Healers — Festival Coordinators

 

Hello

Lots of Love and Healing Greetings!

Thank you for your interest in working at this year’s Buddhafield Festival in our beautiful HealingGarden.

We hope to be able to answer nearly all of your questions in the information below, but do be in touch if having read it, you still have a query. We’ll try to get back to you as soon as we’re available.

The dates for your diary are:

• Arrive/set up Monday 10th July
• Festi starts     Wednesday 12th July at the noon HEALING GARDEN MIDDAY MEETING
• Festi ends      Sunday 16th July at the 6pm Garden Party
• Love&Leave Monday 17th July

You need to be on site from Monday 10th to Monday 17th July to join our HealingGarden.

 

HEALING GARDEN REQUIREMENTS

Firstly, to tell you what we need for you to be able to work with us;

• You must be Qualified and Insured for all the therapies you want to offer.
• We must receive scanned copies of your qualifications and insurance BEFORE we can process your application.  You must be insured for all the dates you are working onsite. Please be sure that your insurance scan clearly shows dates covering your time working with us and what treatments your insurance covers.
• You must fill in and send your Application Form and certificates and  insurance before the end of May.  If you are affiliated to a governing body for your therapy, please provide evidence of your affiliation (e.g. a scan of your membership card).
• You must arrive on Monday 10th July (10am – 10pm)
• You should leave on Monday 17th July (10am – 10pm)
• Variance of these dates will jeopardise your application.
• All healers are required to attend both the MIDDAY MEETING on WEDNESDAY 12th JULY (it’s a nice place to be) and our joyful SUNDAY 16th 6pm GARDEN PARTY, where we ritually close our healing circle and share the Love.  

Please be on time for these two Healing Garden community gatherings as otherwise everyone is kept boringly waiting…

• You agree to the hours of work and all requirements of the HealingGarden as requested, as well as the rules of the festival - including no drink, no drugs, and no dogs. Take a look at what we’re about.   "Get into the Spirit ... but Leave the Spirits at Home"
• While working, you act professionally, following your own and your therapy’s code of ethics and in accordance with all that Buddhafield aims to uphold, including any legal Covid related criteria.
• You are in agreement with the dana/suggested donations system Buddhafield strives to maintain and support our endeavours to work with generosity (see below for details).
• We advise you to bring with you a Risk Assessment for your personal work space and  treatments offered.

 

 

We’d like to give you all the information you’re likely to need before we get to the field, so that we can all enjoy the festival.

Please read the following before contacting us with any enquiries. I know there’s loads of it, but most of your questions are answered. xx

If having read through the info, you still have a question, do feel free to ask us - healers@buddhafield.com We will get back to you as soon as we’re able - we appreciate your patience.

So....

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

• The HealingGarden offers complementary health to the festival. We focus on one to one bodywork and practices which are in accordance with dharmic principles. We aim to offer as much variety as possible, so some therapies will have a limited capacity.
• If you wish to offer Yoga, TaiChi or other group sessions please follow the appropriate link (workshops) from the website (please state that you've already been in touch with the HealingGarden.) Please be aware that all yoga places are likely to be full.
• We do have a HealingGarden workshop space, which is primarily for Healers who are also offering one to one sessions. There may occasionally be some, but very few exceptions to this. The HealingGarden workshop space does need to be considerate of everyone around the area. For this reason any potentially loud or disruptive workshops, however wonderful, will need to arrange an alternative workshop space before the start of the festival. Again, follow the appropriate link from the website.
• Please know that we ask all the healers to work an (approx.) minimum of 5hrs each day on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday; Wednesday afternoon is optional.
• Please know that you are free to choose your own hours, although we ask that you finish by 5.30pm on Sunday, so as to get to our Garden Party on time. We highly suggest you fit your appointments around the things you would like to participate in. Our festival has much to offer, so do take advantage of it by considering your timetable with care.

MEDITATE upon it and ENJOY! 

• Equally, you are of course welcome to work more than the requested 5hrs, but please, heed this warning, don’t work so hard as to burn out. All work and no play makes you... exhausted. So don’t go killing yourself to heal others!
• We do not run a clinic style booking system; we intentionally leave it to the healers how they choose to work. Most bring booking sheets or boards to place outside their treatment space.  If you need to make yourself a booking board there will be wood available onsite, but you will need to bring any paint, pens etc depending on your needs.
• Payment is arranged between yourself and your clients. We ask all HealingGarden healers to work for donations, with no fixed prices displayed.  We suggest asking for a donation of £10 for each 15mins of treatment / £40 per hour. 

Please consider this before applying to join our HealingGarden, as we are very much operating from a generous heart - if people are able and choose to give more than the suggested donation, we all welcome it, but you as a therapist need to be willing to work for our suggested dana rate. Many people coming to the festival are working for "support" within Buddhist Right Livelihood organisations, so please be aware that most of the field might not be able to afford treatments in any other place - so let's give what we can and be open to receive. Some may not be able to afford the suggested dana rate, please be prepared to give what you are able to and discuss with your clients accordingly. Dana comes from a generous heart. At the end of the festival, Manth and the team will ask you for a donation, on behalf of Buddhafield. (details below)

 

 

* We ask that you bring your own work space; yurt, geodesic dome, bell or frame tent, etc and decorate with enchanting organic style and festival charm... Please bring plenty of plants to decorate our HealingGarden.

Further Details:

The more beautiful your structure, the more likely you are to be offered a 'top pitch', though final say is with Manth and the team - and of course the 'Health & Safety' and festival Layout crew. Preference for the best plots will go to structures such as yurts, tipis and geo-domes. We will then give preference to canvas structures and canvas tents, purely for eco-aesthetic reasons. Please note that in our mandala community, every space gives you the opportunity to create a top pitch: how appealing it is is up to you!

If you don’t have a structure but have been before, maybe now is a good time to invest in your working environment. Go on, value yourself and your work enough to consider it. Otherwise you will need to beg or borrow (but not steal) one!

Gazebos: Gazebos are not very practical structures to work in, unless everyday is blissful summer sunshine. Unfortunately, our weather has not always been heavenly, but often full of earthly elements. In past years when it got too wet and windy for anyone to want a treatment in a draughty, dripping space, the gazebo owners took themselves off to play. But then the wind got windier and Emma and Manth were left to rescue our precious friends from the flaying limbs of the multipeded gazebo beasts. If you have no other option, please make sure you bring plenty of strong rope and heavy duty pegs, as gazebos are prone to fly! And if it gets windy, you need to be around to rescue your own beasts or sadly we will be left with no option but to ban them. Gazeboists, it's up to you to take responsibility for your potential flaying limbs. Regrettably, if Gazebo's are left to the weather, we will be forced to say No More Gazebo's in the Healing Garden - you've been warned! x

So with this in mind, choose your structure accordingly. Beautiful, eco-friendly decoration may boost your chances - HealingGarden colours are Medicine Buddha Blue (the colour of Lapis Lazuli) and White (the colour containing all others and a symbol of purity). Flower tubs and baskets are wonderful. Prayer flags a plenty...

The other thing that may alter your pitch position is your arrival time, although we do spend many hours considerately mapping out our mandala prior to the event. 

• L.E.D. Lights - Solar powered lights are great, but please remember, this is a HealingGarden. Our colours are White and Blue. Please Do NOT have flashing lights. Perpetually flashing lights are not soothing or calming. For some they cause headaches and eye strain - this is not what we want in our peaceful HealingGarden. The gentle glow from fairy lights in the nighttime that create a sense of welcome and delight: that’s what we’re about.
• Communal Om - We additionally offer a communal space for up to four people to work from. Please know that if you are offered one of these places, we provide you with a structure, but you must provide everything else yourself, all that you need, including decorations to make your space look lovely. Priority for these places goes to those new to festival healing, wanting to try it before investing in a treatment space of their own, or those travelling to join us from abroad. This shared environment is Not suitable for talking therapies.
• Please know that mainly due to Health & Safety Regulations and attempting to preserve the beauty of our area, vehicles will not be given permission to park/live in the HealingGarden area. Not even camper vans (but for very occasional, specific exceptions). I'm really sorry if this is awkward for you, but these are the rules we have to adhere to. So nobody will be able to work from a vehicle, and if you wish to sleep in your camper, you will have to park in the healer's live-in vehicle area and have a structure to work from in the HealingGarden.
• Due to weather conditions etc, it may not be possible for you to unload/load your vehicle in the healing area, although there will be a system in place enabling you and all your belongings to arrive in the HealingGarden - this usually involves a wheelbarrow. We’re always happy to hear suggestions of how this might improve. Please have accessible (i.e. pack last) some large ground sheets and waterproof covers to protect your precious belongings if it rains.
• We respectfully ask for your kind cooperation and patience during the set up/tat down, as you will inevitably need to await your turn. We also very much encourage healers to assist and support each other, a little help from those fit and able goes a long way to creating our very precious shared Garden of Healers. So send out prayers and good wishes to your gods and enlightened protectors and to the spirits of the land, for fine weather and all to flow with ease... as we know this helps!  Let us create the Peace and Harmonious community we all long to find in the world.
• If you know you will need assistance to set up your space, please arrange this prior to arrival and we will be as accommodating as we can. If you arrive with a helper who intends to stay on to enjoy the festival, they will of course need their own Ticket, if they do not intend to stay but will assist you onsite, you must let us know their name, to avoid any hassle at the gate and they must leave site on Tuesday, before the festival opens on Wednesday. In the spirit of communal living and sangha friendship, we do encourage all healers to be responsible for themselves and help one another as much as possible. Our community is joyful and harmonious due to this - Sadhu!

 

Comings and Goings – Why it is Important that you arrive on Monday 10th and leave Monday 17th July.

Arriving on Monday gives you time to arrive and enjoy setting up your space at your leisure. You then have the opportunity to get to know your neighbours, meet friends old and new and take advantage of the time for treatment swaps and many a herbal tea. This space to arrive and spend time in a supportive and natural environment is something that Buddhafield offers you, as a thank you for all your efforts. It is also an important time to come together as a community of like-minded individuals wanting to harmonise and make a difference to the well being of the people we meet and to all beings on our shared sacred earth.

Buddhafield also offers you the opportunity to join daily meditation sessions during your set up and tat-down time on site, should you wish to deepen your experience. No experience necessary - for more information, ask any of the team in the field.

We are collectively a healing mandala community...

so How would We like this to be...

 

Please consider the value of this when making your decision to join us.

In this same flavour of community spirit, please realise, it is very disruptive to those healers still working, and clients experiencing treatments, if others around them start packing up on Sunday; banging tent pegs, breaking the circle and leaving. If you have no choice but to go on Sunday, please know that we kindly ask everyone to stay until 8pm, packing up and leaving after the evening Garden Party and not to start quietly packing up until 5pm on Sunday at the earliest. We hope you will appreciate how your decisions affect our shared space and trust that you would want to honour your commitment in joining us. Ideally we ask that you stay until Monday 17th, packing at your leisure and leaving by the evening.

 

DONATIONS TO BUDDHAFIELD FROM OUR HEALING GARDEN

We have always run the open hearted HealingGarden on a dana/donation basis and we are very keen for this to continue. Since Manth and Emma took on coordinating and lightly holding our HealingGarden we offer a great donation each year. We used to offer a few hundred ££, but for the past few years we have consistently given £3,000. In 2019 we contributed £4,000. Let's see if we can be even more generous this year...

Only because of this, I am able to continually request the healers receive a complimentary ticket and vehicle pass, despite all other areas of the festival having restricted ticket allocations. For which we are grateful ~* Thank you kindly. *~ This means we can continue to have our beautiful HealingGarden generating generosity from an ever positive heart chakra. This would not happen without your continued support, generosity and wonderful good work!

A mighty Sadhu Thank You to those of you who have contributed. Let's see what we can add to the pot this year!

So, for Buddhafield to continue to be sustainable, we are suggesting that every therapist working in the HealingGarden offers a contribution of £150 - £200. Of this:-

£169 covers the cost of your ticket

£31/£62 allows your car/live-in vehicle to be carbon neutral (ie we plant trees on your behalf)

So dana of £200 would just cover your cost, if you would like to offer a donation to our charity beyond your expense, we would appreciatively welcome it : )

By joining our HealingGarden you are potentially able to earn £400-£800. Please know that we are asking to receive a suggested minimum donation of £150  from each individual therapist, for us to be sustainable, though we would ask you to consider covering your cost of £168 with the relevant vehicle rate if you value being carbon neutral (which of course you do... right?)

Buddhafield is a charity (Triratna Buddhafield, UK registered charity No. 1108826). To see how we spend your donation, visit the Buddhafield website for details of what we offer…. not to mention the ongoing kit repairs and replacements, vehicle upkeep, tech support, tea during the many meetings! supporting people with their Buddhist practice etc, etc...

(I’m still hoping one year we'll have that team trip to Tibet!)

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

We will have all your documents and applications in by the end of May.

We will process all the applications in June.

We hope to have invitations starting to be sent out around the last week of  June/first week of July.

If there is a clear reason your application will be refused, we will let you know as soon as possible.

We usually have many more applicants than we have Invitations for. Consequently some may not be offered a place despite nothing being wrong with their application. With some it is simply the luck of the draw. Successful applicants will be sent further information and an Invitation.

Without all the required documents, you will not make it onto our Invite list.

Please know that you need an Invitation to come and join our HealingGarden.

*** Do not expect to hear from us until early July ***

We do understand the timing of things is difficult, but we are unlikely to let you know any sooner than this. If we can send the Invitations out sooner, we will. Be assured we are doing our best on your behalf. We always have more applications than spaces/invitations available.

Remember, the more dharmic, varied, positive and creatively enticing your offerings, the more likely you are to be prioritised... bringing lots of small trees and big herbs always wins our hearts.

We very much look forward to hearing from you.

Warm wishes of good health, happiness and sunshine!

the HealingGarden (admin) team xXx

 

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LATEST NEWS

• Peacekeepers has now closed for public applications
• Ticket Office has now closed for public applications