Waking Life

07 Jun 2023 - 12 Jun 2023

Monte da Pedra, Portugal

Waking Life is an exercise in world building. It is a space for artistic experimentation, spirited self-expression and imagineering of the type of society we could cultivate if there was freedom to diverge from default reality. Concretely, an annual festival summons the wider community to a weeklong peak experience in the summer, funneling eclectic music & art as well as countercultural workshops, performances & more undefinable formats of human interaction into the arid landscape of Alentejo.Aside from festival production, the other 359 days of the year are dedicated to a comprehensive rewilding and land regeneration project that is reintroducing endemic ecosystems while bringing about ecological resilience. Spiraling out from the stewardship of the land, events, meet-ups and exchanges are organised with the local community to cross-pollinate daring ideas & ideals, hybridize siloed cultures, and experiment with possible models of new rurality.