October 14 2009
Hi Folks,
As the good book (and Pete Seeger) say, “to everything there is a season”, and I’m sorry to report that the season for the Solstice Society managing the Parkland’s Solstice Festival has come to an unexpected end.The reasons are too numerous and complex to effectively detail in this email. At the highest level we are trapped by the challenges of operating a festival on behalf of the community but by necessity, unconstrained by the community governance model. From a festival management point of view it worked very well as I believe the past two years would demonstrate. However from a political point of view it has triggered an endless series of futile battles that have exhausted our will to invest ourselves in this extraordinary community event. We simply don’t have the time to deal with the additional complexity.It is impossible to adequately describe how personally rewarding the past eight years of community volunteering has been. Among the biggest thrills has been observing how much of themselves people will give to the collective betterment of their community. I’ve also learned much about unique talents that can be found in the most unsuspecting places. There have been many times when I’ve wondered who is having more fun, the Park attendees or the organizers. That is a question for the ages.In the meantime we still have our “Fantasy Backyard” looking more beautiful than ever. I don’t know what the future holds for ongoing Parkland festivals. Others will sort that out.Thank you to everybody on this distribution list and to the many who are omitted. I’ll quote Mary Clark one more time. ”Great neighbours make a great community”. Of that there can be no doubt.
SOLSTICE UPDATE
Open Letter to Solstice Festival
volunteers and supporters.
