Stones, colors, music, and fun, oh my! The Pagan community of Southeast Iowa gathered in Burlington’s Dankwardt Park on Saturday for a day filled with spirituality, workshops, music, and fun for the whole family. Vendors came from all over, including some from Fort Madison and even Des Moines.
Lydia Gittings, a coordinator of the event, told us, “We have it here (Dankwardt Park) because we want people to stumble upon us. We want people to understand what we do and what we don’t do.” Lydia is the owner of The Broom Closet and Healing Haven here in Burlington. It has been dubbed her “One stop Juju shop.”
Healing Haven, located at 1110 Agency St. in Burlington
In their fifth year of operation, they are much bigger than their first festival in 2014. Lydia said, “I had eight vendors, two didn’t show up. Now look at my vendors.” As well as a growing vendor list, the festival has taken donations to different community organizations. Past organizations they have collected money for are the homeless shelter and the animal shelter, and this year’s donations will go to Homestead 1839.
Homestead 1839 is a nonprofit farm that operates to give those serving community service a chance to learn how to work a farm to fulfill requirements. The food they grow is sold out of a produce stand, and any extra food they have is taken to food pantries.
The range of workshops at this year’s festival went from the Basics of Paganism to Rocks to Runes. There was even a musical performance by Mama Gina, a traveling Bard and Folk Artist.
