OUR INTEGRATION AND REFLECTION POST 2024 FESTIVAL:
Each year, once the drums fall silent and the land exhales, we gather as a team to integrate. Medicine Festival is an experiment in how we can live, celebrate, and heal together. Below is part of that integration: an honest reflection on what we created, what we learned, and how we’ll continue evolving. We aim to continue on this journey of reflection and transparency moving forward into future years, too.
INFRASTRUCTURE UNDER PRESSURE:
As we grow, we’ve faced challenges from providing sufficient water and sanitation to managing waste.
TOILETS, SHOWERS AND CAMPING INFRASTRUCTURE:
Too few toilets, irregular cleaning, lack of supplies and lighting, cold or weak showers, long queues, and too few water points in campsites… can there ever be enough toilets?!
TICKETING AND ENTRY:
As numbers increased, gate and traffic management needed improvement, including early arrival clarity and better signage.
CAPACITY, CROWD SIZE AND SITE ZONING:
As Medicine grows, we continue to hold the question of how to expand in a healthy way while maintaining the intimacy, depth and prayer at the heart of the gathering.
WORKSHOP AND PROGRAMMING LOGISITICS:
Sessions occasionally lacked preparation, materials, or tech; start times slipped, and confusion arose between online, printed, and on-site schedules.
LOCAL RELATIONSHIPS:
Noise pollution from the site continues to affect nearby communities, requiring ongoing care and dialogue.
INTERNAL CAPACITY:
Our crew worked heroically, but our scale calls for clearer boundaries, rest, and long-term planning to sustain a more nourishing working environment.
FOOD:
While food was a highlight for many, we need more wholesome, whole-food, plant-based, and affordable options, and to better support local traders.
SUSTAINABILITY:
We will more accurately track and monitor our impact across power, water, waste, materials, transport and beyond, to gather baseline data to improve upon year on year.
ACCESSIBILITY AND FAMILY-FRIENDLY EXPERIENCE:
Site terrain, limited mobility access, and family area amenities (toilets, routes, signage) need significant improvement.
SAFETY AND SAFEGUARDING:
We continue to deepen our approach to mental, physical, and community safety.
CONTRIBUTOR CREDIBILITY:
Ensuring all facilitators and wisdom carriers are authentic, grounded, and culturally respectful remains essential.
DONATING:
Much of our support has flowed to communities in South America. As we move forward, we aim to widen and deepen these connections across the world, prioritising donations to the people and pro jects we work alongside and continuing to build long-term, reciprocal relationships as Medicine evolves.