Who are we?
Wild Goose Festival is a transformational community grounded in faith-inspired social justice. Wherever we come together – at our nationwide festival, smaller local and regional gatherings, or social spaces online – we learn and grow by co-creating art, music, story, theater, and spectacle, engaging in a wide variety of robust, respectful conversations with each other and with thought leaders and artists from other communities. We refuse to be enemies with anyone.
Who is invited?
We are welcoming and hospitable to people of all faiths – or no faith – who join us in seeking the common good. We fully affirm and celebrate people of every age, ethnicity, gender, gender expression, sexual identity, education, bodily condition, religious affiliation, and economic background, particularly those who are most often marginalized.
What do we mean by faith-inspired social justice?
Most of us are progressive Christians. For us this means moving beyond belief to center ourselves in justice and compassion, to walk toward those in need and to solidarity with the marginalized and the oppressed, acknowledging our own privilege and actively working to use our power to alleviate suffering and achieve wholeness.
Why the name Wild Goose?
A wild goose is strong, beautiful and…utterly unpredictable. It often surprises us and disturbs our plans, leading us on wild and wonderful adventures. As such, it truly symbolizes the spirit we follow and the beloved community we seek to build. After all, wild geese most often fly in flocks, sharing a common direction, honking their encouragement to each other and freely providing “lift” to one another simply by sticking together.
Our Commitments
Co-Creation
Every person is created to be an active participant in the infinite, life-generating, constantly evolving and cosmic process of creation. At the festival, we value and promote co-creation and interactivity at every possible level. We encourage everyone to be creative, to participate, to tell their stories, to “trouble the waters,” to express themselves through art and music and campsites and clothing, to not be simply a passive observer but to be an engaged collaborator.
Storytelling
We love stories. We believe in stories. And in their power to shape our world. So at Wild Goose we celebrate storytellers, and we’re committed to listening. Listening to each other’s stories, in all their truthful, messy ambiguities, and looking for our shared narratives, and how they’ve shaped us – in our joy and in our suffering. We’re dedicated to offering space to challenge the destructive narratives in our world, the stories that breed fear, violence, and control. And to being a place where new stories of restoration and hope can be born.
Radical Hospitality
We welcome people of all faiths or none, who join us in seeking the common good. We are committed to building a community where everyone is respected, valued and embraced, regardless of age, race, origin, gender, gender expression, sexual identity, education, religious affiliation, mental, physical, or socio-economic status, particularly those who are most often marginalized.
We dream of a movement where everyone is welcome to participate. We are dedicated to fair trade, gift exchange, ecological sanity, and economic inclusion. We strive for high standards of mutual respect, non-hierarchical leadership, and participative planning.
We encourage a wide, and wild, variety of expression, and intentionally make space for both joy and lament.
Real Relationship
We endeavor to make room for courageous conversation that grapples with questions instead of doling out answers, valuing and honoring our differences while also moving toward each other with humility and compassion. We make space for interaction that takes apart the usual class and social barriers, that takes down the walls that separate us, that invites speakers and artists and teachers into conversation with the wisdom of the greater community. We are here to teach and learn from each other.
Non-Violence
We resist violence in all forms, whether through physical weapons like guns, verbal weapons like hate speech, name-calling, or microaggressions, through things we do or fail to do. We aspire to be vulnerable versus defensive, giving and forgiving, kind and tenderhearted, in a world where there are always new (and sometimes subtle) ways to be violent, to each other and to the earth.
Always Evolving
We learn from the past, without making it our god, recognizing that we’re not always right, remaining flexible and open to new people, ideas, ways of understanding ourselves, each other and God. We hold all things loosely, constantly seeking and discovering new ways to make the world more generous and just, and growing in love for our neighbors, ourselves, our earth and God.
