Save the Date!

Saturday June 26 to Sunday July 4, 2021!

We are so excited to announce that we have solidified our dates with our beloved friends at Deerfields for our 2021 Gathering, so mark your calendars! We do not know exactly how many folks we will be able to accommodate, but we will be doing all that we can to keep everyone safe, while still being able to share the skills that Firefly is built upon. We collectively need connection to each other and Earth, now more than ever.

Intensives will be Saturday June 26 through Monday June 28. These small-group 3-day classes will delve deeply into particularly challenging skills such as hide-tanning, bow-making, butchering, permaculture design, and more, all while the gathering is being built around them. This is an amazing time to be on the inside of the event and be a part of the seed that grows into the bigger village.

Main Gathering will take place from Wednesday June 30 to Sunday July 4, with arrival day on Tuesday June 29. We will begin selling tickets in early spring, when we have a greater understanding of where we stand as a nation with Covid. All folks who have rolled their tickets over from last year will automatically be registered for the main gathering and assured their ticket. More details will come soon, and we thank you for your patience as we navigate these uncharted waters together.

the site

The 2021 Gathering will once again be at Deerfields in Mills River, NC. We hosted our first event there in 2019, and were profoundly touched by the beauty of this sacred land. Firefly is honored to return and be able to invite you to gather with us there again.

Deerfields is just 30 minutes south of Asheville, and offers a truly beautiful location for us to share and grow together. Traditional lands of the Cherokee, with two spring-fed freshwater lakes, meandering creeks, and beautiful hiking trails that weave through mature and diverse forests, Deerfields is locally known and loved by many. Come enjoy over 900 acres of wildness.

about

The Firefly Gathering is a community organization dedicated to sharing the skills and ideologies that help us to live abundantly and harmoniously with Earth. In a time of disconnection, industrial specialization, environmental injury, and rapid climate change, we believe it is of the utmost importance to adapt the way we live to not only survive in the changing world around us, but to thrive within our contributions to the human experience. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and all donations are tax deductible.

Every year around 1,000 people from diverse nationalities, faiths, political viewpoints, and backgrounds convene from around the globe at Firefly for a multi-day gathering. Here folks get a taste of life in community—where people experience a shared culture centered around learning traditional skills, preserving ancestral knowledge, living peacefully and productively with each other—all towards the goal of meeting our needs and living well without exploiting Earth.

Over the course of the gathering, nearly 100 teachers of assorted ages and backgrounds offer over 300 classes ranging from bow-making and hide-tanning, to herbal medicine and food preservation, to nonviolent communication, healing arts, and environmental remediation. The evenings are filled with music, dancing, drum circles, spoken word, song circles, art and more. We also have a variety of programs for children ages 3 to 18, which are centered around nature connection and learning skills while building beautiful memories in community.

Who We Are

Since 2007, The Firefly Gathering has been convening in the beautiful Appalachian mountains of Western North Carolina, Our organization was founded by and continues to be operated predominantly (but not exclusively) by women committed to shifting the dominant paradigm. We have around eight core staff members, with many more during the event. The Board of Directors is constituted of eight members with a broad range of experiences including Earth skills, nonprofit governance, tribal government, law, and technology.

Click here to meet our Board of Directors.

scholarships

To be inclusive and accessible, Firefly provides scholarships to individuals from communities who, due to systemic oppression, have otherwise not been able to attend events of this kind. We offer these scholarships with the hopes to foster a strong and powerful diverse community of earth-centered people steeped in the earth-knowledge that Firefly has to offer, who in turn can work in their own greater communities, spreading this knowledge and sharing the skills they have learned with others.

Firefly also offers discounted tickets for those who wish to help us run the event. We call these worktrade passes, which can discount half to most of the ticket price. We believe that everyone should have access to these crucial skills and knowledge. Racial equity and environmental justice work are forefront in our minds and hearts as we move forward as a community, a school and an organization.

Click here to learn more and apply for a scholarship.

our sponsors

2019 Sponsors

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Want to speak to a human? Call us at 828-202-9469.

[email protected]

PO Box 18758
Asheville, NC 28814