Imagine being 10 years old. Your mom says you get to go on a camping trip all weekend. The destination? Lucidity! Could there be anything more exciting? As adults, we all look forward to the weekend for its art, music and connection, but what does it look and feel like for a child?

I sat down with Rosel Weedn, build team lead of Family Garden (one of the village environments at Lucidity) and mother of ten-year-old Kainoa Reese Weedn. Rosel says the main intention of Family Garden is to create a space where children of all ages can learn, create and explore while being in a physically and emotionally safe environment.

Amy Krohn, from I AM Family, serves as Family Garden Elder for Lucidity. She envisioned the space so various workshop leaders and a huge collaboration of people, young and old, could come together to engage in drumming, yoga, meditation, healing workshops, smoothie making, playing music together, and eating good food. The space also provided areas for kids to play with kites, hula hoops, room for them to be free to “work that kid energy.”

They even got to build a dragon! Workshop leaders had built the basic structure, and kids got to participate by assembling and attaching collected fabrics to form the shape of the dragon. The kids all came together to see that “we all were building something bigger than ourselves”.

Rosel says this year she hopes to have kids playing more music, theater as they explore this year’s theme “Universe”. “It’s really about the kids gaining confidence. They are encouraged to ask questions and think about how things work. There were all kinds of people working together and sharing ideas.” Amy Krohn adds, “this April we will focus on the role of Family Garden as the universal womb”

“This is what I want to show my son,” Rosel says, “there are such beautiful parts of humanity. That’s the essence of a festival”

Andrew Ecker of Drumming Sounds came and brought 40 drums for Family Garden. At any given time the drum circle had 40 plus people, half of them children, all sitting on hay bails in a circle with someone leading in the center. There was some open unstructured time, along with scheduled events, interactive workshops and live music.

Lucidity-featured artist Gregg Fleishman arrived prior to the festival as well and assembled a structure for all the kids to build. The idea was to show children the process of how things are built, getting them included in a process where they take on pride, recognize growth and see collaboration, which gave them a sense of community ownership. Some kids were teaching other kids and started a domino effect of conscientious interaction.

The fact that humans of all ages feel the connection of Lucidity goes to show how powerful the energy generated there is. We can all learn something from how children let themselves move and grow and exist in the moment.

At the end of the festival all the kids were put in the back of a truck. Most of them had school the next day. “There were tears,” says Rosel. “Kids were crying and my son cried too”. His hair was wild and he yelled, “I don’t want to go”. To Kainoa, says Rosel, “Lucidity is a creative wonderland and he says he’ll be back next year!”

For more lovely pictures from Family Garden, check out I AM Family’s full set.