From the beginning - At Confest

A word of warning!!!

The next 5 posts (!!!!) are about my amazing week at Confest. I couldn’t stop myself as I was reflecting on how that week went, what it gave me, what I did and what I learnt. It was a place and a week that inspired me so much, I felt I had to put them in writing. I hadn’t intended on writing so much but I really wanted to share this with you. So what am I warning you for? Most of what I’m about to write, is about love, peace, harmony.. and the words “beautiful“, “amazing” and “experiences” are words I’ve used far too frequently, but I had no other way of expressing how “beautiful” and “amazing” these “experiences” were.. ;)

From the beginning - At Confest

To CONFEST is where I went, on the 29th December. With Jason. A last minute decision. I hadn't a clue what to expect from this festival, I knew it was going to be running for 9 days, but didn't plan on staying for the whole duration. Not until the first day was over. That's when I realized how amazing the place was, how unique this festival was going to be, how much it could offer me and how lucky I was to be given the chance to experience being in such a special place. So, we decided to stay for the whole 9 days..

BUT, this led me to being disconnected from the world. As the festival was out in the bush, there was no phone signal, no telephone boxes, no internet. This was the reason why I was silent for 2 weeks. Seeing as though staying there for 9 days was unplanned, I hadn't thought about contacting home BEFORE I left civilization, to let everyone know I wouldn't be in touch until the 5th of January. So nobody knew where I was. Panic! I was feeling so bad about that, as I knew people were expecting to hear from me, especially seeing as it was over the new year period - the time to definitely get connected. So luckily, on the 31st of December, in the afternoon, I managed to get a lift to the nearest town, 45 minutes away, where I found a phonebox, called Auntie Trish, who would let my nearest and dearest back home know that I was okay and out of range for a very long week.

After clearing that up, I’m now back and reflecting on the Confest experience. Which was “out of this world”. I mean this in every sense of the word too.

We arrived at Confest on the morning of the 29th. And what is it all about? Basically it’s a festival held on a site, that’s a couple of acres of land, far far away from anywhere - so in the middle of the bush - where around 2000 people, all camping, come together as a community 2 times a year - a week over the New Year period and a week at Easter. Jason had told me so many stories about this festival, so I was well-prepared for what was waiting for me. And it’s just as well too. Because this was a proper hippy festival and had everything that can be associated with the hippy-lifestyle on offer to experience. It was an alcohol and drug-free event, so any highs that people were wanting to have, they would have to be natural. And they were - it’s what I felt from day 1.

The spirit I felt when I was there, was so amazing. The people I met, were so unique, so open, so accepting of everyone. Everyone was considered a friend, nobody was an outsider, everyone was welcome and thus greeted with smiles. Just the feel of the place, was something I've never experienced before. I think I felt it so strongly because of the amount of people who were so grounded, so open, so connected to everything and everyone and so loving towards every soul at this festival and I could see this approach towards people created an intense height of positive energy from which each individual was all able to feed. This energy everyone was feeling, was being returned and made to expand just by the acceptance of that smile. This led to everyone being able to experience a feeling of being high, of being unique and of being loved; whilst being in a state of natural bliss. This is how I experienced it.. Wouw!