🔥 2021 has been the year of the campfire here at Tentshare. We’ve had Full Moon campfire gatherings, campsite campfires for cooking food and keeping warm as the sun drops and garden campfires, just because. Nevertheless, the most amazing campfires we experienced this year were at 💫Medicine Festival💫.

Medicine Festival’s ethos is closely aligned with Tentshare’s values, so we were thrilled to be invited to offer a tent rental service to the Medicine festival attendees this year. Tentshare provided tents for the festival attendees to pick up and pitch. These salvaged, repaired and cleaned tents were supplied by the wonderful Camplight corporation. Renting a tent to pick up on arrival reduces travel costs, tent waste and a tree was planted for every tent returned at the end of the festival.

Tentshare offered a friendly face and somewhere to drop bags and have a sit down on arrival. We also created an onsite repair or replacement service plus chairs, tents, mats and sleeping bags available to rent throughout the festival.

Rebecca decided to take this working opportunity to find out more about this intriguing ‘Festival for People and Planet.’:

“Arriving at Medicine Festival before it opened gave me insight into the powerful community energy this festival creates as the attendees arrived. On the first day, I was working to ensure the tent renters were happily united with their rented tents. Once this was complete, I was keen to absorb the many offerings of this beautiful festival.

Medicine Festival promised to be a festival unlike any other. With an unusual no alcohol policy, compost toilets and vegetarian-only food, I wondered whether I would enjoy this festival vibe.

The location is glorious, settled amongst an ancient English forest. Surrounding the festival’s central area within the forest, there is a lake for swimming plus meandering walkways to ponder along.

The first thing that I felt more than noticed was a truly palpable energy building as the community

arrived and landed. This energy hummed away during daylight hours but, my goodness, once the sun dropped and the fires were lit, the whole experience levelled up a notch. As the darkness fell in the evening, sacred fires were lit throughout the woods for people to discover, glowing golden and sparking through the trees.

Campfires are one of the most ancient of human rituals. A way to come together and share warmth and connection. I felt that these fires were a key element of nourishing the essence or Source of Medicine Festival. In the evenings the fires merged the ethereal and the earthly, drawing strangers towards them.

The burned wood and smoke, the crackling and purposeful human voices. Both warming and intense, terrifying and uplifting, but deeply, deeply powerful.  Around each fire, many events took place, some mesmerising and inspiring others, sacred with chanting, then later mystical ancient folk tales delivering hope and deep wisdom. Over the weekend I experienced a unifying collection of performances presented by skilled artists who had travelled from across the globe to share their wisdom. The experience felt like a gateway to some ancient knowledge, nudging long lost memories of my ancestors sitting around a fire for protection, ritual and light. I felt closer to the Earth and all that She provides for us.

The Fire itself is treated with respect, as an entity in its own right. As such, each fire is granted a Fire Keeper.

The Fire Keeper alone is entrusted to tend the flames of the sacred fire. Over the weekend they held this space and guided their fireside community towards connection through their communion with the fire.

This wonderous festie exceeded my expectations; there were plant-based mood-enhancing tinctures available, the food was incredible (especially the food provided by the festival resident chef). Even the toilets were less smelly than the standard rather nasty portaloos (and rather beautiful when lit up at night). The Medicine festival proved that an earth-friendly gathering is not only achievable but has now set a rather high bar for all festival experiences.”