Shambhala’s Sweet 16! The People, the Kootenays, the ShambhaLove.

On the road to Shambhala!

Festival season is upon us and Shambhala is planning its Sweet 16! River side, forest deep and farm field wide, the Salmo River Ranch holds the festival magic with cutting edge EDM and ten thousand of your best new and old friends.

Oh, and since it’s our 16th birthday we’ve invited the world’s largest kaleidoscope, just for fun.

See you on the dance floor!

The Amphitheatre (Formerly Rock Pit)

The Fractal Forest™

The Labyrinth & Nebula (Chill Stage)

The Living Room

The Pagoda Stage

The Village Stage

Blog by Scott Dale

We love fly fishing. We love the beautiful trout in the Salmo River. We love the big sounds of Shambhala and the beautiful people it brings. Myself, my wife, and our friends have been going to Shambhala for 8 years.

In 2010, on sunny Saturday afternoon, we watched the river turn green.

No one is really sure who did it. But in all the chaos, I was watching the fish. They were happy and feeding among the people.

Photo my Kate Dahlgren, SMF Media Team 2012

I noticed a gentleman walking along the river with a group of festival workers. I decided to introduce myself to see what I could do to help. The gentleman turned out to be Rick Bundschuh, the property owner and ‘Dad’ of the farm.

Rick being a fisherman himself, we got to telling fish stories. After nearly an hour of chatting, Rick invited my wife & I return to the farm to go fly fishing once all the people had gone home and the big trout returned. We came back to the Salmo River Ranch a few weeks later.

The fishing was fantastic BUT my wife and I found quite a bit of litter. We picked up what we could but, there was still more.

We asked to return the following year after the festival to do some fishing and pick some trash.

This time armed with picker sticks, garbage bags and pontoonboats, we picked as much as we could and caught a few nice trout along the way. We were finding garbage left behind by festival goers in remote spots that had been there for years and we got to thinking that we could do more.

We wanted to reach out to people during the festival and teach them about the river.

After many emails back and forth with festival organizers, we came up with The Shambhala Green River Collective – our purpose is to educate festival goers of the fragile river ecosystem and what they can do to reduce the impact they have on it.

Our 2012 “Respect the River” campaign was a success. We used signage from local wildlife parks along with messages to keep soap and other body products out of the river.

Local artists made murals with our messages.

The Shambassadors handed out “CODEgreen” buttons while they affirmed that its up to all of us to do our part.

We handed out stickers to the crowd.  We told people what we’re all about and spread the message.

It was beautiful – most everyone understood that somebody cares about what goes in the water.

In the days and weeks after the festival we picked litter and did some fishing. The fish were many, healthy, and all released safely.

While some people still leave their cigarette butts behind and some still cloud up the water with their soap, I’m proud to say we made a difference.

We made a difference by removing thousands of cigarette butts from the riverbed.

The Shambassadors made a difference by reaching people and by teaching them that “Small Actions x Many People = Big Change”.

The festival picking staff made a difference by walking the river for weeks picking countless pieces of litter, plastic bottles and various other gross and quirky things.

But most importantly we got to give something back to the music festival we love so much and the beautiful trout that live there.

Thanks to everyone for making this such an outstanding year! We’re looking forward to 2013 – let’s work together to make this Shambhala even cleaner!

~Scott Dale, Shawn Gratton + the rest of The Shambhala Green River Collective

Beautiful Salmo River Ranch ~ Photo by Patrick Latter, SMF Media Team 2012

A couple weeks later, I wrote a guest blog for All You Need Is Bass called “particiPARTY” – a call to action for all festival attendees to create a better festival experience for one another by sharing our gifts and moments of spontaneity that last forever in our memories.

One of the examples I used in that blog was the ”Losing Your Marbles” story because I loved the simplicity and lasting impression it made.

((Side Note: particiPARTY is actually oddly similar to a project launched almost simultaneously by my friend Tucker The Festival Guy called #RageItForward. Check that out too!))

After the particiPARTY blog went online, I received this awesome message from Becca K about HER experience as a “Marble Girl” – dating back to Shambhala 2009. Love it.

~Britz

MARBLE-GIRLS

“In 2009, as I prepared to embark on my first FULL ON festival summer, I was giddy with excitement of all the fun little quirky things I was bringing along. I seriously went home and rummaged through my old childhood toys to see what else might make an impression, or a laugh or a lasting memory for our trip.

I had been to Shambhala in 2008, just for Sunday night, and it blew my mind!! It wasn’t just my first Shambhala – it was my first festival! My inner child had been awakened! Finally, a place to PLAY and experience the joys of life, outdoors, around thousands of like-minded people!

That fateful Sunday night as I journeyed through the dimly lit pathways towards the pounding basslines, a girl stopped me and placed a little shell in my hand. She warmly closed my hand over the shell, smiled and genuinely said, “Here you go.”

I smiled back at her and genuinely said, “Thank you”.

It was so simple, but so warm and welcoming that it made a lasting impression on me. That was 2008.

In 2009 I thought to myself – I wanna bring something to give to my friends and strangers. Just a simple object, but enough to pass on that feeling that is created by our playful energies coming together, to dance, laugh, vibe and Party!

So… I brought with me a bag of Marbles.

You know: Just in case you lose your marbles (which can very likely happen at a festival), here is a spare marble. Just in Case. You can pull it out when you lose your own. You can hold it in your hand after you go home – and you will feel the feeling again.

I’m not sure if I told you this story Britz, or if there are a few of us “Marble Girls” out there.

I genuinely hope there are many, many Marble Girls and Marble Boys spreading the positive vibes, the good feelings, the Shambhalove and sharing their amazing spirit with the people they encounter.

This world can be a sometimes bleak and lonely place and having something to remember that there is Laughter, Dance, Community, Collaboration, and genuine people sharing their Goodness with each other is a feeling I want to try to hold onto.

Speaking of which… I’m going to look for my marble!! Just wanted to share this with you.

Keep the PARTICIPARTY Goin Girl!!!”

♥♥vibezz~~
Becca K.