Goddess Festivals - Goddess Conferences

Z Budapest's Goddess Festival. Photo by Bobbie Grennier.

Nothing we love more than a good Goddess Festival and there are a lot of them going on around the world these days. We thought we’d share a few details about Goddess Festivals near you.

We just heard that the fifth annual celebration of the Woodstock Goddess Festival happening in Woodstock, NY on March 12-14, 2010.

Three days of music, art, poetry and dance for one important cause. The Woodstock Goddess Festival is an annual celebration of "the power of women." All proceeds go to Family of Woodstock, which serves as a battered women's shelter.

The festival occurs at three locations: The Colony Cafe in Woodstock and Photosensualis in Woodstock, where they have the Goddess art exhibition. And, Saturday night at the Inquiring Mind Bookstore in Saugerties, NY will host music, dance and poetry. For a full schedule visit colonycafe.com.

And we have the grandmother of all Goddess Festivals happening this coming September 9-12, 2010 in majestic redwoods of Northern California. Hosted by Z Budapest this International Goddess Festival is attended by women from all over the world and is for women-only. We deeply encourage daughters, mothers, grandmothers, nieces and aunties to come together and enjoy a deeper female connection to each other and yourself.

The Goddess Festival 2010 is packed full of entertainment, rituals and spiritual experiences. There’s no other Goddess Festival like it! Join us September 9-12, 2010.

Featured presenters to Goddess Festival 2010 are Z Budapest, Diana Paxson, Ava Park, Alfia Walking Tree, Rabbit Matthews, and the Susan B. Anthony Coven Number One. Featured performers include Alfia Walking Tree, Diana Paxson, Anique Radiantheart and the very talented singer Mary Bichner.

Afia Walking Tree, M.Ed, PhD is a world-class percussionist, cultural ambassador, spiritual activist, empowerment facilitator, leadership development advocate and trainer. Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, she is currently based in Oakland, California.  A self-taught musician, Walking Tree has studied and performed with many masters within West African, Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian traditions. Walking Tree serves as visionary and director for her brainchild, Spirit Drumz, an international liberation movement for women and youth of all cultures that uses drums of the African Diaspora to activate empowerment and healing.

Diana Paxson has written or collaborated on more than a score of books, including a number of historical fantasies set in Dark Age Europe and most of the Avalon books, and has founded or otherwise instigated, midwifed, or re-written several organizations religious or otherwise. She’s a brilliant author and storyteller … and one heck of a harpist.

Ava Park is the founder and director of The Goddess Temple of Orange County, and the area's well-known ritual priestess and minister. Ava was inspired to do Goddess work after attending one of Z Budapest’s earlier Goddess Festivals. She went home, figured out the finances and established The Goddess Temple of Orange County. It’s the most authentic and successful Goddess Temple of our times and we highly recommend you attend Ava’s Sunday services to get a taste of her deep devotion and inspiration.

Rabbit Mathews - founder and High Priestess of the Come As You Are (CAYA) Coven. CAYA is an eclectic, open, drop-in coven in the San Francisco’s Bay Area. Their mission is to create safe, loving, magickal space for all those who wish to participate in community rituals. They gather for ritual in the fashion of the ancient rural villages and tribes – all are invited and welcome as members of the community. The operations and mission of CAYA are overseen by their matriarchal Wildflower Priestess Council. As the founding High Priestess of the Wildflower Tradition and the Amazon Priestess Tribe, ordained in the Dianic Tradition by Z Budapest, Rabbit serves the Divine as an Oracle, Ritualist, and Herbalist. She practices and studies tarot, plant medicine and lore, stones and crystals, ritual craft, mythology and storytelling, shamanic practices, singing, drumming, and alchemy. Visit her store, The Sacred Well.

Anique Radiantheart focuses her life on workshops, spiritual music, and writing songs and chants for women to use in daily spiritual life. In the last 13 years, Anique’s work has taken her overseas, where she has presented workshops and papers at conferences about her spiritual work. Plus, she enjoys singing at women’s gatherings.

Mary Bichner is a 26-year-old composer and performer hailing from the bustling metropolis of Philadelphia, PA. Combining Mozart-inspired chord progressions and bratty Brit-rock hooks into a musical succotash she likes to call classipop, the eccentric yet loveable redhead hopes to breathe new life into the calcified world of "radio-friendly" contemporary music through her memorable melodies and solid songwriting.

Z Budapest, the foremother of the Women's Spirituality Movement, established the first Goddess Festival back in the 1980's. Since then, Goddess Festivals all over the world have sprouted up. Women who attended the Goddess Festival found themselves so deeply moved that when they returned home, they started up their own covens, circles and goddess temples. The influences of this Goddess Festival are felt by women globally. It is a life changing and woman affirming experience like none other.

Since then, we’ve seen Goddess Festivals and Goddess Conferences coming to life all over the world. Most notably is the Goddess Conference in the United Kingdom started by Kathy Jones in the mythical town of Glastonbury. This Goddess Conference has become quite popular for its stunning pageantry and the processional march from the town of Glastonbury all the way up the hill to the Glastonbury Tor.

Similar Goddess Conferences have spawned in Argentina, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Sweden, Spain and in Germany. So far, Z Budapest has been invited to attend the Goddess Conferences in Spain and Argentina for 2011. We hope to get to go to more of these Goddess Conferences … drop us an email!

In addition, there’s a Goddess in Cornwall Goddess Festival celebrating the “Goddess in the Land” in the beautiful surroundings of West Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is open to all women (and children) to come and experience a wide range of activities together, featuring ceremony, ritual, music, creativity and exploration.

Indeed the Goddess is Alive! And she’s is thriving! We strongly encourage you to attend a Goddess Festival or Goddess Conference near you. Replenish your spiritual-self and get inspired. There are wonderful new friends waiting to be made through attend Goddess Festivals. We’ve seen how deeply these events can change lives, so we encourage you to take the first step.

For more information on the Dianic Tradition of Goddess Spirituality visit Dianic-Wicca.com. And, visit Goddess-Festival.com for more information on the Goddess Festival 2010.