Festival Atitlan


 

We believe that Music, art, and the other physical expressions of our cultures are the flowering of the human condition. Thats why, after the basic needs like food, shelter, and right livelyhood are provided, the best way to help elevate peoples consciousness and better their lives is by facilitating, encouraging, teaching, and presenting examples of these cultural expressions among the populace. This is why our many years experience with producing Festivals have led us to once again try to do magic, this time by building a full on cultural park in Santiago Atitlan. What we have in mind is a full cultural experience, with an acoustic shell and stage, studios and places for workshops where the artists can meet the kids, and where new ideas can be explored, galleries and museums, an arboretum and campgrounds. Maybe a couple of bungalos for retreats.And a righteous playground... All done in an alternative, very progressive way. Something to leave for posterity...A place for the Festival Atitlan to live and grow.

So, in October, 2015, along with some righteous partners, we started the work by purchasing (a great deal from another partner) 18 cuerdas (about 3.5 acres) of beautiful forest on the shores of Lake Atitlan. Since then, we have been carefully planning, clearing, planting, building, and everything else that doing this project implies. There was even an old house that we dug out to become one of the park buildings.

What's the "Deal?"

This is a very altruistic project, but we are realistic enough to realise that, in order for this to work, it needs to be sustainable. We don't want to ask for help from the usual places because we want to completely avoid commercialism and politics. It really should be a local community project.

The plan is a kind of "socialistic capitalism", where the services (restaurant, event usage fees, retreats, icecream, camping, etc.) will pay for the upkeep of the free part ( ground upkeep, building playgrounds, picnic and barbecue areas, toilets, beach area, etc.)

We will be counting on economic support from the community to help with the big projects (building an acoustic shell, planting a paradise, getting sound equipment,etc.) We have started working with local youth organizations to draw up some ideas for workshops that are pertinent to their needs. We will also need your help with the technical aspects of this venture.... We still haven't found anyone who can help us with the design of the Acoustic Shell, for example. There is plenty of room for lots of creativity, and we want to encourage the community to help us decide exactly what building a public cultural park means.
If you like the idea, and would like to be a part of this great experiment,contact me at

info@festivalatitlan.com

If you like the idea, but can't help directly, you can help with a donation. You can donate through PayPal by clicking the button

For other options, write us:

info@festivalatitlan.com

Painting by Duncan Blue, from the 70's, on the wall of one of the ruined buildings

Right now the property is mostly trees of all kinds, and we are slowly cleaning it up and choosing areas to build things. The first was the Welcome Center, at the gate, finished in march 2016. We also built some composting toilets, and, as of June 2016, we have started building the playground . We inaugurated the Cultural park with Festival Atitlan 2016, that was on march 12th.

The Welcome Center

We started with this as a way to get our electricity connected

There is a nice lawn at the beach that will be great for picnics, small concerts, etc. We will eventually build a dock and set up a barbecue grill, etc.

the old windmill tower in the woods

Start of the Hobbit House Hill/Slide in the playground

Heres a four seater Composting Toilet, made with the best design we could find... This is part of the educational part of the park, which we plan to make into an ecological showroom. We are also planning on permaculture displays, organic gardens, and alternative energy experiments as another way of raising consciousness.

Another Picture of the House

This will turn into the parks social center.

 

A Map of the Park,2016