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Wild Goose Announces 2nd Site, “Wild Goose West,” for 2012

As many of you know, Wild Goose (www.wildgoosefestival.org) launched its debut festival at the intersection of justice, spirituality, music, and art in June 2011. Today, after much anticipation, we are pleased to announce we are expanding our festival offerings to a second site in fall 2012.

“We’re thrilled to build on our North Carolina experience by partnering with friends on the West Coast.” Executive Director and peace activist, Gareth Higgins, explains. “Wild Goose West seeks to work with local and regional gifts and challenges; and to be a magical space for music, spirituality, social justice, and creativity. We’re honored to be partnering with great folks in the Portland and Seattle regions.”

Board member Karla Yaconelli, who also attended planning meetings in Oregon, added, “The fact that the first Wild Goose Festival had such impetus and vitality that we are adding a West Coast festival in year two speaks loudly about the ache and hunger for a new vision and expression of what faith and spirituality look like in the world today. Having both East and West Coast festivals truly expands the Wild Goose Community–and our conversation and commitment to justice and radical inclusivity–to a national level, which is very exciting indeed!”

Momentum Builds at Wild Goose

Over the last twelve months, we have been blown away by the increasing interest in the Wild Goose community. The Goose’s debut festival welcomed 1,700 attenders to Shakori Hills in June of 2011. In the months that followed, people began purchasing tickets for the second annual festival at Shakori at much faster rates than the previous year.
And along the way, even when traveling in other distant regions of the country, people consistently expressed an eagerness to find a way to participate in what Wild Goose is doing.

So while our original intention was to launch an annual event based in the Southeast, we have quickly realized the values behind Wild Goose are sparking a national conversation. In keeping with the festival’s desire to welcome all people, then, we were prompted to launch a second site.

Wild Goose West to Be Held On Labor Day Weekend

This festival, which will be referred to as Wild Goose West, will be held this September on Labor Day Weekend (August 31st-September 2nd) at the Benton County Fairgrounds (approximately 90 miles outside of Portland). Our hope is this location will make Wild Goose more accessible and affordable for people living in the western half of the continent who might not be able to make the trek to North Carolina.

More details about the event will be released when the full website goes live June 1st, but until then you can pre-purchase tickets for Portland here for the early bird price of just $99.

In the meantime, if you are part of a church, group, business or non-profit organization that you believe would align well with the Festival and would like to either partner with us by reserving a booth or help in sharing Wild Goose within your region, please feel free to contact sarah@wildgoosefestival.org.

Originally posted at Patheos.

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