By Jamal Wilson
Pyramid Lake, Nevada – Festival life is about coming together with new family and braving the elements in some ways while celebrating them in others…
One of the best experiences I had during my journey through Americas was the Symbiosis Gathering in the summer of 2012. It was the first camping music festival I had ever been to, the first time I had ever been in the desert, and the first time I had ever really been camping. I didn’t even really know how to set up a tent, just to give an idea of how new the whole experience was for me. On an impulse fueled by synchronicity and over stimulation from being in New York for a month, I went online and bought a ticket to the festival, which was going to happen during an eclipse in a place called Pyramid Lake, and bus ticket to Reno which would take me on a 2 and a half day Greyhound adventure across the country from New York to Nevada. I figured the trip would be a great opportunity to see a huge part of the country most people fly over to get out west, and as a I had decided to do my voyage without planes, I was ok with the idea of two and half days staring out of a huge window and barely sleeping, as long as I got to see some of the amazing views that traveling across the country can provide. Of course the various cast of characters one meets on a bus trip in the US was a great reason too.
After getting to Reno, finding a motel room and spending a night in a near coma-like state of sleep, it was time to get online, find a ride to the festival grounds, and find out exactly what it is I had signed up for.
Its really something to think you’re heading into a new experience, only to find out you’ve headed into a whole new way of thinking.
My first “transformational festival” completely blew my mind. I was greeted by strangers with the biggest smiles possible, direct eye contact, being called brother by people who had just met me but, if only for a minute, meant every word of it, bombardment with what I now understand to be “good vibes” in the new age spiritual movement sense. Finding myself called to take part in a spiral dance led by Starhawk, who was unknown to me at the time, I was in complete awe; it was the first time I had ever gone to any kind of event like this, and I was by myself, and yet didn’t feel alone, at least not at first (more on that later). Even though I had already bought a ticket, and since I was on a kind of volunteer journey, I decided to see if they needed volunteers, and ended up setting up tents for the artists area where the djs were camped out. I went from never having set up a tent to setting up a whole tent area in the middle of the desert.
I was seeing art, animals, and personas I had never seen, hearing music I had never heard, hugging strangers and making soul connections, and found myself lost in thoughts that only discovering a new way of life can give you; one thought was left echoing in my consciousness: How was it possible that I had never come across a way of life and way of thinking that once I found it, was what I had been looking for all along?
