Gathering of the Tribes Conference
May 26- 30, Los Angeles, CA
Originally published in Lotus Magazine, issue 27, July 2000
© Ariel Meadow Stallings


Bringing devoted members of the underground together to discuss land use policies, drug reform, and community issues, the Gathering of the Tribes Conference was, in essence, Winter Music Conference with a soul.

The conference kicked off Thursday night with a vegetarian dinner, welcoming the participants who had come from up and down the West Coast.  As we sat and drew our own prayer flags (which were sewn together and displayed through-out the conference), we were dazzled by both live and DJed music, belly dancing, and opera singing.  This welcome dinner really rang home the delicious expressive diversity of the dance community, and everyone seemed giddy with anticipation.

Friday's panel discussions started with presentations from Rainbow Gathering family, who shared some of the knowledge they've acquired over the last 30 years of throwing events on public land.  The summary?  Know the rules, and be ready for officials to break them.  The afternoon's discussion turned to drug reform and harm reduction, with presentations from lawyer Richard Glen Boire, John from Right To Dance Coalition, and Emanuel and Theo from DanceSafe.  Then, as if we weren't already over stimulated, there was a yoga/movement workshop, and Electric Skychurch's Alex Spurkle led a session on drumming with the DJ.

Saturday morning started off with a chakra ritual with Koren, and then a discussion led by Cinnamon Twist about the creation of sacred space.  Each participant shared ways that they create sacred space, both in their personal life and at tribal dance events, and some took notes in the hopes of sharing the lessons with folks back home.  "Ooh, smudging the dancefloor and the dancers--good!  Oh yes, calling in the four directions before the night begins, great, great…"  Midday, groups broke off for yoga, Nada Brahma, and a lunch discussion of polyamory in the dance community (why was I the only girl there?  Hello, ladies!).  As the day heated up, Dusti (the facilitator of the event, who deserves an award for pulling the whole thing off) got out the easel and led a discussion on community--both the good (support, sustainability, collectivity) and bad (drama, exclusivity issues, etc).

Ah, but lest you think the conference was over when the last words were spoken, keep in mind that there was a celebratory gathering Saturday night!  Featuring DJs who were participants in the GOTT conference, the desert gathering was a phenomenal climax to an amazing weekend.  We danced all night and well into the day.  The heat was stifling, the sun was stunning, and when the last shade structure blew over around noon on Sunday, it was time to head back to the urban sprawl of Los Angeles.

BUT WAIT!  It STILL wasn't over.  Back in LA, participants celebrated well into the night on Sunday (ug, perhaps this particular participant really shouldn't have still been celebrating, but when the festivities knock, I must answer), and Monday there was a sunny-day pool party to close out the conference.  The pool party read like a who's-who of the left coast tribal underground community: "Oh look, there's John Kelley!  Ooh wait, isn't that Jon Kavulic, the original editor of Lotus?  There's one of the Bud Brothers!  And that's DJ Micron in the hot tub!").  Music played, beer flowed, people smoked.  One can imagine that by this point, yours looked and felt like an over-socialized glob of burnt-out and warmed-over spit.  I limped on the plane home to Olympia, happily clutching my carry-on of amazing notes from the discussions, emails of all the phenomenal people I'd spoken to, and enough inspiration to last me until next year's Gathering of the Tribes.