifestyle Festival

Expanding the ConFest Spirit

By Lau Guerreiro

ConFest is a remarkable alternative lifestyle festival that has been running for 28 years, and now it?s expanding into the Sydney region.

ConFest was first held at Cotter River, ACT in 1976 with the stated aim of ?transforming society?. In recent years there have been two ConFests held per year: one lasting seven days during the New Year period and another over the Easter long weekend. These festivals have traditionally been held along the Murray River but now there are moves afoot to hold a third ConFest in the Sydney region.

I recently spoke with Don Royal, who has been helping to organise ConFest for over 15 years, as well as Greg O?Donnell and Diana Horvath, two of the new generation of organisers that are working to bring the festival to Sydney.

LAU: ConFest isn?t a music festival like Woodstock or the Melaney Folk Festival is it?

DON: No, it?s not a music festival at all. There are no bands and no DJ?s; in fact there is no amplified music at all. Instead people tend to make their own music. They gather round campfires with their acoustic guitars and African drums and create their own entertainment.

But the music is only one small part of what happens at ConFest. The main activities that occur are free workshops on all sorts of alternative topics, from meditation, Tantra, massage, healing, story telling, fire twirling, to environmental and political issues.

There are between 15 and 30 workshop venues and a big blackboard has the timetable of events written on it. Most people spend their day going from workshop to workshop as well as swimming in the river, taking a mud bath or making new friends in the chai tent.

LAU: What I found amazing when I attended my first ConFest was that none of the workshops are organised in advance.

DON: That?s right, we just create the workshop spaces and the blackboard for the timetable. At the beginning of the festival the timetable is completely empty. As people arrive they decide that they want to run a workshop and so they select a venue and time and write it up on the blackboard. Anyone can run a workshop on any topic and you don?t need approval from anyone ? just write it up on the blackboard. The only condition is that it must be free.

LAU: Why do people run workshops for free?

DON: People do it for many reasons, but predominantly I think that they do it because they love running workshops and they love to share their knowledge and experience with others. It?s all part of the spirit of ConFest. ConFest is run by a non-profit organisation and volunteers - no one is paid. It?s all about creating community and experiencing a different type of society - one that?s very different to the normal rat race that we get caught up in. It?s about being more open and loving and helping each other out. It?s about people coming together at the grass roots level and cooperating to create something that?s very special.

LAU: Who actually runs ConFest?

DON: It?s run by a non-profit cooperative society called Down To Earth (DTE). But, really, we only provide the minimum infrastructure for the event. For the most part ConFest is self-organising ? it?s the people that come along to the festival that decide what happens. DTE?s main tasks include providing the land, some rudimentary toilets and showers, some workshop tents and organising the food stall vendors ? the rest is up to the people that come along.

LAU: Each time I go to ConFest I?m pleasantly surprised by how, almost overnight, a patch of forest is transformed into what feels like a small friendly town. Many people are obviously regulars and they create great spaces around their tents ? they turn it into much more than just a campsite don?t they?

DON: Oh yes, definitely. There are some regulars that come along and create a steam sauna out of plastic sheeting, or hot tubs, or performance spaces. We also help to create little theme "villages" by naming different parts of the camping area. For example there?s a healing village, arts village, pagan village, family village as well as many other villages that people create by getting a group of friends to camp together. We get about 3 500 people to each festival and so that?s large enough that it does feel like different suburbs in a town, but the amazing thing is just how friendly everyone is in this town ? everyone smiles and says hello as they walk past.

LAU: Who are all these friendly people? What sort of person keeps coming back to ConFest?

DON: Well it?s definitely not for everyone. You have to be okay with roughing it a bit ? the showers and toilets are very basic. I think that the more you enjoy being out in nature and getting in touch with the earth, the more you?ll enjoy ConFest.

LAU: It?s a bit primitive and tribal in a way isn?t it?

DON: Yes, its definitely got that feel to it - it?s like going back in time. And yet you also get a sense of going forward in time, as if you?re participating in something that?s leading the way for the rest of society. ConFest people tend to be interested in creating a society that?s more open and loving; they tend to be interested in personal and spiritual development and so when you get 3 or 4 thousand such people together in a natural setting the energy that?s generated is pretty powerful.

LAU: Yes, I?ve heard people say that they experience lots of synchronistic occurrences and that the whole event is like one big workshop.

DON: I agree, you can often learn as much from the people you meet in the chai tent as from the people running the workshops. What can I say? I just love it.

LAU: ConFest is very much about having the freedom to be yourself, however, there are some guidelines aren?t there?

DON: Well yes, we strongly discourage the use of drugs and alcohol. We encourage people to tap into their natural joy.

LAU: And now you want to help spread that joy to Sydney?

DON: Yes, it would be nice to have something closer to Sydney so that more people can experience the magic. At the last ConFest we started talking about getting something happening in Sydney and luckily we got some enthusiastic people like Dianna and Greg stepping forward to help with the organisation.

LAU: So what have you guys got planned for Sydney?

DIANNA: Well, the plan is to hold some sort of gathering on the October long weekend in 2004. It won?t be called a ConFest yet, as it will take a few years for its size and energy to build up to a point at which it can become a ConFest. In the meantime it?ll be called the Sydney ConFesters? Gathering.

LAU: How many people are you expecting at the first event?

GREG: We?re really not sure - somewhere between one hundred and one thousand.

We?re trying to build up to the October event by holding some preliminary camping gatherings every couple of months. The idea of these weekends is to build a foundation team that can learn the skills required to put on a festival. So we?re starting small, getting some practice and giving the universe the opportunity to bring together a team of people that will enjoy creating a wonderful event.

LAU: Have you held any of these preliminary events yet?

GREG: Yes, we?ve had two already: one in Berry on the South Coast in July and another out near Mudgee in October.

LAU: And how did they go?

DIANA: We were pleased with the results - we had 25 people at the first one and 40 at the second. We?re starting to establish a nice little core team that?s learning what?s involved in organising such an event.

LAU: Are you looking for more people to join the team or do you have all you need now?

DIANNA: We?re looking for as many people as we can get ? the more the merrier. However you want to participate, whether it?s in a big way or a little way, we?d love to have you aboard. There?s no official team or anything, its all very grass roots cooperation ? just a bunch of people getting together to make it happen.

LAU: Is there any specific help that you?re after?

GREG: We?d also like some help finding a property to hold the festival on. If anyone knows of a property that?s less than two and a half hours drive from Sydney that could hold a thousand campers then please let us know.

GREG: The other thing we?re doing is encouraging people who?ve never experienced a ConFest to get down to Illford for the next ConFest. There?s a certain ConFest culture that we?d like Sydney-siders to absorb so that when we hold an event up here there?ll be enough people who know what ConFest is about to help create the same atmosphere up here.

DIANNA: We?ll be creating a Sydney village at the New Year ConFest so that us Sydney-siders can hang out together and get to know each other. You meet so many great people at ConFest but most of them are from Melbourne, so having our own Sydney village will increase the chances of establishing lasting friendships.