The 32nd Annual Crestone Energy Fair theme, RECONNECT: Self, Village, Nature led us into deep terrain around permaculture and the social structures that can be created to provide a thriving and abundant ecosystem within each of our lives, communities and for the land. We kicked off the weekend by honoring the indigenous lands we occupy in Crestone, the families that live here with 3-4 generations and set up a small memorial for community members who have gone before us. Attendees were encouraged to compost what isn’t serving them from projects to relationships to emotions so that we can build the fertile soil we need to survive together in this current state of the world. Ultimately, we realized that the most important and challenging work is resolving conflict and healing existing relationships within our community.
Thank you to everyone who connected with us by attending in person or on our livestream. We are in the process of editing and releasing the content as individual presentations, but in the meantime, you can watch each day’s full main stage presentations on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/c/crestoneenergyfair. Along with our expert building and gardening panels, you can catch everything from soil building, seeds, edible & medicinal plants, entheogens and honeybees to wood gasification.
Much gratitude to Eric Maki for the use of his land, Doug Beechwood of Terra Media for producing our livestream, Rob Treaphort of Golden Turtle Sound, and Dr. Kim Engard, Master of Ceremonies, for continuing to support our work in an extremely rough, off-grid environment in an effort to bring free educational content to our audience. Sherice Shiner of the SLV Food Bank Network expanded our outreach to include Spanish language translation for in-person attendees and will assist us with translating our main stage presentations for our YouTube channel. Faith Lotus, Melinda Davis and Jenny Che Raven were our heroes for coordinating a community kitchen that served free food all weekend long so that all could eat, regardless of their financial situation. We are working hard to share resources and ideas from experts in the field of regenerative and sustainable living to create a more equitable and abundant future for the valley.
One of this year’s highlights were the Building Demonstrations which resulted in constructing a playhouse for the Youth Village. Different building techniques were incorporated into the structure to see how they perform and tie in together. Thank you to Marco Cervantes of CalEarth for presenting earth bags and SuperAdobe, Roland Gyallaypap & Eamonn McNaughton of Rocky Mountain Hemp Build with hempcrete, Donovan Spitzman, Pete VanHorn & Matt Evers with tire pounding & papercrete, Curtis Schieb with strawbale, Shawn King of Cob Cottage Company with Cob, and Goldie Mariola with recycled bottle wall building (this was rescheduled after the event due to rain.)
Goldie Mariola, Home Tour Maven, shares one of the most popular aspects of the fair with us: “What an amazing year it was for the Home Tours. With a dedicated team of people who brought lots of skill to this event, we were able to expand and explore so much. The home tours went amazingly well with more than double the turnout of years past, and we were able to share the love of alternative style homes with people from all over Colorado and beyond. By participating in the tours, people were able to get ideas for their own homes, and experience what it’s like to walk into a well-insulated home in the heat of the day. Thanks again to everyone in this community who helped make the tours possible, it was a community effort that was well worth it!”
We will be sending evaluations out to all of our presenters, musicians, sponsors, vendors, home tour hosts/attendees, volunteers and participants. You can also find this information and much more on our website: www.crestoneenergyfair.org.
Thank you to our main sponsors: Food Bank Network of SLV, Saguache County, ScSeed, Joyful Journey, SLVREC, Sangre de Cristo Real Estate, Valley Roots Food Hub, Kelly Critchley, the Nevares family and Dr. Kim Engard. Please consider making a donation if you appreciate these kinds of events and education for our community.