NEW MARSHFIELD, Ohio — For some, the term “tree hugger” is an insult. But for Lindsey Rudibaugh, co-founder and executive director of the Tenderfoot Learning Lab, it’s part of the job description.
Rudibaugh and her team at the local sustainability education center hope to create new tree huggers at their first Love Grows Festival, Saturday, Aug. 1–Sunday, Aug. 2.
The festival is organized around love of people and the planet, Rudibaugh said. From a nonviolent de-escalation training to a sustainable textiles talk, the festival includes a variety of activities that address interpersonal relationships and environmental concerns.
Rudibaugh and her team hope that the event will attract new crowds to Tenderfoot Learning Lab.
“We started to find ourselves preaching to the choir, the same people coming to the same sorts of programs,” she said. “We’re so grateful to those people who come, but we wanted to reach beyond our usual audience, and festivals are a fun thing. Southeast Ohio seems to really, in particular, love a festival.”
The organization received a $10,000 Civic Experiment Grant from the Athens County Foundation for the event. Thanks to the grant, admission to the festival is free for kids 12 and younger, as well as residents of the neighboring area of New Marshfield and Five Points Road.
Single-day passes to the festival cost $10, while weekend passes are $18; camping passes are $43.
The Love Grows Festival isn’t Tenderfoot’s first foray into festivals. The lab hosts an annual Fall Fungi Festival in October, in collaboration with Rural Action. Rural Action also helped with programming for the Love Grows Festival. The priority was creating a program that would appeal to a wide range of interests.
“Somebody might come to the festival because they’re excited about the climate talk, or somebody might come to the festival because they’re excited about the nonviolence workshop,” Rudibaugh said. “Those might seem really different, but I bet there are overlapping skills and impacts that each of those could make.”
She hopes that festivalgoers will leave with a greater sense of hope for the planet’s future and a sense of community. Additionally, she wants attendees to take home new practical skill, whether it’s self-care practices or a craft, to help love both people and the planet.
“The two, to me, are the same,” Rudibaugh said. “Loving people, loving the planet means just community care.”
One way festival-goers can connect with both themselves and the earth is through a cacao ceremony, offered by Michelle Kucera-Jewell and Michael Jewell. The couple moved back to Ohio after travelling across the country conducting cacao ceremonies, a practice that originated in ancient Mesoamerica.
Kucera-Jewell said that the ceremony involved somatic practice, which connects the mind and body through movement and breath. While their cacao ceremonies can often last up to three hours, their session at the Love Grows Festival will be 75 minutes.
She and Jewell, who co-founded The Nook in Pomeroy, had been hoping to collaborate with Tenderfoot Learning Lab. When they heard about the festival, the couple knew it was the perfect opportunity. Kucera-Jewell sees the cacao ceremony as being at the intersection of people and planet.
“The opportunity to sit with cacao in ceremony is for us to remember our inherent connection, our inherent goodness, and ultimately this truth that all humans and this precious planet are worthy of love and care.”
Tickets for the Love Grows Festival can be purchased through Eventbrite. Learn more about Tenderfoot Learning Lab on its website.
