The second annual Great Gathering bloomed once more at Goekenland, where artists emerged each evening to share their varied talents under stars hidden by light from a full moon's watch. On Saturday's opening ceremony beside the land's familiar lake, tents dotted the shore, ready for the weekend to unfurl as a two-day reverie.
Events drifted through the days: a foraging nature walk, a wild kitchen workshop where earth became sustenance, poetry readings that hung in the air, puppet shows and comedic performances, all crowned by musical acts that carried through every day and tied it all together.
This dream required more than two days to weave into being though. Ashley Goeken opened her arms and her land, offering her grounds as the kind of host you'd find once in a lifetime if you're lucky. The land itself called to artisans and outdoor souls, those seeking connection with kindred spirits. I loved the wonderful seclusion, the way time seemed to pause and breathe.
Though just outside Chicago, Goekenland feels borrowed from another era.
The event didn't simply spring from the earth, though at moments it seemed close enough to. There's an aesthetic here that slumbers through the seasons, resurfacing in autumn like a patient, beautiful creature. Much of this rebirth flows through Victoria Happ, the producer, dreamer, bestie to Ashley and Chris Goeken. Victoria carries her own gravitational pull, the same steady force that shaped this land into the place where these memories get made. Her band of bright-hearted friends lent themselves to her vision, drawn by her spirit and purpose.
This "Gathering" is indeed for those who've waited, who've held space for its return.
But it's the gathering of minds like Victoria's and Ashley's that transforms waiting into wonder, making this something to anticipate every year from now on.
Like last year, this event asks for multiple tellings to capture even fragments of what unfolded.