The Wasinga Project was set up in 2012 as an experiment in self-reliant community. Inspired by global festival culture from Hay-on-Wye Festival, Tallberg, TED, Rainbow Gatherings, to Burning Man, the aim is to provide a space for learning, growth, inspiration, awareness and fun. It is, in essence, a cross-generational and cross-cultural community coming together to be and to learn from each other through a shared transformational experience. 

The Wasinga Tribe comes together for a week every August and for smaller gatherings usually around solstices at other times of the year. People who come to Wasinga are amazing doers, thinkers, achievers in their own right, we do not broadcast a list of attendees, for Wasinga is about our community. The Wasingi who washes up the dishes, is as important as the speaker who may have filled a stadium – we are all in it together, to learn together, to transform together and to remember who we are. 

Wasinga aims to counteract the commercial aspect that has crept into so many festivals and gatherings through basing itself on participation, collaboration and a gift economy. What is experience is what is co-created. The gathering is sustainable and at its core is an honoring of the land and its spirits. 

Jenna is honoured to be a Wasinga CIC Director. She co-produced the festival with Josh Dugdale, the estate owner and her mentor until 2016. Her role entailed everything from communications (mail outs, social media etc.), infrastructure, coordination of groups (e.g. kids, food, sustainability), writing the website, procurement of site infrastructure and services, managing the finances (£25k budget) and legal side of things, administering memberships, and running the site during the event. She also chaired the Vision Council and was key in the organic development process of how to organize and evolve a true community and tribe. 

www.wasinga.org