Our Very Own Festival

When the pandemic hit last year we were very disappointed as a group of friends that there would be no festivals. We had been going to festivals together for years! When it dawned on us: could we organize our own festival, compliant with the rules, just for us as friends? The answer was yes and just now we had edition two as this pandemic ruined yet another festival summer! Welcome to Feest!val 2021!

What On Earth Is This?

So it turns out that saying you will organize a festival is a bit easier than doing it, but we have come a long way and have managed to make a nice festival! We have one member of our friend group whose parents live in the middle of nowhere and own a plot of land we could use! We camp in the back and party in the front of the field. Last year we only had our group (12 people) but this year as the measures eased a little bit we were able to have 30 people (all had at least 1 vaccine and everyone got tested before arriving). We cook the food ourselves, every day has a different cooking team and anyone can organize an activity they would like to have at the festival.

When you walk in the first thing you see is the program for the day, anyone is free to add something to it, to organize it or whatever they like! This was the Saturday program: two people played country music, the neighbors came by for a visit, people could make their own festival band, play beach volleybal, we had a duo plating a song and a DJ at night. Plenty to choose from!

This is our Main Stage: as you can see we even made a logo (in the middle) this year. We rent the tent and floor from a company, the lamps are ours and all the decor comes out of our houses or from the second hand shop. This is where we chill during the day when it's hot and party at night to music!

This is the entrance to the magic forest, we made a lot of blacklight decor and hung all sorts of lamps in a bit of forest so you can walk through it at night. Our favorite festival (Psyfi) also has something like this so we decided to make our own! We have put a spot on the big tree next to it, making it look like this:

We also had a fire of course and this is usually where everybody ended the night, staring into the fire or having conversations sometimes until dawn!

Night was the prettiest time at the festival, with the lights showing. This is a rare picture of the terrain being empty!

I hope we keep our own little festival for many years to come, it was amazing sharing this with friends and being able to have a festival in a responsible way, despite of a pandemic. I think it shows that with a lot of dedication and time anyone can make something beautiful out of a shitty situation! So I am hoping for a Feest!val 2022 edition!