Where does any funky Irish-based, festival-loving dreamer hang out?

At the Dream Gathering of course. Held on the weekend of the Super Moon.

Despite having flu I was NOT going to miss Dream Gathering 2014, which I had booked early bird tickets for the whole family back in April.  So we did a day and a night… and are already looking forward to next year’s when hopefully we’ll get to enjoy the whole long-weekend.

This psychedelic art, music and culture festival focused on good vibes and sustainable living is based in the stunning rural landscape of North Cork, with ancient woodlands, rolling hills, standing stones, clear running streams, foxgloves nodding in the sunshine, and distant misty mountains.

Getting in the mood! (photo by Mama Dynamite!)

I adore festivals – the sense of community, the infusion of art and music and colour into every aspect of life, and being outside, feet on the earth. For me they are the ultimate celebration of living and human culture… AND… as an introvert I need to take big gulps and then go have so quiet alone time. As a sick introvert I needed this more than normal 🙁 .

We had been looking for a nice size, family-friendly festival to replace our former favourite, the West-Country Storytelling Festival which is sadly no longer happening.

And this is officially it – the whole family voted it their FAVOURITE FESTIVAL EVER. We met up with a few friends, and bumped into LOTS of people we knew – from Red Tent, Wombgasm workshop, home educators, and my husband’s time at Cork Environmental Forum… it was a real gathering of dreamers. And super special to have it so close to home.

My camera died half way through, so these two pictures have been borrowed from the Dream Gathering website – cheers lads!

It was so beautifully thought out – everywhere you looked there was a creative surprise – a sculpture, performers, creative kit to play with… all constantly arising and disappearing… as if in a dream.

There was so much honouring of feminine energy. I loved these two exquisite Pachamamas and modern day sile na gigs… As we were leaving there was a wonderful reggae artist performing a song about sending love out to the mothers who give birth to the world… it felt so good to hear mothers being really honoured in that way.

The kids’ tent where we hung out a lot: making dream catchers, clay, wooden toys, rainbow streamers, played chess, learned circus skills and got our faces painted…

These belly dancers just appeared from nowhere in the middle of the crowd, dancing to the African beats. They were mesmerising.

Magic mushrooms emerging in psychedelic colours…

When I’m out and about with my camera I’m always drawn to rainbow colours. I found plenty of creative rainbow women… but this is the only one I managed to photograph.

At one point there were three of Cork’s mama-bloggers round the fire together! Not sure how many more there actually are in real life!

Our crew toasting marshmallows, whittling sticks and listening to the music.

I hope he’ll forgive me, but I’ve borrowed a couple of Jim Appleton’s photos off the Dream Gathering Facebook page, as this is the point my camera stopped working and I HAD to show you this magical rave in the woods… Not my sort of thing but SUPER trippy and atmospheric, especially when it got dark.

Do hope you can join us next year.

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