Where: Hosanna Farmstay, 4 Tunnel Road, Stokers Siding NSW 2484, Ph(02)6677 9023
What: Dancing Ground Festival
Facilities: camping, caravans, power (limited sites), communal kitchen and sitting area, hot showers, toilets, disabled shower and toilet, water taps, swimming, sauna, pontoon, canoes, walking trail, lots of shady spots, dog friendly (with prior notice).
Cost (for Hosanna Farmstay only): CAMPING per night per person of 13 years and older – with power $13 – $19. Includes use of all of the above except kitchen which is $3 more per person.
Cost (for festival including camp fees): $190 per adult, Kids: under 2, free. Aged 2 – 6: $30. Aged 6 – 16: $90.
Our second trip in Gypsy has been to the 2012 Dancing Ground Festival in NSW at Hosanna Farmstay. I had said from the start that this was way out of our comfort zone. Apparently that comment had been noted by the people running the festival according to the lady at registration. It broke the ice a bit for us being there because I acknowledged that we wouldn’t be the only people there who were pushing their own boundaries.
On our way – the first stop! Yes just a kilometre from our home LOL We realised we had forgotten the Poi so Caro went back while we waited. Kate picked up a discarded beer bottle pretending to have a drink!
We arrived on the Friday afternoon and once registered we set up camp. Our friend Caro and her daughter Jess had come along in their car so were camping next to us in a tent. We noticed another group had set up a huge tipi and it reminded me of a friend’s hubby in WA who has one. There were other caravans, lots of tents and several motor homes. Many people also chose to just sleep in their cars.
All set up and relaxing in the sunshine
Caro setting up the tent for her and Jess. Notice the rainbow colours on the ground? 
Once we had set up camp we went off to the welcome dinner and celebration. The price of the festival was all-inclusive so all meals were provided. The meals were vegetarian or vegan but mostly vegan. I admit I struggled somewhat with the food as I am so fussy and prefer fruit rather than vegetables, however the Dahl that was served on the first night was delicious with rice. There was also a variety of teas available with either rice or soy milk. There was very little fruit available which surprised me so I will in future know to take my own fruit assortment along.
The welcome speech was really long – while heartfelt, you know the saying, give a man a microphone….
The gist of it was to build community, open ourselves to new experiences and love makes the world go round – that sort of thing.
This is the only time we bothered with the drum…
Then it was time for the 5Rhythms ecstatic dance. The best thing ever! When the music first started we formed a huge circle under the big circus tent and then bit by bit people broke away and started to free dance. Gravel and I were timidly gently swaying in movement because we were feeling really self-conscious and like we were too old for all of this. Nine year old Jess had decided she didn’t want to dance so Caro and Kate took her back to camp for a while. While they were gone the music and the dancing was changing and getting more ‘loose’ – that’s when my body relaxed and I decided to just go with it. Then Gravel got into it too – even with his injured shoulder and dicky knee! We had heaps of fun and we connected through dance in a way I find hard to explain other than to say it was like experiencing pure love. That’s what free dancing does to me – it frees my soul. We danced the night away and then retreated back to camp and fell into bed.
Our view from the camp-site
The next morning Caro and I went to the Satyananda yoga class. It was great, we both love yoga but find the cost of classes prohibitive considering we have to drive to another town to access them. It was great to feel so relaxed afterwards – I just wish the classes weren’t at 7am after you have danced the night away! While we were at yoga Gravel made himself a cuppa and sat out in the sunshine to read his book. He also got to watch a young woman doing solo yoga only metres away. Very blissful to watch while birds were chirping and the sun shining.
The rest of the day we spent walking around the property, watching different dance classes. Gravel and the girls went swimming in the platoon and had lots of fun in the lake. Gravel jumped off the diving board but the girls couldn’t manage to work up the courage. It was lots of fun trying to encourage them though!
Jess helping out in the kitchen with Son the guy who ran the kitchen and is one of the founders of the festival. His light shines for miles!
The dance workshops were not our thing and I realised on the second day of being there that I just like to dance. Simply dance in free form, no particular dance, just moving the body however it wants to go with the music and Gravel is the same. So the after dinner dancing was more suitable for us. It was however just great being able to watch others express themselves without inhibition or expectation. One of the classes we watched was Acro Yoga. AcroYoga is a fusion of yoga, acrobatics and Thai massage and is fascinating to watch.
Gravel and Kate heading to the animals.
On Saturday night the dinner was all vegetable and no fruit so I chose to not eat. The others tried some but didn’t like it which is saying a lot because Caro is a vegetable lover. Kate and Caro wanted to leave the camp to go get some take away so off we went like a bunch of school kids absconding. We had KFC in Murwillumbah then returned to the camp. Then we returned to the dancing area. To kick the night off it was open mic night where anyone who had some kind of talent could show it off. There was a great act with the lady doing dancing with hoops and also a lady who played ukulele and was funny and spirited to boot. Later watching her dance had me enthralled – she immersed herself into the dance and you couldn’t help but smile as she was so energetic and had such fluidity.We also took the Poi along and enjoyed that for a while and Caro was putting on a great show as well as Kate with her weaves. Then one lady asked for a turn and ended up showing us all up. She was really good at it and theatrical too. The dancing was more subdued on the Saturday night so we returned to our camp at around midnight.
I think this photo is blissful. Gravel in his own little world.
We didn’t really connect with anyone else but I put that down to the fact that everyone was busy enough with what they were doing and most people were far younger than us. Sure there were people our age and older but we were the minority. Caro had commented to me that she didn’t think it was a community at all because everyone was in what seemed like clicky groups but I disagree. A community doesn’t build itself in a few days, it takes time. It perhaps starts with smiling when passing each other, saying hi when you see each other, then it normally flows into something more – but it takes time. We don’t need to be all great friends to have a community of like minds – the meeting ground here was through dance and that is what the festival was all about. We were the ones not doing the dancing workshops where most of the connecting would have been happening so we only have ourselves to blame if we feel like we hadn’t felt included as such.
Kate gets friendly with the pig – she just confirmed with herself why she doesn’t want to eat pork.
What was interesting to me was the whole event pushed so many of Caro’s buttons (which I am sure she will explore at some stage) especially the nudity at the lake. She even whinged about being a whinger which I found really funny For me on the other hand, I felt like I was very close to finding my people. I commented to Gravel this is something I feel like I was twenty years too late for. By that I mean most people were twenty years younger and my body was more flexible twenty years ago. However twenty years ago I wasn’t in the head space I am now. So really, now was the perfect time for me to discover that I don’t need workshops to learn how to do different kinds of dance. I just like to dance to music. So I should do it more often.
A lovely lady offered to take a photo of the three of us
It also taught me that I like to be around alternative (for want of a better descriptive) people. I like people who live their dreams, do what they want regardless of what society thinks and people who are mindful of the dreams and wishes of others. I like spirituality without religion and people who express themselves however they want to. Caro has said that if they were all so different why do they all dress the same. I think we dress according to our tribe. Mainstreamers, hippies, surfies, goths, punks, yuppies, fashionistas, mods, bogans, homies, bikies – all of us belong to a tribe or people. Like minds will have similarities in what they like, including their clothes. I like hippy style clothes but I wear mainstream clothes because I am in the mainstream right now. While I am slowly coming out to reveal my tribe, I won’t dress the part until I feel ready and find the clothing I want. Dressing the part is just another form of self-expression.
Kate and Gravel explore the pontoon
We were greeted by the people camped in the spot next to us in their caravan. Paul and Sylvia have been at Hosanna for months now. They have their own business taking photographs of deep space. They sell their photographs at markets all over the country. They were very welcoming and it was lovely to meet them. At Hosanna Farmstay they offer their deep space viewing services to interested campers.
Graeme – in very cold weather on the Friday. The tent behind was where all the action happens.
While at the festival I was supposed to meet up with Lauren and Delcie but our timetables didn’t align. I did meet Lauren when I was helping to serve food so our conversation was very brief and I realised that I had served Delcie without realising it was her. Hopefully we will catch up another time when we both have time to sit and chat.
This is the community space where we ate sitting on the ground or cushions. It was also the area for Open Mic night or dancing.
Kate and Jess enjoying the lake
Kate trying to muster the courage to jump from the diving board. She didn’t end up jumping as she is afraid of heights.
We decided to leave on Sunday morning as Kate wanted to go to the beach on the way home and Gravel had to return to work this morning. The things I were interested in on the Sunday were happening too late for us so we decided to head off . The festival really wasn’t Kate’s thing so we wanted to make sure she could have a swim plus we all enjoyed the walk along the beach. I think Kate’s ‘people’ are surfies and skaters. She loves the beach, skating, the city and loves to relax I think she will find her way back to the coast she was born in.
Gravel watching Kate at the beach enjoying a swim at Palm Beach on the Gold Coast.
Gravel told me that he had more fun than he expected to. He isn’t really into the spirituality thing but he is into people being their own individual self. He said there were times when he just felt like an old fella and out of his depth but he enjoyed the scenery, the swimming and watching people. He said he enjoyed our dancing together so much that he would do the 2013 festival just to experience it all again! We would take some of our own fruit food too!
Another thing I learnt there was that we need a healthy body to be able to do a lot of stuff such as the yoga and dancing. Nearly everyone there was healthy looking and I found that inspiring. It has inspired me enough to start respecting my body a bit more than I have been. Perhaps I will dance more to facilitate a healthy body
The Hosanna Farm is somewhere we would like to visit again too.
Filed under: Caravanning, Life, Personal Growth, Spirit, Travel Tagged: alternative living, camping, caravanning, community, dancing, Dancing Festival, Dancing Ground
