Meet the Buddhafield Base Team

What is your role at Buddhafield?

I have several roles including overall communications and admin manager for Buddhafield Festival and for wider Buddhafield, organiser for the Village family-friendly retreat, and project lead for Buddhafield Base.

How did you get involved with Buddhafield?

I first went to Buddhafield Festival with my son in 2015. My background is in event work, but it wasn’t possible to return to that in the same way after I became a parent. I missed festivals and was looking for something child-friendly and with a strong sense of community. I loved the festival, but it was really when I went to the Village family-friendly retreat the next year that I felt like I had arrived at a place that I could be involved with for years to come. I became the organiser for that event and then took over from the previous admin manager for wider Buddhafield in early 2020 – which turned out to be a very interesting year to be working for an outdoor events company as the pandemic started just a few months later.

What’s your role now?

I took on the role of project lead for Buddhafield Base in October 2021. The project was fast gaining momentum and needed support to take things to the next level. As the project lead, my role was really to find that support from volunteers, experts and new team members and help it all point in the same direction.

What is the most important thing that Buddhafield Base is offering the world now?

Alternative ideas and a sense of being able to regenerate – personally, ecologically, socially. We want to offer people the resources to restore themselves and reconnect with a sense of hope and resilience for whatever is coming next.

Which of the four values of Buddhafield Base (authentic community, meaningful work, care for land, celebration imagination creativity)  is most important to you and why?

I want us as a society to see imagination and creativity as important skills that will help us to find original paths away from many of the difficulties we are facing. Seeing our creative lives as trivial or something that we get around to once we’ve finished doing the ‘real’ work often leaves us unmotivated, uninspired, and disconnected. I’m committed to the idea that there are alternative ways of being if we support people’s instincts toward new and elegant solutions.

Tell us about one of your Buddhafield high points.

The team gatherings are the high points of my year in spring and autumn. They bracket the outdoor, public events season. They’re a great chance to see other people who have been working in Buddhafield over the year. I’m usually working at most of the other things that we do so these are the events where I try to rest and receive.

How about a low point?

The pandemic was a challenging time. We had to pivot to online events and look at budget cuts all over the place. We came through it though and managed to hold a conscious campsite in 2020 before returning to in-person events with 2(!) Buddhafield Festivals in 2021. I’m proud of what we achieved – but it was hard at times.

Do you have any Buddhafield jokes?

Probably – but I’m one of those people who can’t remember jokes. I find humour in a lot of things though – so that’s how I make up for it.

Can you share something unexpected about yourself or your life?

I’m a huge fan of cheesy Christmas songs – the kind of ones that a lot of people either hate or pretend they hate. Think ‘Now That’s What I Call Christmas’ volumes 1,2&3. They bring on the nostalgia in a big way and make me smile.