COMBINING ART + ACTIVISM

Arise Festival, August 7-9 at Sunrise Ranch in Loveland, combines music, dance, yoga, activism, education and solutions to what we are facing, as a planet,

all in one beautiful place for three days.

This year, Arise welcomes Peter Yarrow of “Peter Paul and Mary” fame. Peter was instrumental in helping change the world through music during the Vietnam War and Civil Rights era. He is accompanied by daughter, Bethany, an activist in her own right, helping in the fight against fracking, supporting social justice including indigenous populations’ rights to their land and sacred sites, and she was even arrested recently with the “We are Seneca Lake” group fighting against methane gas storage there.

Though she sees hope with things like the decision to take down the confederate flag in South Carolina and having a national holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr, Bethany notes that “we still have Columbus Day and sports teams with names like the Redskins. It is not enough to be conscious of the mistakes of the past, it is still happening.” Though we still have a long way to go she feels “music is the activating force that unites us.”

Josh Fox of “Gasland” and “Gasland 2” fame, is scheduled to attend. If you aren’t familiar with his Oscar nominated films, watch how the fracking industry has changed and oftentimes destroyed peoples’ lives. The oil & gas industry considers his movies to be the biggest obstacle to them maintaining the illusion that fracking is good for us. Though some say there isn’t enough scientific evidence to prove fracking is harmful, watch the heartbreaking stories of people who are living and dying with it, who get paid large amounts of money by the oil & gas industry but have to sign non-disclosure agreements, and draw your own conclusions.

Arise offers a three-day Permaculture Design Intensive followed by an Action Day with The Polish Ambassador. Sunrise Ranch is an excellent location for hosting this with their own functioning permaculture educational certification environment and on-site culinary school practicing a garden-to-table approach.

“… The newly emerging field of permaculture … is a holistic design system for ecological and sustainable living built upon core ethics. It integrates plants, animals, buildings, people and communities,” according to Patrick Padden, Sunrise Ranch’s permaculture certificate educator.

Permaculture is working with nature through life-giving solutions rather than life-taking ones, to produce abundance. Looking at how Mother Nature has solved problems and taking a lesson from her is called Biomimicry and is the new “forward” way of thinking. As we find ourselves in a place where many of the biggest problems we face are man-made, we are ready for a new paradigm. Permaculture offers that shift.

So for what might prove to be a life-changing event, don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy amazing music and get a glimpse into how to solve our troubled planet’s problems through music, education and forward thinking, with permaculture. Quite the combination! Sunrise Ranch, August 7-9 in Loveland.

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