Witchvox Article

Author: Bronwen Forbes [a WitchVox Sponsor]
Posted: August 9th. 2009
Times Viewed: 1,953

As mentioned in a previous article here on Witchvox, I said that the only job less glamorous and more arduous than being the High Priest or High Priestess of a training coven is overall coordinator for a Pagan festival. While a festival or gathering lasts, at most, a week and a training coven can exist for years if not decades, I still say (as a recovering festival coordinator) I�d rather run a training coven any day. Here�s why:

I can go to the bathroom more often than once every twelve hours. Training classes and sabbat rituals only take a few hours and then the attendees go home. A festival is a round-the-clock event. It never failed � as soon as I was just about to open the Port-A-John door, another crisis needing my immediate attention would be squawking across my walkie-talkie. Closely related to this is�

I can sleep. Eventually, the coveners and guests go home after ritual and everyone in my immediate area of responsibility (i.e. my house) can � and do � go to bed. As a Festival Coordinator, my immediate area of responsibility was much larger, and *someone* was always awake, even at 3:00 a.m. If there�s an emergency, or the awake someone or someones are making too much noise, guess who gets woken up to take care of it? Yes, the security staff can and often does take care of the rowdy attendees, but for some reason a grumpy Festival Coordinator is a very effective noise deterrent.

I can eat. Until the festival I used to run finally coordinated with the campground staff to provide a meal plan, I usually lost a few pounds during the course of the gathering because I simply did not have time to sit down and eat (see going to the bathroom issues, above) . My coveners and students, on the other hand, have a lovely habit of bringing more food to the post-ritual potluck than the group can possibly eat � and I have time to sit down and enjoy it! If I�m still hungry after they leave (not likely, but possible) , I have the time *and* I have access to a full refrigerator full of ritual feast leftovers and a cupboard that always contains a jar of chunky peanut butter. Coven leadership is not hungry work.

I don�t have to suffer fools gladly � or at all. If a potential student or covener is just too wacky or not a good fit for my group, I don�t have to let this person join. And if I do, against my better judgment, let him or her join and the wackiness continues, I can kick the person out. At a gathering, the lady who insists on loudly �communing� with the innocent black snake stretched across the path because she�s convinced it�s her (still living) ex-husband who promised he�d contact her during the weekend � well, she paid good money to be there, and I can�t kick her out because she�s not hurting herself or anyone else, even if she is clearly a few cards short of a full tarot deck.

Weather doesn�t negatively impact my job. When I am running rituals or teaching a class, I can choose to keep everyone inside my climate-controlled home if the weather is too hot, too cold, or too wet. I don�t have to worry about myself, my family or my students getting hypothermia when the temperature drops from a balmy seventy-five degrees to a wet, white hail-covered forty degrees in less than three hours. I can light a fire in my living room fireplace and go on with my cozy indoor drumming circle. I don�t have to deal with heat exhaustion (mine or anyone else�s) , nor do I have to call an ambulance because an attendee slipped on wet grass after a very rainy main ritual and possibly broke her leg.

Problem solving is much easier. If an issue comes up between two or more members of my coven, I have time to talk to the involved parties � people who, in the last seventy-two hours, have eaten a reasonable amount of food, slept their usual hours per night and who aren�t sunburnt, bug-bitten, frozen and/or emotionally crispy from stress and Pagan Energy Overload Syndrome. In short, I am not dealing with a fellow festival-running volunteer or an attendee.

And as I mentioned, I also have the luxury of *time* -- I can take a few days or even weeks to consider the problem (in my own well-fed, well-rested state) , consult with my working partner/High Priest, and come to a reasonable, well-thought out solution that either I or my High Priest have the authority to present to the offended parties. At a gathering, I don�t have time.

All problems � underage teen drinking, openly pot-smoking adults, theft of the vendors� wares on Merchant�s Row, a Parking Coordinator who never supervised car placement and now a couple hundred cars are all randomly parked any which way, a Registration Coordinator on a power trip, the Entertainment Coordinators who decide AT THE FESTIVAL that they want to get a divorce and won�t stop screaming at each other, the music guest of honor who shows up with a restraining order against her partner that I�ll have to enforce if he shows up, an outbreak of chicken pox, a woman going into labor � have to be dealt with RIGHT NOW, or at least within the next hour or two.

And since the buck stops with the Festival Coordinator, I don�t have the luxury of a co-coordinator or working partner who has as much authority as I do.

If you�ve been volunteering (or considering volunteering) with your local festival�s committee, these are things to consider before you don the mantle of Coordinator. I�d like to tell you I made even one of the above problems and scenarios up, but I didn�t. Every single one of them happened during my years as Festival Coordinator for one of the largest east coast Pagan gatherings (okay, except for the hypothermia one; that was at a festival in New Mexico run by a dear friend of mine) � and they could happen to you.

How would you handle them?

ABOUT...

Bronwen Forbes

Location: Bloomington, Indiana

Author's Profile: To learn more about Bronwen Forbes - Click HERE

Other Articles: Bronwen Forbes has posted 36 additional articles- View them?

Other Listings: To view ALL of my listings: Click HERE

Email Bronwen Forbes... (Yes! I have opted to receive invites to Pagan events, groups, and commercial sales)

Home - TWV Logos - Email US - Privacy

News and Information

Chapters: Pagan/Heathen Basics - Pagan BOOKS - Traditions, Paths & Religions - Popular Pagan Holidays - TV & Movies - Cats of the Craft - Festival Reviews - Festival Tips - White Pages (Resources) - Issues/Concerns - West Memphis 3 - Witch Hunts - Pagan Protection Tips - Healing Planet Earth

Your Voices: Adult Essays - Young Pagan Essays - Pagan Perspectives (On Hold) - WitchWars: Fire in the Craft - Gay Pagan - Pagan Parenting - Military - Pagan Passages

Pagan Music: Pagan Musicians - Bardic Circle at WitchVox - Free Music from TWV

Vox Central: About TWV - Wren: Words, Wrants and Wramblings - Guest Rants - Past Surveys - A Quest for Unity

Weekly Updates: Click HERE for an index of our weekly updates for the past 6 years

W.O.T.W. - World-Wide Networking

Your Town: A Link to YOUR Area Page (The largest listing of Witches, Pagans, Heathens and Wiccans on the Planet)

VoxLinks: The Pagan Web: 8,000 Listings

Your Witchvox Account: Log in Now - Create New Account - Request New Password - Log in Problems

Personal Listings: Pagan Clergy in Your Town - Adult Pagans - Young Pagans - Military Pagans

Events: Circles, Gatherings, Workshops & Festivals

Covens/Groups/Orgs: Local Groups Main Page

Other LOCAL Resources: Local Shops - Regional Sites - Local Notices - Global/National Notices - Local Skills & Services - Local Egroups - Political Freedom Fighters

Pagan Shopping: Online Shops Index - Original Crafters Sites - Auction Sites - Pagan Wholesalers - Pagan Local Shops

Web Site Content (including: text - graphics - html - look & feel)
Copyright 1997-2013 The Witches' Voice Inc. All rights reserved
Note: Authors & Artists retain the copyright for their work(s) on this website.
Unauthorized reproduction without prior permission is a violation of copyright laws.

Website structure, evolution and php coding by Fritz Jung on a Macintosh G5.

Any and all personal political opinions expressed in the public listing sections (including, but not restricted to, personals, events, groups, shops, Wren’s Nest, etc.) are solely those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinion of The Witches’ Voice, Inc. TWV is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization.

Sponsorship: Visit the Witches' Voice Sponsor Page for info on how you
can help support this Community Resource. Donations ARE Tax Deductible.
The Witches' Voice carries a 501(c)(3) certificate and a Federal Tax ID.

Mail Us: The Witches' Voice Inc., P.O. Box 341018, Tampa, Florida 33694-1018 U.S.A.

Witches, Pagans
of The World

Current Topic
Editorial Guide

NOTE: The essay on this page contains the writings and opinions of the listed author(s) and is not necessarily shared or endorsed by the Witches' Voice inc.

The Witches' Voice does not verify or attest to the historical accuracy contained in the content of this essay.

All WitchVox essays contain a valid email address, feel free to send your comments, thoughts or concerns directly to the listed author(s).