In my ramblings, I had the good fortune to meet a man named Tony Kail who is an occult crimes investigator. He presents workshops for law enforcement groups, and because of his expertise, he has been called into police investigations many times. He called me to ask a few questions that were pertinent to an investigation he was working on. I was very impressed with his knowledge of the occult and religious practices, even the obscure ones. So I called him and asked if he would be willing to come to our festival and present a workshop. He agreed and became our first headliner. Tony is a non-Pagan but is Pagan-friendly enough to come play in the woods with us. He is a brave fellow as well as a knowledgeable one.

You have to be determined to have people and entertainment at your festival that is top-notch. To do this you must become an unabashed self-promoter. You must be willing to ask anyone you think will add to your festival to come and be a part of it. You must not be shy. So what if you get turned down a time or two, what is the worse thing that can happen? Will it kill you? Nope, it will not. I promise that you will get more “yes” than “no” answers from the people you approach.

The really good news is that as your festival grows larger and becomes better known, you won’t have to beat the bushes so hard to find people who are willing to be a part of your festival. They will find you. As we have become better known, groups have approached us. One year a Pagan women’s group wanted to have an ice cream social to raise money for fire fighting equipment to replace what was lost by the New York City Fire Department on 9/11. That was a good cause, and we agreed to let them hold their event. (Besides, ice cream is always high on my personal list.) As we had no official lunch period that year, the ice cream social took place during the breaks in the afternoon. The women’s group took care of finding ice cream donors and hauling all of it to the site. They ended up getting Baskin and Robbins—yum. This was a win-win situation for everyone; us, festivalgoers, the women’s group and the fire department of New York City. As we have gotten larger, we have had many musical groups and individuals contact us about entertaining at PUF, and merchants and workshop facilitators as well.

There are a lot of people right in your own back yard that will be willing to help you with your festival, Pagan and non-Pagan alike. All you have to do is go and stalk…I mean hunt them, and place your request before them. Many will cooperate. Have faith.