We believe that the culture we are co-creating together involves giving and receiving direct feedback; how else can we know how our actions impact others, and therefore change and grow?
And so, every summer at the Annual Gathering, we implore folks to fill out feedback forms. We then read every word, and go over the results in board and staff meetings, implementing and growing from this feedback. We appreciate the positive feedback so much! It really lights up our annual staff debrief meeting, held within a few weeks of the event.
We take turns reading the uplifting and deeply heartfelt things that participants say when they’re fresh in the experience of being at the event. I could write a book detailing the beautiful things folks share about the positive ways that Firefly has impacted their lives.
We also spend time sitting with the more challenging feedback; what might be deemed “negative.”
We try not to take it that way, though.
Even when we disagree with the feedback, or have more insight into the situation and why an idea won’t work, we sit with it. Staying open minded and open to if there is an opportunity to learn and grow.
The following is feedback (grouped into categories) of what we received about the challenges at the 2024 event, and some solution-oriented actions that we are taking to show that we love you and we listen, and we care enough to make changes to reflect that. And we ask that you hold us in a place of gentleness seeing the difficulties in our work; and that we are listening, trying, and knowing it’s far from perfect; but this is how we grow.
Location
Finding a site for the annual Firefly Gathering is always a big deal. Our needs are very vast, yet specific: at least 50 acres (preferably more), forests, meadows or fields, parking for at least 888 people, a large clean water source for swimming (most ponds simply are NOT big enough and get very gross after a few days). It must be private enough that noise and disturbance is not an issue for those late-night song circles, but also centrally located within an hour of Asheville. And within our price range (to help us try and keep ticket prices low). Since it began in 2007, Firefly has been at 7 locations, and each has had its ups and downs.
Our current location is no exception. Last year was our first gathering at the Wild Human Preserve, and first years are always challenging because we have to completely redesign the gathering to accommodate the new site and its particularities. Some of our favorite things about this site are: the beautiful Toe River, running over rapids and deep pools, and sand bars with otter tracks.
For some, however, this is also a downside: the walk to the cool, freshwater rapids is only possible for able bodied people. For those who are able, it is a lovely get away from the bustle of the gathering, and a chance to connect with the quiet beauty of nature and cool off in the clean cold waters of Appalachia. To address this, we officially have the spring-fed upper pond sanctioned as a swim area! This will make it possible for everybody to be able to cool off at the event and we are so grateful to have this option.
We also love the beautiful historic hay barn that serves many functions, and our wonderful land steward Steve, who consistently keeps his word and has never been unkind to us (this is not true for all places that may have seemed perfect, but were toxic behind the scenes).
This site does, however, present its own unique challenges…
The biggest being the voluptuous rolling hills!
While we expect this in Appalachia (as big flat spaces in the mountains are hard to find), we understand that it can be difficult for folks to get around, and we hear that people struggled in various ways with this.
We are always open to new site exploration, so if you know of any possibilities, please email [email protected] with your suggestions. In the meantime, we are going to love the land we are on, and we’re excited to share the creative solutions we will implement to help everybody have the experience they came for.
To start with, we are building an extra 1.5 hours into the schedule, allowing much more transit time between classes and events. We are also going to have fewer things concurrently scheduled, as folks have expressed struggling to choose between all of the wonderful programming and activities available. While you can never do it all in one gathering, we can ease the tension by simplifying things a bit. These two actions together will help create the culture of ease that we collectively long for.
Wanting more pristine land came up, as well, and we hear that. We acknowledge that this land has weathered some hard times and lack of love in its past; as has much of Appalachia. The land bears the weight of colonization, too. So let us embrace this land while we’re here, and spread our love where we stand, wherever that might be.
Camping
The hills also made camping difficult for some, as there weren’t a lot of flat spaces available. To remedy this, we are moving things around in some exciting ways. A draft of the map will be available sooner than ever before, and we’ve got a LOT more flat areas opening up for general camping: by the pond, closer to the center, where the Neighborhood was. We’ll also be moving the shuttle gear drop much closer to the main camping areas, next to the accessibility camp area and creating more clearly marked pathways for ease of navigation.
BTW’s: The Neighborhood is moving down to where Mutual Aid and First Aid were in 2024, and that area will become our little downtown spot, complete with the local bodega! This will concentrate more spaces and activities together so they are less spread out, which means fewer steps and more accessibility. We are also excited to announce an elder and accessibility camping area near ancestor fire, where people can apply for an accessibility pass. We will also be renting more golf carts, so that we can have 2 dedicated at all times to help folks get around. And we’ll have Worktrade Camp much closer so the trek from personal space to meals isn’t too far.
Something new after Helene is that many of the pines are gone.
The storm hit the area hard.
So we will be reconfiguring some things there, with more class spaces set up in the new clearings.
The Pines have also been mentioned by folks, wondering why our staff gets to camp there?
The simple answer is that we need to be centrally located to the event and the barn, where our staff-kitchen and office is. And, our staff need a quiet place to retreat to at times, to nap or rest, as we hold a lot of responsibility and care all throughout the event, including days before and after. So we have this space as a private nook within the beauty of Firefly Gathering for staff, elders, and a few instructors with special needs.
Other notes on camping: It was alluded to there being a burial ground on site, but what was being shared was that clearings like this all throughout Appalachia could be burial sites. There is no evidence that this particular site had any graves on it. We do know that it was cleared as a Christmas tree farm, then cattle for a number of years prior to it coming into Steve’s care.
Another thing that folks often ask for is designated camping areas, such as Loud Camping, Quiet Camping, Family Camping, etc. While we have tried to do that in the past, we have found that it is impossible for us to enforce. SO, we simply ask that all folks keep it quiet after 10 around the tents. If you want to talk, sing, or carry on, go to a fire or group social area and enjoy. We will work to articulate this message at the event each day.
Classes
We strive to offer the best classes possible, vetting our teachers and having tough conversations around appropriation and cultural sensitivities when applicable. However, sometimes things still happen that require repair, and we are here for that, too. And once again, we lean heavily on the Class Feedback Forms to know how our instructors are actually performing in the field-literally! So please fill one out for every single class you take; it’s really the only way we can improve.
Also, with the new openness in the pines, we plan to have several class flies set up in there; quiet spaces for long, focused classes like willow basket weaving and pottery.
We only allow the instructors to camp in those spaces to preserve the container of the long, multi-day classes.
Community Culture
Firefly has always been an activist oriented gathering. From its inception, it pushed back against the then male dominated earthskills spaces by having a women-led organization step boldly into the then very small earthskills scene. My first Firefly was in 2010, and my heart sang when The Beehive Collective was there, an activist organization from Maine that I loved, with their billboard sized art pieces featuring local plants and animals fighting back against mining and corporate greed, with such titles as The True Cost of Coal and more. Firefly also broke the mold by having amplified music and the budding Rising Appalachia serenade us in the sultry southern summer nights, focusing on evening activities and entertainment as well as classes.
So pushing boundaries and going against the grain is not new to Firefly. And yet, every year we get a couple of comments lamenting that we are “becoming political,” or beseeching us to “just stick to the skills…” With all due respect: No. This mentality is a function of privilege: to want to just do our own thing, enjoying life; because the problems of the world don’t affect us, so we don’t want to hear about it. But that is not the culture we are co-creating to inhabit together. We look to the past and learn from our mistakes. When we see history repeating atrocities, it is imperative that we stand together, shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with the oppressed people of the world and demand change, knowing that until all are free, none of us are truly free. That is the world that I want to live in, and I work to create.
Firefly is not political in the sense that it has never endorsed a candidate, and does not have any party affiliations. We don’t tell you what to wear, eat or think; or how to vote. We simply try to offer alternatives to the status quo and create many pathways of connection. But in the world right now, things are crazy, with Nazi salutes happening at the White House, and colonialism at a deadly level worldwide, we must acknowledge these things in our gatherings and our communities so our children and their children don’t come to think these actions are in any way normal.
Sometimes things get so crazy that we must stand up and speak out against them; must use our voices and our privilege to demand change. This is not a political act, but an act of humanity; some would say an act of spirit and soul. One such instance is in regards to the ongoing genocide and colonization of Palestine. We had a member of the community express that they were offended by the showing of “Hebron”, by Yousef Natsha that explores the violation of Palestinian rights in Hebron, the city the filmmaker grew up in. Firefly was lucky to have Yousef, an informed and affected person, with us to hold space and a Q&A about the film and the war on Gaza.
While we recognize that this is a heated topic that one movie or blogpost is not going to fully address, we do feel it is imperative to say that when the Nazi Holocaust of the Jewish people was happening in Europe, it took the entire world standing up and shouting NO!, and even going to war to end that horrible event. And now we see a similar fate besieging the people of Palestine, so we maintain that it is not political to say: NO! Stop the Genocide. It is a matter of humanity.
We don’t want to talk about these topics either; but as long as these atrocities continue we cannot, in our integrity, be silent.
Additional Items
Food
Folks ask why some people get fed at the event and some don’t? The reason is that there are simply too many folks for us to feed; so we feed our production crew: those working to make the event happen. Want to get fed at Firefly? Become a worktrader, staff member, Board member or instructor!
Phones
We have transitioned to using QR codes and online forms to collect feedback at the gathering. Let the bots do the data entry so we don’t have to; and save trees, money and resources in the process. Before letting frustration over this change give you a bad day, just remember that for every single piece of class and gathering feedback filled out on paper, someone previously had to enter all of those manually into a spreadsheet so we could actually utilize the data, costing money and energy. Now this is done automatically, saving us tons of hours of mindless data entry. We love it! And we love people taking pictures and connecting.
Ticks
Last but not least, we had some folks mention that they encountered some ticks. Once again, welcome to Appalachia. Our area of WNC is known for ticks, and last year was an especially bad year for them in the entire region. There are several factors that should help this year be better. One, it has been a VERY cold winter, which generally drives the tick populations down. Also, we are exploring ways to draw in more possums to the land, and considering releasing a flock of Guinea Hens, both critters being famous for eating ticks. We are also working with Steve to do some extra mowing and maybe some burning to help as well. We recommend herbal tick spray, socks with pants tucked in when walking in tall grass, and daily tick checks just in case.
Final Words
These are just some of the ways that we’re listening and working to help Firefly continue to be the meaningful and transformative event that it has been for decades. All ticket types are on sale now.
We can’t wait to see you there!
