Yesterday was Pagan Unity Fest in North Texas. Over four hundred Wiccans, Druids, Heathens, Witches, and Pagans who are hard to classify and damn proud of it filled the grounds of Arlington UU Church for a day of rituals, workshops, music, dancing, drumming, shopping, and catching up with our fellow DFW area Pagans.
It’s Labor Day weekend and schools are back in session, but summer is still in full force in Texas. It was 99˚F yesterday (for non US readers, that’s 37˚C). Clouds gave an occasional break from the sun, but not much. I was very glad the workshops were held in a clearing in a wooded area: there was seating, there was shade, and besides, Druids love teaching in groves!
I had planned to do a full review of Pagan Unity Fest, but the heat got the best of me and I ended up leaving earlier than I had planned. I missed the main ritual and I missed hearing Wiccan author Ed Fitch speak. And, if you read this blog yesterday, you already know I had an unpleasant experience as I was leaving that required some writing time. So I can’t do a full write-up of the event – I can only talk about what I saw.
It was good talking to people I hadn’t seen in a while, and some I had only talked with on-line. I spent some time with the local Covenant of the Goddess representatives. I used to keep up with the local CoG events, though I rarely attended them, in part because CoG is a Wiccan organization and in part because almost all their events are in Fort Worth. We really miss Moonlady News – it was great for keeping up with who’s doing what in the wider community of alternative religions and practices.
I dropped in on the folks from Arlington UU Church, who hosted the event. They had a booth in the vendor’s area. I’ll be speaking at Arlington UU on November 8 – the service will be an adaptation of my workshop from yesterday “Worshiping Fearsome Gods.” And I may have picked up another speaking engagement – I’m waiting for confirmation on the date.
Events like this are often criticized for being Wicca-oriented and ignoring other Pagan traditions. I’m sure there are some situations where this is intentional, but most times it’s simply that Wiccans and Pagans with Wiccanish practices outnumber everyone else. If you want your tradition to be represented, volunteer to do something! “Worshiping Fearsome Gods” was polytheism made accessible for a generic Pagan audience. Some of the one-on-one conversations afterwards made it clear there are people who are looking for this type of religion even if they aren’t sure what it is.
The real story on Pagan Unity Fest, though, is how – and how well – it came together. Earlier in the year it became apparent that there would be no Pagan Pride Day in North Texas in 2015. I heard several rumors as to why: one said there was trouble getting the same location in Dallas that worked so well in 2013. Another said the people who organized the last two just couldn’t do it again this year. I suspect the real answer is complicated.
Pagan Pride Day is part of a national organization – you can’t just throw an event and call it Pagan Pride Day. You have to be approved by the national organization and they only allow one PPD within a 90 minute radius. There wasn’t time to have a new event approved by the national committee.
In stepped Becca Shugart, an eclectic Pagan from Bedford (just east of Fort Worth) with experience in event planning. Becca said “I love Pagan Pride Day!” and so rather than have another year with nothing in the area (like 2011 and 2012), she decided to put Pagan Unity Fest together.
No event of this size can be run by one person, as Becca pointed out in a thank you post in the Pagan Unity Fest Facebook group. But someone – or a small group of someones – has to figure out what needs to be done, recruit volunteers, and follow up to make sure volunteers do what they said they’d do (in the case of Pagan Unity Fest, it looks like they did all that and more. Without someone driving the train events like Pagan Unity Fest or your group’s next ritual simply won’t happen, or they’ll be done poorly. Somebody has to do the work, including the work of coordinating the work of others.
The best-run Pagan organizations have highly motivated, highly competent people running them. The problem is that if those highly motivated, highly competent people get burned out, or are unavailable, or run into situations that are outside their area of expertise, the organizations and their work will flounder. This is why we need institutions – organizations that take on a life of their own, that have established processes and procedures, that ordinary people can plug into quickly and easily. But a collection of individuals is not an institution.
Until we have mature, well-functioning Pagan institutions, we’re dependent on people to say “this is important and I’m going to make sure it happens, no matter how much work it is.” I’m thankful every time someone like Becca steps up and does the holy work of community building.
There are more Pagans in Texas than you might think if you live in another part of the country, especially if you believe the stereotypes. But many of us are concerned about negative publicity and so we tend to keep a low profile. Plus the DFW area is huge and public transportation is minimal, especially outside of Dallas proper. Most of us stick to our own groups in our own areas and we lose track of the fact that other Pagans are also doing good work in other parts of the region. It’s good to come together occasionally, even if it’s only once a year.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to and participated in Pagan Unity Fest yesterday, and very special thanks to Becca Shugart for bringing it all together.
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