MEDICINE FESTIVAL 2024
14 - 19 August 2024
With its theme of ‘Carry Peace’, Medicine Festival returns to Wasing this August, calling for spiritual inquiry, inner transformation, loving kindness and social and environmental change
HEADLINERS INCLUDE:
Indigenous Wisdom Carriers: Kaku Kamãnawa & Piná Varinawa, the Noke Kuin (Brazilian Amazon), Puna Kalama Dawson (Hawaii), Tata Izaias & Nana Izabel (Guatemala), Hiroki Okano (Shinto/Japan)
Speakers: Zach Bush, Vandana Shiva, Rosalind Watts, Satish Kumar, Bruce Parry, Daniel Pinchbeck
Music: Danit, Afriquoi, Porangui, East Forest, Deya Dova, Chantress Seba, Mose, Peia, Yaima
Medicine’s Sacred Glade space will once again provide a platform for Wisdom Carriers from a variety of the world’s spiritual traditions and indigenous cultures to share their teachings, ceremonies and time-honoured knowledge, supporting us to collectively envision a more peaceful, healthy and sustainable future. This year’s programme will feature Kaku Kamãnawa and Piná Varinawa, spiritual leaders of the Noke Kuin tribe of the Brazilian Amazon; Guillermo Martinez, Native American master flute player and craftsman (Tarascan tribe); Tata Izaias and Nana Izabel, shamans from the Mayan tradition (Guatemala); Puna Kalama Dawson, a Hawaiian elder working for world peace; and many more elders from the UK, Europe, Africa, South America, Japan and other pockets of the globe.
A C.I.C and not-for-profit organisation, Medicine donates all profits from its events to helping indigenous peoples preserve their lands and cultures, and has to date donated over £71K to Survival International, Amazon Watch and a variety of exciting community projects across the globe.
Bringing a magical melange of world music, folk, electronica and sacred songs, music headliners at this year’s festival include Danit (USA), Porangui (USA/Brazil), Deya Dova (Australia), East Forest (USA), Mose (Guatemala), Peia (USA), Chantress Seba (UK), Yaima (USA), Radhika Das (London), Puentes (USA), Ida Engberg (Sweden) and Afriquoi (UK) with their euphoric blend of African music and electronic dance
Headline speakers include ‘Internal Medicine’ physician Zach Bush, environmental activist Vandana Shiva, ‘Peace Pilgrim’ Satish Kumar, film maker/indigenous rights activist Bruce Parry, trailblazing psychedelic researcher Dr Rosalind Watts, and frontier psychedelic writer Daniel Pinchbeck, plus Khrisha Ambani, Richard Rudd, Aseem Malhotra, Adam Roa, Angharad Wynne, Alexander Beiner, Philip Carr Gomm and Jade Shaw.
Inclusive spaces at Medicine include Ubuntu Village, which offers a vibrant programme championing talent from the African diaspora, with live music and ceremonies, talks and workshops exploring themes such as decolonolisation and ancestral reconciliation. New for 2024, to run alongside existing designated spaces for Men and Women’s workshops, will be Pan’s Prism – a space hosting diverse voices and experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, where queer folks can come together to connect, learn, share and enjoy creative expression. Also new this year is an intimacy space, proffering a plethora of tantric workshops and sensual practices to explore the transformative power of intimate connection.
The Wellbeing Programme promises an enlivening diversity of workshops and healing modalities, from ecstatic dance, yoga and bodywork to meditation, breathwork and forest bathing - while the Mamma Wellbeing healing village, complete with 45 one-on-one healers – offers a reviving smorgasbord of holistic treatments. And new for 2024, the Family area will introduce Boys and Girls circles in addition to the usual panoply of fun and games, storytelling, woodland adventures, creative arts sessions, and music-making, foraging and bushcraft workshops.
Meandering across the beautiful festival site with its wild woodland and lavish lakes - walkabout performers, fire-jugglers and silver-tongued poets will pop out of the dreamy landscape. You’ll stumble across tribal rituals, madcap theatrical performances, soul-stirring storytellers and film screenings, a quixotic market place, and cafes and street food stalls offering delicious-nutritious vegan and vegetarian food, plus energising juices, elixirs and cacao to fuel your spirits well into the night.
Inaugurating this year’s festival theme of Carry Peace, Hiroki Okano, an elder from the Japanese Shinto tradition, has been invited to bring the Hiroshima Peace Flame to Medicine - a flame lit from the atomic fires sparked by the nuclear attack on Hiroshima in 1945, which has been kept burning to this day.
George Barker, Creative Director of Medicine, says: “The Peace Flame was originally lit by a wartime soldier called Tatsuo Yamamoto, from the smouldering remains of his home following the attack on Hiroshima, in which he lost close family. Intended as a symbol of grief, keeping the flame alight over the years, his heart ache, anger and vengefulness gradually transformed into acceptance and forgiveness. Ultimately inspired to to bring a message of peace to all, Tatsuo travelled the world carrying this living flame, which has sparked millions of prayers for peace.
“Our theme this year invites us all to walk this path of transformation together. We are each asked what kind of a flame do we wish to carry in our hearts? How can we transform our inner conflict so that we can become an embodiment of peace in this world? How can we find the spirit of kindness, gentleness and compassion to support each other as we walk this path of peace?”
For more information visit the Medicine Festival website: www.medicinefestival.com
Medicine Festival 2023 Highlights:-
Photo Credits: Wiggzaro Vise @wiggzaro, Jethro Tanner, Ana Torres, Ralph Flynn, Hana Wolf & Phoebe Montague
