{"id":6611,"date":"2014-07-21T12:49:14","date_gmt":"2014-07-21T18:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6611"},"modified":"2014-07-22T12:10:43","modified_gmt":"2014-07-22T18:10:43","slug":"beltania-festival-moves-closer-to-the-capitol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6611","title":{"rendered":"Beltania Festival Moves Closer to the Capitol"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Maypole<\/a>

Maypole procession 2011 (Photo by Robin Vinehall).<\/p><\/div>\n

It was nice while it lasted, having a Pagan festival near enough that, if my schedule was too crowded, I could at least buy a day pass and hear the best concerts.<\/p>\n

Not any more. Beltania<\/a> is pulling out of District 12* (where the coal miners once toiled) and moving closer to the Capitol \u2014 into District 1, you might say.<\/p>\n

From Florence Mountain Park<\/a>, it now goes to La Foret Conference and Retreat Center<\/a> in El Paso County (not burned in the 2013 Black Forest Fire<\/a>), where, according to a news release. there will be “enhanced amenities” and it will be “closer to Denver!”<\/p>\n

Built as a rural estate, La Foret is now owned by the United Church of Christ<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(Colorado is a very centralized state. There is the Denver-plex, and there is The Rest, which exists to keep Denver amused, with green lawns. Not like, for instance, Oregon, where the population is equally concentrated in the Willamette Valley, but at least the seat of government is not in the largest city.)<\/p>\n

Originally, the organizers tried having Beltania at Beltane<\/em>, because that is the ancient Celtic thing to do. But this is Colorado, where I have seen two feet of snow on the ground on May 1st \u2014 or it could be uncomfortably hot. Or both in the same day. I do usually shut off the furnace on May 1, but the wood stove is still used. Spring in Colorado is a “putrid” season, as Dad the forest ranger used to say.<\/p>\n

Then the date started sliding later and later, so that in 2015 it will start on May 14th. At least there is some bioregional wisdom in that decision.. At worst it might be rainy.A September festival would be more predictable weather-wise, but it would not have ancient Celtic precedent?<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, I have coal to dig.<\/p>\n

* Movie reference<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was nice while it lasted, having a Pagan festival near enough that, if my schedule was too crowded, I could at least buy a day pass and hear the best concerts. Not any more. Beltania is pulling out of District 12* (where the coal miners once toiled) and moving closer to the Capitol \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23,127],"class_list":["post-6611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-colorado","tag-festivals"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1ID","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1290,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1290","url_meta":{"origin":6611,"position":0},"title":"A Pagan Festival Just up the Road","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this month, I was reading the Ca\u00f1on City Daily Record\u2014a humdrum piece about a city council meeting in the nearby town of Florence\u2014when this jumped out at me:\"We are welcoming to a great variety of spiritual seekers who would classify themselves in many ways, including alternative spirituality, metaphysical, holistic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5276,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5276","url_meta":{"origin":6611,"position":1},"title":"The Green Man: A Symbol of Ethnic Resistance?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Green man masks are a staple seller on Merchants' Row at any Pagan festival. I found a weather-resistant example at Beltania a couple of years ago, and now it hangs by the front door. As Paul Kingsnorth writes in Aeon: There are plenty of hypotheses [about his origin], and it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"England\"","block_context":{"text":"England","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=england"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn-imgs.aeonmagazine.com\/images\/2012\/10\/The-Green-Man-Norwich.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4198,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4198","url_meta":{"origin":6611,"position":2},"title":"It’s Time for my Winter Coat . . .","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":". . . at the Beltania festival, where the temperature is about 45\u00b0 F with rain now and again. I spent the morning at one of the volunteer fire department's monthly training day, helping more people become familiar with the whole process of drafting water from a\u00a0 creek (hydrants? we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7836,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7836","url_meta":{"origin":6611,"position":3},"title":"Grappling with Workshops and Festival Culture","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this week I sent in my workshop descriptions to the Heartland Pagan Festival, whose organizers kindly invited me to present. Now I get to be anxious for two months \u2014 can I do it? My experiences with turning my own writing into festival material has been, let's say, sort\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"heartland","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/heartland-126x150.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2634,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2634","url_meta":{"origin":6611,"position":4},"title":"After the Beltane Festival","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Kinesthetic religion: my left arm was a little sore on Sunday from helping to carry the Maypole in procession\u2014a pine trunk the size of a smallish telephone pole, ridden by a zaftig May Queen. And yes, we heard every ribald variation on \"riding the pole\" shouted from the onlookers. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Beltane\"","block_context":{"text":"Beltane","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=beltane"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8008,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8008","url_meta":{"origin":6611,"position":5},"title":"Celebrating Spring, Red Rocks, and Wine","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I look outside today and see a white landscape, with light snow falling and a couple of hungry humingbirds huddled on the sugar-water feeder like barflies staring into their whiskey glasses. Yes, it's a typical May Day in the Colorado foothills. Is any surprise that Colorado's biggest public Beltane festival\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bennett Price","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Bennett-Price.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Bennett-Price.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Bennett-Price.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6611"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6621,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6611\/revisions\/6621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}