4:00 – 5:30 PM
The Bearsville Grove · donations welcome
The Awakening Art Project is a relational art installation in the Grove at Bearsville Center: eleven artist installations, each work abiding in conversation with the trees, with each other, and we the people who walk through these works.
Learn more →
5:30 – 7:30 PM (gates open 5:00)
BreakBread is a unique invitation to recognize and connect with each other over a meal and unexpected vistas of inspiration that linger long after dinner is done. We begin together as a full group, then move into tables of 6–7 people for spirited conversation over dinner.
Register here →
7:30 – 8:30 PM
Festival Opening and Fire Ceremony
The Bearsville Park · donations welcome
Led by the Woodstock Center for Awakening, give a toast to the Festival and our days ahead; and hear from our Bearsville Center host, Lizzie Vann, welcoming you. Sound and healing artist
Peter Blum will perform a purification and fire ceremony as we gather together our answers to the question,
What do you wish to awaken? Participation includes free entry for the Grand Festival Prize, among other offerings, at Closing Ceremony on Sunday.
9:00 – 10:15 PM
Kundalini Cosmic Gong Bath & Light Immersion
Mountainview Studio · suggested donation
Jennifer Drue leads an immersive gong bath meditation to awaken Kundalini energy and restore balance to mind, body and soul through sound and light.
9:00 – 11:00 PM
Diverse Woodstock Gatherings
ESKFF Nest, Mothership & other venues · suggested donation
Evening events at venues across Woodstock. Details TBD.
5:45 AM
Sunrise Chanting & Singing within Sacred Sound Chamber
Chanting and drumming to welcome the sun on our living Earth Mother. Bring drums, rattles, flutes, whatever you like with which to make sound, including your throat.
10:30 – 11:30 AM
Birthing the New Earth: An Exploration of Planetary Awakening
Mothership Gallery, 6 Sgt. Richard Quinn Drive, Woodstock · $10 suggested donation
With Paul McMahon. We have entered the Age of Aquarius. Many of the bedrock beliefs we have grown up with are out the window. This free-wheeling talk will compass a range of topics, including among others astrology, telepathy, alien contact, matriarchy, the plasma universe, Kordaleski Clouds, Göbekli Tepe, dimensional portals and so much more (or, Are we a simulation?).
10:30 AM – 12:00 Noon
Effective Prayer: Finding Healing and Wholeness in Divine Love
Through compelling personal stories, Christian Science practitioner and lecturer
Bobby Lewis illustrates how the spiritual laws of divine Love operate and how prayer brings us into alignment with these laws. Whether you’re feeling lost or struggling with illness, effective prayer can restore clarity, peace, and wholeness in every area of life. Bobby is a Christian Science practitioner from Buena Vista, Colorado, and a member of the Christian Science Board of Lectureship.
12:00 – 7:00 PM (gates open 11:30)
Awakening Festival at the Bearsville
The Bearsville Park & Grove, 291 Tinker Street ·
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12:00 – 7:00 PM
Sacred Chant / Kirtan, hosted by Avinash
Bearsville Park, Main Stage
12:15 – 4:30 PM
Awakening Talks, hosted by Sam Truitt
Tibet Pho Restaurant terrace, along the Sawkill Creek next to Bearsville Theater
Connect in words to what is, approached from numerous perspectives, among us.
- 12:15 – 1:10 PM — “Consciousness Shift and Our Planetary Salvation” with Carleton Schade
Drawing from history, ecology, philosophy, psychology, and spirituality, this presentation explores the evolution of human consciousness and culture and asks whether humanity can make the next great leap in its development and save our world.
For the past forty years, Carleton Schade has been researching, teaching, writing and speaking on topics focused on the ecological-societal polycrisis and human consciousness. His website radicalmindshift.com and Substack posts offer a perspective on these themes.
- 1:15 – 2:30 PM — Awakening Art Project in the Grove Panel, moderated by Jen Dragon
The contemporary artists displaying artworks in the Grove will talk about their work, visual art in the 21st century, relational art and what awakening might have to do with what they do.
- 2:30 – 3:30 PM — Nondual Foundations, a talk & discussion with Ira Schepetin
Vedanta scholar and teacher Ira Schepetin illuminates the nature of the nondual state as discerned in the Ashtavakra Gita & through experience.
- 3:30 – 4:30 PM — Hard Times Dharma: The Audacity to Cheer Up, with Patrick Surdam
As many people find themselves in despair or denial concerning the state of the world, how exactly can one find the strength and capacity to remain centered and balanced amidst the instability? Join Patrick Surdam as he explores ideas and practices from a Buddhist perspective on how to open the heart and cultivate real faith in these challenging times.
Patrick Surdam is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, author, and teacher. His path has been profoundly influenced by the mystical healing traditions of Peru, specifically the Mestizo Vegetalista Curanderismo tradition of the Amazon and by the Andean nature wisdom teachings of the Q’uero nation. He also teaches the Vocal Transformation Method™, a healing modality developed by his partner and musical collaborator, Maryn Azoff. (Not to be missed, Patrick plays with Tribe of Love and may be seen live in the Bearsville Theater this night.)
12:00 – 5:00 PM
Movement by the Stream, hosted by Michael Raphael
Along Sawkill Creek, west of Main Stage
Integrate with the sounds of the creek & the music & the flow of guided meditation in movement that passes through us beyond understanding.
12:15 – 5:00 PM
Children’s Tent & Activities, hosted by Emma Leigh
Bearsville Park
Organized and enacted by community educators in a dedicated area of the Park: a semi-interlinked series of activities to delight, engage & inspire children through movement, story, art projects, group collaborations & more—such as the Awakening Discovery Tent, Giggles & Ganesh, and mask-making. For children aged 2–12, who must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
12:00 Noon – 7:00 PM
Healing Garden Market
Bearsville Park
Tents, tables & sundry booths of people & groups at the forefront of wellness, healing & spiritual & community inquiry. You may find what you know you need here and what you didn’t know you need & everything in between to ease your way.
12:00 Noon – 7:00 PM
Bearsville Grove · curated by Peter Acheson & Sam Truitt
The Awakening Art Project is a relational art installation in the Grove at Bearsville Center.
Learn more →
2:00 & 3:00 PM
Awakening Walks
Bearsville Grove · hosted by the Catskill Mountain Sangha Group
Two half-hour Walking Meditations in the tradition of Buddhist Master Thích Nhât Hành.
Dining at the Bearsville
For those looking to eat before the evening Tribe of Love and Dance gathering, please consider these fine restaurants at the Bearsville: Tibet Pho · The Bear Café · Tinker Street Tavern
8:00 – 11:00 PM (gates open 7:00)
Tribe of Love & Awakening Dance
Step with grace across the Park into the Theater to join
Tribe of Love, who will impart their sonic field in music rooted in Earth and spirit. Their work is infused with medicine songs from the Peruvian Amazon written by plants (icaros). Tribe of Love intends to heal the body, mind and spirit and open new pathways to help us feel our deep connection with the beauty and wildness. Songs channeled by medicine woman
Susanna Raeven, arranged by composer
Jan Anna Werge, harmonized with angelic vocals by
Maryn Azoff, and accompanied by masterful strings by Charanguista
Patrick Surdam (whose earlier Awakening Talk should not be missed!).
5:45 AM
Sunrise Chanting & Singing within Sacred Sound Chamber
Chanting and drumming to welcome the sun on our living Earth Mother. Bring drums, rattles, flutes, whatever you like with which to make sound, including your throat.
10:00 AM
Interfaith Meditation
Mothership Gallery, 6 Sgt. Richard Quinn Drive · suggested donation
Join Rev. Paul McMahon in blessings, propitiations and more in contemplation of Earth, sky and the sensorium’s interwoven vastness.
11:00 AM – 4:00 PM (gates open 10:30)
Day of Wisdom, Medicine & Awakening Vision
Wisdom, Medicine and Awakening Vision emphasizes indigenous and other traditions of sacred knowledge, healing through natural therapies, and visions of better ways of being alive and nourishing the web of our mutuality. The day’s activities will include ceremonies, talks and musical pathways attuned to closing the gap between our becoming and being, among many other opportunities to explore together how we may align and ground awakening to our experience and what we are and do.
11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Healing Garden Market
Bearsville Park
11:00 AM – 3:30 PM
Medicine Music, Wisdom Song & The Dead
Main Stage, Bearsville Park · hosted by Avinash and Stefanie Frank
Scope local and international wisdom keepers imparting medicine through vibration and music from ancient and indigenous prayer and song to rock and roll and beyond.
- 11:30 AM — Dream Seed
A sound healing ensemble hosted by members of Golden Drum. Shamanic chanting, mantras, overtone singing, Native American songs, indigenous music, didgeridoos, crystal singing bowls, bells, gongs, harmoniums, tuning forks and other overtone-emitting instruments create an environment conducive to deep relaxation and inward investigation. A one-of-a-kind eclectic sound healing ensemble rooted in 15 years of community living, world travel, deep indigenous music & powerful initiation.
- 12:15 PM — Jon Lee Rucker — Spirit Revival
Soul rebel Jon Lee Rucker is a singer-songwriter based in the Hudson Valley. His lyrics come from the collective heart with a one-of-a-kind Red Road Gospel sound that will surely move you. For this event he’s bringing his spiritual sounds to share in prayerful songs that will uplift the spirit of our awakening community.
- 1:00 PM — Andrea Calderón — Raincloud
Curandera, Mystic, and Guardian of Ancestral Medicines, Andrea Calderón will form a ceremonial space for our audience with her ancient healing songs. She will utilize sacred instruments such as the water drum, Staff & Rattle from her lineage. With more than 25 years on the path of ancestral medicine, Andrea Raincloud serves as a guardian of ancient altars and a vital guide in the recovery of ancient wisdom across the Americas and Europe. Her path is distinguished by a unique ceremonial responsibility: she held the leadership and headship as Woman Drum Chief of the Sun Dance, the only woman in the continent to hold this sacred role.
- 2:00 – 3:30 PM — Gratefully Yours
Gratefully Yours is a Grateful Dead-inspired band, based out of New Paltz, NY. Founded in 2012 by keyboardist Alex Mazur (also founder of The Deadbeats). Their willingness and ability to improvise, and their openness to spontaneity and the energy of the moment, lie at the core of their performances. In the very best tradition of The Grateful Dead, it is this openness that allows the crowd to become part of the creative process. Members: Alex Mazur, Jude Defalco, Nate Calzetoni, Mike Manuele, Robert Schiff.
11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Bearsville Grove
With an eye toward integrating art forms, modalities and views, the path of art installations becomes a performance site for poetry, music and performance.
- 11:30 AM — Mapping the Sawkill Watershed Project — Jennifer Zackin
A yearlong community initiative connecting art, ecology and stewardship along Woodstock’s historic creek. Join Tracy Bouvette and Jennifer Zackin beside (and even in) its flow as they introduce its diverse ecology practically and sensually with an eye toward building a portal through which to see its inseparability from all we see and don’t see, including ourselves.
- 12:30 PM — Christopher Stackhouse (poetry)
Author of Plural (Counterpath Press) and co-author of Seismosis (1913 Press). Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College alum; Cave Canem Writers Fellow.
- 1:30 PM — Linda Montano and Anna Hafner
The CHICKEN DANCE is in collaboration with all indigenous people. Linda Mary Montano is a performance artist who has embraced ART AS THERAPY, ART AS SELF APPOINTED MEDICINE, and ART AS LIFE. In 1989 she fell in love with Chicken and began CHICKEN AS ART, appearing as CHICKEN LINDA. Anna Hafner is [TBD].
- 2:30 PM — Vladimir Nahitchevansky (poetry)
Poet and printer. Works through 1080PRESS. Lives in Kingston, NY.
11:30 AM – 4:00 PM
Awakening Talks, hosted by Sam Truitt
Tibet Pho Restaurant terrace, along the Sawkill Creek
Connect in words to what is, approached from numerous perspectives, among us.
- 12:00 Noon — A Celebration of the Spirit, Works and Wisdom of Robert Thurman [TBD]
- 2:00 PM — Spirits, Dreams & Golden Roads to Awakening, moderated by Annie Finch
An expert panel into realms at the edge of human consciousness—dreams, the spirit world and the ineffable glowing at the margins of things.
- Suzan Fiona Saxman on “Spirit Visits in Dreams”
If you are prone to wake at 3 AM, you may observe many spirits of loved ones, human and animal, tend to visit at that time. We can write it off as common dreams, but they are not. Listen to those on the other side to help and guide you! They want to be useful and remembered.
Suzan Fiona Saxman has worked as a full-time Clairvoyant for over 40 years.
- Michael Ruby on “Dreams as Virtual Realities”
What are dreams but a racier version of one’s own life? Everyone is a surrealist artist, and surrealist experience is part of everyone’s life.
Poet and literary editor. Author of nine poetry books. Co-editor of Bernadette Mayer’s early books and the selected poems of Steve Dalachinsky (City Lights Books). Former editor at The Wall Street Journal.
- Doug Gunther on “What Our Dreams Know: Gateway to Awakening”
In our current age, the wisdom of our night dreams may be our most overlooked resource. This talk explores three remarkable dreams and closes with practical invitations for how each of us can begin honoring our dreams—and through them, awaken to a deeper, more luminous life.
Creator/host of “The Woodstock Roundtable.” Author of The Quantum & The Dream. Dreamwork facilitator certified by Dr. Jeremy Taylor.
- Annie Finch (Moderator)
Award-winning poet. Author of Spells: New and Selected Poems. Passionately devoted to poetic pattern and rhythm as a path to connection with self, nature, and spirit.
11:30 AM – 3:30 PM
The Medicine Tent, hosted by Michael Raphael
Bearsville Park
Guided by Stefanie Frank, assembled here are wisdom keepers, voices and speakers across a spectrum of practices and healing modalities that seek to awaken us to what is innate.
- 11:30 AM — Paul Bloom [TBD]
- 12:30 PM — Bob Vetter
Drawing on more than fifty years of studying traditional healing with Indigenous elders throughout North America and Mexico, cultural anthropologist and healer Bob Vetter will share stories, teachings, and a live demonstration of healing practices inspired by traditional fire ceremonies. Participants will experience simple yet powerful practices for releasing what no longer serves them, reconnecting with inner wisdom, and discovering why fire has remained one of humanity’s oldest medicines. This session is experiential, interactive, and open to anyone seeking healing, renewal, and deeper connection.
- 1:30 PM — OneTone Sonic Alchemy in “S.U.N.” (Sonic Universe Now) with special guest, Peter Blum
OneTone Sonic Alchemy is dedicated to raising awareness and educating individuals in the understanding and application of sonic vibrational medicine. A collaboration between Joseph Schmidlin, an osteopathic physician, sound facilitator, practitioner and trainer, and Michael Jay, a gong master, Reiki Master, and sound facilitator trainer, OneTone leads immersive sonic journeys, workshops and retreats. They work with a remarkable collection of rare, one-of-a-kind sound healing instruments from around the world—many of which will be available for purchase during the Festival.
- 2:30 PM — Red Feather Drummers
The Red Feather Women Drummers are members of the Mid Hudson Valley Association of Native Americans. As keepers of our families and teachers of our history, they will present a talk about the significance of our drum and present some corrective history. They will also drum, sing and dance. (To note, free and open to the public, they meet on the fourth Friday of each month, 4:30–5:30 PM, at Bethany Hall in the Old Dutch Church, Kingston.)
11:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Children’s Tent & Activities, hosted by Emma Leigh
Bearsville Park
For children aged 2–12, who must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
3:30 – 4:00 PM
Wish Vocation and Closing Ceremony
Bearsville Park
With prizes given away, collective movement, speech and prayer, we together de-consecrate the altar and perform final propitiations.