After 22 years, the Michigan music festival hosted by Seth Bernard staged its last hurrah, with dozens of performances on multiple stages, creating lifelong memories. Recap, photos and video at Local Spins.
Passion, Emotion, Gratitude: All part of Harvest Gathering 2024. (Photos/Anna Sink)
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After the echoes of music, laughter and conversation from the final Earthwork Harvest Gathering died away last weekend, volunteer and longtime attendee Chad Michael Wedeven put things into perspective:
“Up till 4 a.m., singing hearts out in the barn or around the fire, but now life returns to normal, and we must find ways to bring the spirit of this place into our everyday lives. Earthwork Harvest Gathering has been a turning point in the calendar since 2001,” he wrote on Facebook.
“But now we take that spirit of cooperation, collaboration and lifelong learning out into a world where we have to balance our realities and our ideals, while knowing we aren’t returning here like this again to refill our cups to the brim with love, light and music. … Life goes on. It’s up to you to make the most of it. Thank you for being a part of our story.”
Molly: Firing up the Cedar Stage on Saturday. (Photo/Anna Sink)
That 22-year story continued being told by Harvest Gathering attendees after three days of performances by 72 different acts on several stages, along with workshops and other events, led by Earthwork Music collective founder and chief organizer Seth Bernard (who performed several times with different groups).
Mystie Beckwith called the festival site “one of our favorite spots on the entire Earth right there on that beautiful peaceful farm. Thank you to the Bernard family for the graciousness and for hosting us all these years and all of the work the volunteers have put into this wonderful happening, may we spread that love out into the world in every way, on every day.”
“Harvest has always held a special place in my heart,” noted Jessica Hebert. “I had the opportunity to bring my kids, uncle and friends who have never been. We all had a blast. Lots of laughs, hugs, tears and smiles.”
HIGHLIGHTS GALORE IN THE ‘MEETING OF HEARTS AND SOULS’
Drummer Marc Alderman of Traverse City’s Soul Patch said the festival had been part of his life “a couple decades now, which is crazy. … Since then, I have gotten to play with all sorts of cool people. So long, Harvest Gathering. It was a joy.”
Filled with joy and tears, the final soiree (after Bernard announced that financial losses and drops in attendance since the COVID pandemic had forced the decision) also likely lived up to the advance billing as one of the best ever.
Seth Bernard: ‘Pour the honey of our hearts into our community.’ (Photo/Anna Sink)
Local Spins photographer Anna Sink noted that themes of “love, peace, gratitude, healing, forgiveness, community, ancestry, Mother Earth, water protection and new beginnings” weaved their way through performances and conversations throughout the weekend outside Lake City.
Bernard urged festivalgoers to “take sanctuary in our shared humanity,” “to pour the honey of our hearts into our community” and allow the gathering to be “a council, a circle, a meeting of hearts and souls in time on the Earth.”
And so it was, with highlights that included a bittersweet-yet-upbeat romp from the Airborne or Aquatic super-group (featuring two festival organizers bringing an end this year to popular events, Bernard and Hoxeyville Music Festival’s Jake Robinson), one of progressive neosoul band Earth Radio’s most impressive, fan-involving performances ever (“like dancing in your grandma’s living room on silky-soft shag rug except you’re outside on the farm barefoot in the grass”), Nicholas James & The Bandwagon’s nod to Steppin’ In It on the Hill Stage, and Kalamazoo hip hop cellist Jordan Hamilton’s tears-producing, gratitude-filled sets.
Then there was the strolling charm of Great Lakes Brass, Moss Manor’s heartfelt collective energy, the inspiring Water Blessing Ceremony and memorials to loved ones lost, the psychedelically ethereal set from Desmond Jones and the campfire/barn jams, including a late-night Sunday sing-along session that revisited favorites and classics from the past amid a homey atmosphere.
Through stifling heat, sunshine and rain, the Harvest Gatherers danced, hugged, applauded, collaborated and communed in the spirit of a season- and era-ending jubilee quite unlike any other. It was a fond farewell, and now, citing a classic 2014 song by Bernard, it’s time to “Rest Awhile.”
PHOTO GALLERY: Earthwork Harvest Gathering 2024, Lake City
Photos by Anna Sink
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