I was at this festival for six of the eight days (I arrived pre-dawn Tuesday morning). I'm also in one of the photos (I'm the base in the acro yoga pose). The

I was at this festival for six of the eight days (I arrived pre-dawn Tuesday morning). I'm also in one of the photos (I'm the base in the acro yoga pose). The tone and content of this article have nearly zero in common with the tone and content of this festival. What I saw was a warm, welcoming, well-read, sophisticated, diverse group of people focused on learning, doing, and playing. The tech talks were as good as a tech conference. The gardening and permaculture talks were as good as a WOOF seminar. The political talks were as diverse and compelling as a beltway nonprofit convention. And yet, all these things occurred in one week at one festival. Joel Salatin's keynote was particularly awesome. Patrick Byrne and Lyn Ulbricht were also very good. At my talk on mesh networking, which was supposed to be introductory, the crowd well overflowed the tent and was incredibly sophisticated, having already read up on IPv6, CA's, DNS, and a bunch of other tangentially related topics. There were hundreds of children playing all kinds of engaging, self-organized games throughout every day across the entire festival grounds, including the biggest and most passionate game of humans vs. zombies I've seen outside a university campus. :-) There were also classes and workshops for children all day every day. The kids weren't "wandering around the festival" as the article puts it, but in fact were an integral part of it. The level of debauchery and intoxication was far, far lower than a typical music festival. Yes, there was lots and lots of cannabis consumption. However, I didn't see a single person who was incapacitated (or even impaired) from drug use, including alcohol, which for a 2,000 person outdoor festival is unusual. This was a great festival and a very healthy experience for me. I highly suggest attendance.