The Fairie Festival
Jun. 14th, 2013 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elabyI've been wanting to post about our time at the Spoutwood Farm Fairie Festival, because it was a transformative experience for me and I cherish the memories in ways like no other - but at the same time, it's incredibly hard to put all that wonder and glitter and love into words. I'll settle for a chronicle, so that I can read it down the road and remember all the details <3
Rachel and I drove down to Pennsylvania on Thursday. We started early, thinking it would take us about 7 1/2 hours. It look us more like 10 T_T We didn't even dawdle! Just one missed exit, maybe 40 minutes for lunch, and some traffic around York, PA. (Yorkpa!) We did pass through an absolutely gorgeous part of Connecticut, the highlight of our drive - Route 15. It was a miles-long tunnel of spring trees, just beginning to bud, like a painting done in yellow-green pointillism. Every overpass we drove under was differently wrought, some in beautiful iron filigree, some in cobbled stonework, some in carved sandstone. It was a joy to drive through!
We were worried we'd arrive hours after Sarah and Jenn (we shared a hotel room with them, and it was in our name, so they wouldn't have been able to check in until we got there!) Luckily, we arrived at nearly the same time :) This is what we drove in to the parking lot to see!
"Kubiando" is the word of the Fairie Festival - a greeting, a word of welcome, a philosophy. The Hampton Inn was where many of the people working at and attending the festival stayed, and they embraced us wholly. We settled into our room and Sarah and Jenn gave us several Glamourkins and a blessing bowl <3 Partially in exchange for my drawing the cover of The Benevolence Tales, Vol. 1 and partially because they're just incredibly sweet, generous people <3 They also NEVER FAIL to choose Glamourkins for me that I've been sighing over while looking at the Fable Tribe Etsy shop - ones that I loved utterly but couldn't presently afford. We went swimming in the hotel pool that evening (I forgot my bathing suit and wore a pair of Rachel's shorts and a t-shirt XD) and had a PIZZA ADVENTURE, which involved attempting to walk, at 9:45 p.m., to a pizza place which was much farther away than it looked on Google Maps :\ Luckily Jenn had stayed at the hotel room and came to rescue us.
Friday
Friday was the first day of the Fairie Festival! The weather was perfect the entire weekend, and we drove with Sarah and Jenn through the most pastoral rolling hills and winding roads. On Friday, not as many people are there, and as Sarah told us, the energy is very different. Everyone there on that day is there because they're committed to the magic of the festival, and it's not hectic or crowded. We parked on a hillside covered with purple gill-over-the-ground. I could see the white tips of pavilions down below, but for the most part, the farm grounds were hidden by a riot of trees and vines. We put on our wings and headed down!
Sarah and Jenn lead the way :3 Sarah was wearing BLOOMERS OMG, and Jenn's coat was so gorgeous I almost died.
I wore the monarch butterfly wings I made for Sarah and Jenn's wedding. One wing was a little floppy, but I told people a spriggan bit me.
Rachel the adorably lop-sided dragon fairy was very excited to get her program!
We walked through the gates, and it was even more enchanting than I imagined. A sunny dirt road wound past streams with lush green banks, and a woman wearing wings sat by the roadside playing a harp. The trees were hung with little baskets, ribbons, and sun-catchers.
We wandered toward the opening ceremony, which we were early enough to catch. It was a wonderful introduction! Then we spent some time looking at the booths and booths of gorgeously crafted fairie-related works. Everything you could've wanted to deck yourself out in finery was there - wings, dresses, headpieces, hair accessories, masks, jewelry upon jewelry. There was so much to look at! We didn't even see a fraction of it that morning. We headed through the central area and up a wooded path to Frodo's Hill, where the upper stage area and lots more booths were located. There was food up here too - amazing amounts of delicious food! :D
But before we had food, we decided to brave the labyrinth!
IT. WAS. BREATHTAKING. A maze of little dirt paths meandering through a wood, all flickering leaves and green light and violets and colorful tulle.
Jenn and Sarah waiting for us by one of the color-stations all throughout the maze. The stations had little wells with chalk in them, just big enough to stick your finger in, and you could get your fortune told by which color you put on which finger.
I'm married to the most adorable person ever.
After we left the maze, Rachel and I shared some delicious fried vegetables and black bean falafel (there was so much vegetarian food T_T). We sat down in the shade beside one of the seating tents, and right near us was a ring of hay bales and logs. A bunch of people were gathered there, and after a little while, they started a drum circle <3 Everyone was encouraged to join and drum or dance (or both, probably!)
Rachel and Sarah drumming :3
It was so moving. I love dancing - I normally don't feel particularly graceful (ask Rachel about my clumsiness sometime for a good laugh), but when I'm dancing, I feel like I suddenly know how to move. After waffling in self-consciousness for several minutes, I joined the people dancing inside the circle, and it was so much fun.
The Frenchy and the Punk concert was next - I was so excited because Jenn and Sarah always talk about how much they love them. THEY WERE AWESOME. We definitely bought a CD :3 Also, around this time, we got to meet James! He's a very good friend of Sarah and Jenn's, and they always said we'd get along well, and the moment we met him, we had an instant connection. It was so cool to get to hang out for a while.
I love this picture of Jenn and Sarah - they look like a Victorian couple sitting on a spring hillside <3
There was another drum circle in the evening, and we danced even more. On the way out, Rachel found a bright pink feather in the grass and put it in my hair.
That night, there was a party for Fairie Festival people at the hotel. I felt like I was at some kind of movie premier - so many important Festival people were there! The two people who own the farm and started the Festival spent some time with us and were so excited to hear we were from New Hampshire, because one of them had lived there. Another of the people who helped run the festival was even familiar with Somersworth (our town). We also saw Twig out of character O_O <3 The food was mind-blowing: mushrooms made out of carved radishes and meringue, incredible blossom-frosted cupcakes, little sandwiches and pastry puffs, star-shaped cookies, rainbow fruit skewers. The decorations were equally beautiful, with branches in the corners and hanging from the ceiling, all strung with jars full of glowing liquid. It was so heartwarming and cultivated this phenomenally deep sense of inclusion. In fact, the whole Fairie Festival seemed to be purposefully built to make everyone feel welcome. I can't explain how much that meant to me.
We went swimming again after the party <3 Going swimming was such a happy, relaxing part of each night. It was a chance to just spend time together and talk, which was so welcome and needed.
Saturday
On Saturday, there were no protesters at the gates, even though they'd been there every year before! Rachel and I arrived at the Festival in time to see the end of the second Frenchy and the Punk concert. We saw Laura (of Vasilion Photography) and her wife Jen there! <3 It was great to get to see them again. Poor Sarah wasn't feeling well so she and Jenn arrived a little later, and in the meantime, Rachel and I went to peruse more of the vendor stalls. So many gorgeous things *_* Rachel got a flowery head-circlet and I added to my growing collection of tree-related Fairie Festival jewelry XD
This one was made by Sihaya Designs. It is perfect.
We met up with Sarah, Jenn, James, Laura, and Jen in time for a wedding that was taking place on Frodo's Hill. It was so beautiful. They played "Loved by the Sun" from Legend as the processional song (!!!! It always makes me think of Nausicaa, because of an AMV) and the bride was wearing incredibly lovely wings. We realized the man who officiated had sat next to us at breakfast in the hotel lobby that morning!
We spent the rest of the day wandering around and happily taking in the sights of the festival. Rachel and I tried the amazing lavender ice cream <3 Ooh, and earlier, for lunch, I had a grilled peanut butter and nutella sandwich. HOLY COW. Near the end of the day, we found an enchanting little stream behind some of the vendor tents, and I went exploring.
We met up with Kat and Corey, friends of Jenn and Sarah who we had met at their wedding, and we went to dinner with them. It was great to get to know them better - Corey and I totally geeked out over Tolkien ^_^ I think that was the only night we didn't end up swimming, because we all hung out and talked all night <3
Sunday
Sunday was Pony Day! :D
Like Friday, Sarah did our makeup! She did RAINBOWS in Rachel's eyeshadow, holy cow.
I was Fluttershy. We went with ribbons instead of wigs since they were quicker and cheaper. Jenn lent me her bunny wings (an homage to Fluttershy's rabbit, Angel) and they were SUCH A HUGE HIT that I got stopped every so often by people wanting to pet them :3
Rachel was, of course, Rainbow Dash :3 She was even a bigger hit than my bunny wings! Possibly my favorite moment was when a little girl saw her and shrieked "RAINBOW DASH!" and proceeded to fling herself into Rachel's arms. OMG <3
Sarah was Pinkie Pie and Jenn was Rarity <3 They both were PERFECT and looked so beautiful!
Sunday was absolutely delightful. The weather was just a little cooler than Saturday, which was welcome, and it had a slightly more Friday-ish atmosphere - there were still lots and lots of people, but it wasn't as overwhelmingly crowded as on Saturday, and it had a relaxed feeling, as if everyone was letting out their breath after Saturday and making the last day of the Festival as joyful and meaningful as possible.
Everyone loved our costumes. It was really cool to cosplay Friendship is Magic in a setting outside the traditional geek fandom, because the only people who recognized us were either little kids or people who were both MLP fans and Fairie Festival people, which kind of guaranteed that they weren't jerkwads. (For some reason I fear that cosplaying MLP:FIM at a con would draw an uncomfortable kind of attention - I have no proof of this, though.) A young teenager who was cosplaying Discord (one of the main MLP:FIM villains, voiced by John deLancie of Star Trek fame) saw us and immediately struck up a role-playing conversation, and we pretty much remained in character every time we saw her. That was kind of awesome :3
We floated from place to place, hula hooping and dancing at the drum circle in the morning and watching some musicians in the afternoon (led by the same man we sat next to at breakfast and who officiated the wedding the day before!). Rachel and I spent a long time exploring the staggeringly charming fairy houses - there were whole neighborhoods in the hillside woods by one of the stages, with little dirt paths winding up and down through the trees. Everywhere you looked, there were little bark huts with glimmers inside of sparkling glass stones and tiny chairs and bits of brightly colored fluff. Little baskets full of crystals were hung in the trees; miniature patios made of bark with woven cloth rugs were tucked into the crooks of branches; there was even a tiny town built on the banks of a stream, complete with stairways and bridges. It was a wonderland.
At the end of the day, we wandered around the merchant booths with Sarah and Jenn, picking up our last mementos. People were closing up and packing their wares by the time we finally made our way to the gate, past the woman still playing her harp. It was a golden moment, soaked by the setting sun, festooned in the green of high spring. The land there has such an immense spirit of welcome and acceptance and healing. I was so utterly fulfilled by the time I spent there and so sorry to leave, but the very fact that such a place exists does much to cancel out that sadness. I was more sad at the thought of leaving Sarah and Jenn the next day, but luckily, we had one more adventure to look forward to...
The next day, we were going to Washington D.C. to the National Gallery, to see the Pre-Raphaelite exhibit. :D :D :D And I think I'll post about that another day <3
Rachel and I drove down to Pennsylvania on Thursday. We started early, thinking it would take us about 7 1/2 hours. It look us more like 10 T_T We didn't even dawdle! Just one missed exit, maybe 40 minutes for lunch, and some traffic around York, PA. (Yorkpa!) We did pass through an absolutely gorgeous part of Connecticut, the highlight of our drive - Route 15. It was a miles-long tunnel of spring trees, just beginning to bud, like a painting done in yellow-green pointillism. Every overpass we drove under was differently wrought, some in beautiful iron filigree, some in cobbled stonework, some in carved sandstone. It was a joy to drive through!
We were worried we'd arrive hours after Sarah and Jenn (we shared a hotel room with them, and it was in our name, so they wouldn't have been able to check in until we got there!) Luckily, we arrived at nearly the same time :) This is what we drove in to the parking lot to see!
"Kubiando" is the word of the Fairie Festival - a greeting, a word of welcome, a philosophy. The Hampton Inn was where many of the people working at and attending the festival stayed, and they embraced us wholly. We settled into our room and Sarah and Jenn gave us several Glamourkins and a blessing bowl <3 Partially in exchange for my drawing the cover of The Benevolence Tales, Vol. 1 and partially because they're just incredibly sweet, generous people <3 They also NEVER FAIL to choose Glamourkins for me that I've been sighing over while looking at the Fable Tribe Etsy shop - ones that I loved utterly but couldn't presently afford. We went swimming in the hotel pool that evening (I forgot my bathing suit and wore a pair of Rachel's shorts and a t-shirt XD) and had a PIZZA ADVENTURE, which involved attempting to walk, at 9:45 p.m., to a pizza place which was much farther away than it looked on Google Maps :\ Luckily Jenn had stayed at the hotel room and came to rescue us.
Friday
Friday was the first day of the Fairie Festival! The weather was perfect the entire weekend, and we drove with Sarah and Jenn through the most pastoral rolling hills and winding roads. On Friday, not as many people are there, and as Sarah told us, the energy is very different. Everyone there on that day is there because they're committed to the magic of the festival, and it's not hectic or crowded. We parked on a hillside covered with purple gill-over-the-ground. I could see the white tips of pavilions down below, but for the most part, the farm grounds were hidden by a riot of trees and vines. We put on our wings and headed down!
Sarah and Jenn lead the way :3 Sarah was wearing BLOOMERS OMG, and Jenn's coat was so gorgeous I almost died.
I wore the monarch butterfly wings I made for Sarah and Jenn's wedding. One wing was a little floppy, but I told people a spriggan bit me.
Rachel the adorably lop-sided dragon fairy was very excited to get her program!
We walked through the gates, and it was even more enchanting than I imagined. A sunny dirt road wound past streams with lush green banks, and a woman wearing wings sat by the roadside playing a harp. The trees were hung with little baskets, ribbons, and sun-catchers.
We wandered toward the opening ceremony, which we were early enough to catch. It was a wonderful introduction! Then we spent some time looking at the booths and booths of gorgeously crafted fairie-related works. Everything you could've wanted to deck yourself out in finery was there - wings, dresses, headpieces, hair accessories, masks, jewelry upon jewelry. There was so much to look at! We didn't even see a fraction of it that morning. We headed through the central area and up a wooded path to Frodo's Hill, where the upper stage area and lots more booths were located. There was food up here too - amazing amounts of delicious food! :D
But before we had food, we decided to brave the labyrinth!
IT. WAS. BREATHTAKING. A maze of little dirt paths meandering through a wood, all flickering leaves and green light and violets and colorful tulle.
Jenn and Sarah waiting for us by one of the color-stations all throughout the maze. The stations had little wells with chalk in them, just big enough to stick your finger in, and you could get your fortune told by which color you put on which finger.
I'm married to the most adorable person ever.
After we left the maze, Rachel and I shared some delicious fried vegetables and black bean falafel (there was so much vegetarian food T_T). We sat down in the shade beside one of the seating tents, and right near us was a ring of hay bales and logs. A bunch of people were gathered there, and after a little while, they started a drum circle <3 Everyone was encouraged to join and drum or dance (or both, probably!)
Rachel and Sarah drumming :3
It was so moving. I love dancing - I normally don't feel particularly graceful (ask Rachel about my clumsiness sometime for a good laugh), but when I'm dancing, I feel like I suddenly know how to move. After waffling in self-consciousness for several minutes, I joined the people dancing inside the circle, and it was so much fun.
The Frenchy and the Punk concert was next - I was so excited because Jenn and Sarah always talk about how much they love them. THEY WERE AWESOME. We definitely bought a CD :3 Also, around this time, we got to meet James! He's a very good friend of Sarah and Jenn's, and they always said we'd get along well, and the moment we met him, we had an instant connection. It was so cool to get to hang out for a while.
I love this picture of Jenn and Sarah - they look like a Victorian couple sitting on a spring hillside <3
There was another drum circle in the evening, and we danced even more. On the way out, Rachel found a bright pink feather in the grass and put it in my hair.
That night, there was a party for Fairie Festival people at the hotel. I felt like I was at some kind of movie premier - so many important Festival people were there! The two people who own the farm and started the Festival spent some time with us and were so excited to hear we were from New Hampshire, because one of them had lived there. Another of the people who helped run the festival was even familiar with Somersworth (our town). We also saw Twig out of character O_O <3 The food was mind-blowing: mushrooms made out of carved radishes and meringue, incredible blossom-frosted cupcakes, little sandwiches and pastry puffs, star-shaped cookies, rainbow fruit skewers. The decorations were equally beautiful, with branches in the corners and hanging from the ceiling, all strung with jars full of glowing liquid. It was so heartwarming and cultivated this phenomenally deep sense of inclusion. In fact, the whole Fairie Festival seemed to be purposefully built to make everyone feel welcome. I can't explain how much that meant to me.
We went swimming again after the party <3 Going swimming was such a happy, relaxing part of each night. It was a chance to just spend time together and talk, which was so welcome and needed.
Saturday
On Saturday, there were no protesters at the gates, even though they'd been there every year before! Rachel and I arrived at the Festival in time to see the end of the second Frenchy and the Punk concert. We saw Laura (of Vasilion Photography) and her wife Jen there! <3 It was great to get to see them again. Poor Sarah wasn't feeling well so she and Jenn arrived a little later, and in the meantime, Rachel and I went to peruse more of the vendor stalls. So many gorgeous things *_* Rachel got a flowery head-circlet and I added to my growing collection of tree-related Fairie Festival jewelry XD
This one was made by Sihaya Designs. It is perfect.
We met up with Sarah, Jenn, James, Laura, and Jen in time for a wedding that was taking place on Frodo's Hill. It was so beautiful. They played "Loved by the Sun" from Legend as the processional song (!!!! It always makes me think of Nausicaa, because of an AMV) and the bride was wearing incredibly lovely wings. We realized the man who officiated had sat next to us at breakfast in the hotel lobby that morning!
We spent the rest of the day wandering around and happily taking in the sights of the festival. Rachel and I tried the amazing lavender ice cream <3 Ooh, and earlier, for lunch, I had a grilled peanut butter and nutella sandwich. HOLY COW. Near the end of the day, we found an enchanting little stream behind some of the vendor tents, and I went exploring.
We met up with Kat and Corey, friends of Jenn and Sarah who we had met at their wedding, and we went to dinner with them. It was great to get to know them better - Corey and I totally geeked out over Tolkien ^_^ I think that was the only night we didn't end up swimming, because we all hung out and talked all night <3
Sunday
Sunday was Pony Day! :D
Like Friday, Sarah did our makeup! She did RAINBOWS in Rachel's eyeshadow, holy cow.
I was Fluttershy. We went with ribbons instead of wigs since they were quicker and cheaper. Jenn lent me her bunny wings (an homage to Fluttershy's rabbit, Angel) and they were SUCH A HUGE HIT that I got stopped every so often by people wanting to pet them :3
Rachel was, of course, Rainbow Dash :3 She was even a bigger hit than my bunny wings! Possibly my favorite moment was when a little girl saw her and shrieked "RAINBOW DASH!" and proceeded to fling herself into Rachel's arms. OMG <3
Sarah was Pinkie Pie and Jenn was Rarity <3 They both were PERFECT and looked so beautiful!
Sunday was absolutely delightful. The weather was just a little cooler than Saturday, which was welcome, and it had a slightly more Friday-ish atmosphere - there were still lots and lots of people, but it wasn't as overwhelmingly crowded as on Saturday, and it had a relaxed feeling, as if everyone was letting out their breath after Saturday and making the last day of the Festival as joyful and meaningful as possible.
Everyone loved our costumes. It was really cool to cosplay Friendship is Magic in a setting outside the traditional geek fandom, because the only people who recognized us were either little kids or people who were both MLP fans and Fairie Festival people, which kind of guaranteed that they weren't jerkwads. (For some reason I fear that cosplaying MLP:FIM at a con would draw an uncomfortable kind of attention - I have no proof of this, though.) A young teenager who was cosplaying Discord (one of the main MLP:FIM villains, voiced by John deLancie of Star Trek fame) saw us and immediately struck up a role-playing conversation, and we pretty much remained in character every time we saw her. That was kind of awesome :3
We floated from place to place, hula hooping and dancing at the drum circle in the morning and watching some musicians in the afternoon (led by the same man we sat next to at breakfast and who officiated the wedding the day before!). Rachel and I spent a long time exploring the staggeringly charming fairy houses - there were whole neighborhoods in the hillside woods by one of the stages, with little dirt paths winding up and down through the trees. Everywhere you looked, there were little bark huts with glimmers inside of sparkling glass stones and tiny chairs and bits of brightly colored fluff. Little baskets full of crystals were hung in the trees; miniature patios made of bark with woven cloth rugs were tucked into the crooks of branches; there was even a tiny town built on the banks of a stream, complete with stairways and bridges. It was a wonderland.
At the end of the day, we wandered around the merchant booths with Sarah and Jenn, picking up our last mementos. People were closing up and packing their wares by the time we finally made our way to the gate, past the woman still playing her harp. It was a golden moment, soaked by the setting sun, festooned in the green of high spring. The land there has such an immense spirit of welcome and acceptance and healing. I was so utterly fulfilled by the time I spent there and so sorry to leave, but the very fact that such a place exists does much to cancel out that sadness. I was more sad at the thought of leaving Sarah and Jenn the next day, but luckily, we had one more adventure to look forward to...
The next day, we were going to Washington D.C. to the National Gallery, to see the Pre-Raphaelite exhibit. :D :D :D And I think I'll post about that another day <3
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-06-15 10:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-15 04:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-15 01:36 pm (UTC)I love all of your costumes! so cute! and how perfect is the setting? woods and grass and streams. <3
That looks like you guys had so much fun. :D
no subject
Date: 2013-06-15 04:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-15 01:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-15 04:11 pm (UTC)