ConFest is held twice per year at Easter and Christmas - New Year.
I have wanted to go for years but have not had much luck convincing a very sceptical David. Well this year for our annual holiday Easter and ANZAC were in the same week - perfect for a long holiday. We decided on a houseboat holiday on the Murray River in South Australia. As Echuca is sort of on the way to SA I set about convincing him to go camping at a hippy festival. He eventually said yes. Now find the tent, mattress, camping gear etc. Oh and friends. Wayne & Chris, being pretty earthy folk, were easier to convince to come along. Other folk like Andrew and Aria (regular ConFesters) were not going this year, until... at the last minute Andrew pulled together ten of his friends to head south.

Easter Thursday after work we drove to Canberra for a wonderful dinner at the home of Matt and Barry, five freeloaders and two dear friends from Queanbeyan, Sam & Steve. A very long drive on Friday saw us arrive 30 minutes too late to be allowed in the gate. Pitching a tent in the dark in a car park wasn't how I wanted us to be introduced to ConFest (They have sensible rules about late arrivals). Saturday morning we lugged our gear to join up with our friends at the carfree campsite. What followed was the most incredible experience of camaraderie, peace and energy we have both felt. You can relax, do nothing, do workshops absolutely all day, donate massages all day or eat fabulous vegetarian food from the stall holders. Evenings are usually spent whiling away the hours in the chai tent, chatting around the campfire, dancing to the amazing drummers and fire twirlers, the sweat lodge or hot tub.

Tuesday was the day we were due to leave and I remarked to David that for the first time I actually gave a thought for the outside world - very unusual for me (for those that know me well). David came away from ConFest a complete convertee - he loved it and we headed off into the sunset to SA for the next part of our journey - old and dear friends.