Mark this date on your calendar

The organisers of a celebration at Butler Point, across the harbour from Mangonui, have given early notice of the Far North Joyfest, which will take place on Sunday, October 27, in the hope that people will mark the date on their calendars.

Admission will cost $45 per person, children under 12 free.

Co-ordinator Hari Bans Kaur, from Taupo Bay (phone 021-570-126) and committee secretary Diane Simpson (phone 022-625-5289, email simmo500@ hotmail.com) are also looking for sponsors and potential stall holders who can offer wholesome/organic food, local crafts and wellbeing products.

The alcohol and drug-free festival will include a healing zone, with places for those who practise the healing arts, along with live music, a children’s zone, conscious living, yoga and dance workshops, and a wisdom talk area.

Hari said it would be a family-friendly event with the emphasis on health and wellbeing, and conscious living.

“The Far North is blessed with an abundance of beauty, but also with an abundance of people offering services that can really help us all to live our best life,” he said. “Life can be a challenge, but the key to living our best life is in meeting that challenge, transforming that challenge, and making that challenge a springboard into a future filled with more joy. This event will provide people with a range of tools to do just that.

“Rates of suicide, self-harm and financial difficulties are increasing throughout New Zealand, and the Far North often gets very bad press outside the area. Let’s celebrate all the amazing things happening right here in the Far North. Let’s learn from the experiences of others.

“As Jacinda Ardern has reiterated recently, ‘They are us’; we all have a responsibility to be the best we can be, to live the best life that we can, so that it inspires others to live out their dreams, to change their realities.

“As Gandhi said, ‘Treat people as you would want to be treated.’ If we look after our own health and emotional and mental wellbeing then it becomes much easier to do this. When we are balanced and coming from our true self then we radiate positivity, we can see that difficulties are blessings in disguise, and we can lead by example.

“This festival will share examples of yoga, dance, music, art and song, with the aim of helping us to better see the light that lives within us, to see what we are capable of, to make us stronger, physically, emotionally and mentally.

“If we want to create a more sustainable world, as well as nurturing ourselves, we need to nurture new ways of producing, of building, of feeding ourselves and others. We need to build and strengthen communities.

“This event offers the opportunity to learn from the wisdom of others, to find out about practices or methods we have never heard of before. It will allow us to ask questions and to become more aware of what’s possible as we move to a more sustainable existence.”

Subjects and activities would range from holistic beekeeping to eco-construction, from zumba to yoga, from children’s drumming to plant-based food.