Imagine Lucidity Festival in magnificent female form…as Luci… See her now. See her well.
Standing on stage, lit by a bright spotlight, belting out the chorus of an epic cover of this Fleetwood Mac classic…
“Well, I’ve been ‘fraid of changin’
‘Cause I’ve built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older
And I’m gettin’ older, too”
Imagine Luci, from each passing year she’s been learning, maturing, become more refined, wiser from the years of challenges and of many joys, triumphs and mishaps shared.
Vulnerable now and expressing her tenderness around changing, because she’s quite literally built her life around YOU, the lucid family.
But time has also made her bolder and the Lucidity Festival story is far from concluded. With flow and continual evolution, Luci continues onward over a river of possibilities, endeavoring with oars of passion and joy, wholeheartedly embracing the changes she chose, and as well, those which have chosen her.
Change and flux is the nature of the universe.
Growth and healing is at the very heart of what we do at Lucidity and a huge driving force of the WHY behind what we do. Any authentic commitment to transformation must come hand in hand with an openness, a willingness, and an enthusiastic embrace of change.
We can all attest that change can be difficult, it can be painful in the moment, or scary and overwhelming, and usually when we look back, we’re able to see how important that change is for the health and vitality of our lives, our organizations and projects, and our communities.
With all of this said, have no fear, there are many truly wonderful things that have not changed for Luci, as they are foundational constants, immovable elements and platonic solids of YES that deserve to join the ranks of tradition, repeated joyfully and regularly for generations to come.
Even the deepest and longest standing traditions shift and evolve and adapt through time. Changing contexts lead to different outcomes, situations, and circumstances.
Leaves turn colors, ocean winds blow.
Fires rage, winter rains flow.
New life is birthed through charred soil.As art and love are often born of hard toil.
Change occurs cyclically. We can count on and honor that. Additionally, at the end of every cycle, there is an opportunity for evolution, to raise an octave and experience a new level of the great mystery.
As an adaptable organization, Lucidity is committed to change, growth and evolution… in a word, ‘transformation’. Here are the five ways that you will notice Lucidity itself is emerging from the transmutational flames of Rising Dawn, and flowing with the soothing waters of transformation in 2019.
1. The Soundscape of Lucidity
Last year we received an overwhelming amount of feedback, perhaps more than any other year, about the music at Lucidity. Most notably, we heard that the soundscape could compliment the event’s energetics and intentions better.
Imagine that.
We acknowledge that moving from an everything-all-the-time Burning Man influence to a refined event soundscape is going to reduce cacophony. We have taken this feedback into consideration in our curation process this year and are excited for what’s in store.
We are blessed to have a new lead Musical Talent Curator in Barnett English, of Joshua Tree Music Festival, who is focusing on the overall musical selection of our event, and is specifically booking fresh live music with an uplifting message.
We are also pleased to have the input and participation of Bix King Kaufman, owner of EOS lounge in Santa Barbara, engaged in the booking of electronic music.
Finally, we celebrate the continued badassery of longtime curator, collaborator and musician Brion Shearer, who is collaborating with Brad “Geronimo” Greenbaum and Brian Coe booking more live music and local talent for an upleveled version of our longstanding beloved “Dusty Barrel” western theme environment within the Fire Realm.
Your experience onsite is of utmost importance to us.
As such, the curation of a sonic experience that supports you, Lucid Dreamers, in having the best and most fulfilling weekend journey possible is our primary intention.
This means crafting a soundscape that allows for workshops and birdsongs in the morning, that slowly ramps up through the afternoon, and fully throws down in the evening.
Lucidity has always been a holistic experience of which music is an integral part. We are committed to ensuring that it fits that important function as a soundtrack to your transformational experience of community. We know you’ll love what we have in store for you!
2. The Full Embrace of Family
One of our deepest commitments has always been to create safe space for children and families and we are noticing that this commitment is becoming more of a guiding light than ever before. As lucid little ones who were running around full of innocence just a few short years ago are stepping into their teenage years, we are confronted with the challenge of creating spaces that are inspiring and relevant to them too.
We are excited to uplevel last year’s first ever teen center for our youth ages 12-17. We are also looking forward to expanding and refining our new Family Services department to support families and accommodate those with special needs. ASL services and a mobility camp for ADA will continue to be provided with greater care and attention than ever before. We will continue the annual children’s parade at midday on Sunday as well as our highly successful Junior Volunteer program that plugs youth into the production of the event.
This year, we are also considering honoring Junior Volunteer service hours done in their home communities as credit towards their Lucidity ticket, effectively allowing Lucidity’s influence to reach into our youth’s experience within their hometowns. As always children 12 and under get into the event free… so be sure to plan to bring the kiddos and experience everything we’ve been working on for you.
Our efforts have been noticed and recognized on the international stage. We are proud to share that we were recently acknowledged as the “Best Family Friendly Festival” in the FestX Awards at the XLive conference and expo in Las Vegas this December. Judged by a panel of 17 industry professionals, receiving this award validates the years of intention put into the continued growth of Lucidity Festival as the annual springtime family reunion of your dreams!
3. Increased Attention to our Collective Call for Diversity and Inclusion
We fully embrace our One World human family. All ethnicities, races, genders, classes, abilities, sexual preferences, ages, and traditions are welcome so long as you come in peace.
While this has always been a strong intention of Lucidity, we recognize now more than ever the need for spaces and places where diverse communities can meet, interact, and make friends in a good way. We also aim to curate content that supports your education about important topics related to racism, privilege, whiteness, gender fluidity, cultural appropriation, and a variety of other social justice themes.
Be sure to search out the Altar of Air for this flavor of workshop content, and an open safe space in the evening designed specifically to have difficult conversations. Our Council for Peace will be hosting wisdom keepers from a diversity of cultural traditions and will hold space for sharing and discussion in both panels and at our opening and closing ceremonies.
This year we specifically developed and implemented a Santa Barbara Student Art Grant Program, aimed at supporting students with resources to make art! Finally, we are finding ways to reach out to more diverse populations and audiences in our home community of Santa Barbara, through partnerships with organizations like the Isla Vista Food Coop and Youth Interactive, we are opening our arms and expanding the bubble!
Do you have a suggestion for a social justice initiative or organization we could support or partner with in a creative way? We’d love to learn more about issues that are important to our community - please email us!
4. Deeper Integration of CourseWeek and Festival
For 3 years now we’ve hosted a pre-festival onsite educational experience called Lucid University CourseWeek. This powerful immersion allows students to go deep in a subject of their choosing and also allows participants to be on the build site of Lucidity Festival much early than the general public.
This year, rather than students arriving Sunday evening, and engaging in 3 full days of classes, with a full day between the end of CourseWeek and the first day of the festival, students will instead arrive Tuesday afternoon. Classes will take place Wednesday, Thursday and half of Friday, with closing ceremony occurring on Friday afternoon, which is essentially the beginning of the festival.
By overlapping experiences in this way, we’ve been able to reduce the cost of the program and pass that savings along to students in the form of less expensive ticket prices than ever before for this transformational education immersion. We hope you come learn with us!
5. Organizational Leadership
In our most recent director elections we made an intentional step toward a lean and efficient director board, represented as a council of 3, rather than 5. Even more exciting, our governing body is now represented by two women and an elder - the last remaining co-founder on the board, Allyson Avila, who is third generation Mexican-American Santa Barbarian.
Ally is the Administrative and Finance Manager for the LLC. Sara Marvel, who was first voted in two years ago has maintained her position on the board and is newly assigned the Cross Project Manager role as well.
Ron Glover, a respected elder in our community and our company, continues his role as our permits manager and county liaison, and now also sits in a Director seat. Ron has a deep history with Santa Barbara and the Sunburst community, and his background adds a richness to the diversity of our Board.
We welcome these positive changes and continue to invite a broader perspective in all aspects and positions within our company, projects, and our annual festival. As we continue to grow, learn, and educate ourselves and our community, we see the importance of expanding our platform to include more voices, interests, and actions.
As an organization we are moving in the direction of putting down roots as a creative pillar of togetherness for the Santa Barbara community and beyond. We are a nexus point for transformational experience, we are a family of like minded souls on a kindred quest together, we are one heck of a good party, and we are always growing, changing, and evolving.
We thank you for saying yes to the process and for reading this communication to the end. See you in April, we love you!
Tickets available here!
Learn more about Lucidity
PO BOX 6616, Santa Barbara, CA