Our next community was Living Waters. We arrived there weeks later than anticipated due to them postponing our arrival several times due to a lack of WWOOF space: apparently there were three Israeli WWOOFers there who liked it so much they weren't leaving, which sounded promising at least, though a little frustrating. Living Waters had a Pagan festival being held on their property coming up which I really wanted to be there for, as I thought the preparation work would be interesting; not to mention the festival itself. Just before we were about to give up and leave Denmark we were told Living Waters could finally take us - despite the Israelis still being there.
Living Waters at first glance appeared a lot more raw and unstructured than the Wolery. And it was. The land was, although near the centre of town, a lot less 'managed' or developed than the Wolery's. There were fewer houses and other infrastructure, and even a few car wrecks for good measure. Though development was in progress.
The centrepiece of the Living Waters was a big building that had originally been built as a big dryer for herbs, but was now housed a flat, meeting and teaching rooms, a workshop and performance space. The building had been built partially with funding from the Government after their application to build a dryer won over another local submission by a consortium of growers. That the building had never been finished or used as a dryer was a sore point amongst many or the town, which still as a result had no commercial drying facility. Members of Living Waters claim the reson the dryer was not completed was not all funding promised was made available.
Of interest was a rift between its members and those of the Wolery. Rather than being bound by the commonality of their both being intentional eco-communities within the same town, they were divided by philosophical and social specifics, and by personalities. Also of interest was a former Wolery communard who had lived there ever since separating from his partner, who still lived in his former community.
Due to the Israeli WWOOFers still being at the community Molly and I have to sleep in our van, which is okay with us, but get to use the flat's kitchen and toilet facilities in the community hall (the building that would be a dryer). Due to all the work going on at the community, both in infrastructure and in prep for the festival, the roads and car-parks are very boggy; so we do our best to find a park for our van on a daily basis that wont see us getting up in the morning and alighting into ankle-deep mud.
Every morning at Living Waters starts with a hot breakfast at our hosts' house, and with the other WWOOFers. Then off to work. The work was varied and most times interesting and rewarding - largely due to the festival. My biggest project was working with a local builder and supporter of the community to build a stone-wall retained earth stage in front of the community hall. The large boulders and earth was moved by excavator (which was bought by one of the new soon-to-be communards for all the upcoming development of the land), but much of the other work was manual and laborious, such as breaking and positioning the rocks for the retaining wall. Other work included, and varied from, cleaning land of industrial and green waste to building or fixing props for the festival's dance party.
Unlike at the Wolery, communards at Living Waters have title ownership of their piece of land. Finally, after many years, the community land was being devided up and allocated to members, many of whom had invested much earlier, but seen no return. Some were receiving land - a spot in the community - instead of their investment returned as there was no money to give. For all spoken to, it appeared that this allocation and development of land and community was very late coming, and even now somewhat adhoc and unfocussed.
Our hosts were great on a personal level, but work allocation and management was very unfocused. Much of it therefore fell into the hands of a would- or soon-to-be communard (the same one who had bought the excavator); who really should have been, or should be in the future should he finally move in, be tasked with the job of managing WWOOFing and WWOOFers at the community.
When the festival time finally came round, major works were taking place right to the very last second and beyond. But all was well and the festival went ahead seamlessly. Except for poor turnout. Members of the wider Denmark community started to trickle in, but once in there was nothing really to keep them there, so they left which in turn made the place look dead and uninspiring for the next visitors - and so it went on. Market spaces were unorganised, dull and few. Entertainment was scarce and disorganised, and relied heavily on buskers and alike. And many stall-holders and musicians whom they 'expected' to be there weren't. And not because they were unreliable but as it turns out, because they weren't invited. Turns out they were just 'expected' to turn up and participate/contribute once they knew the event was on and, moreover, there was genuine disappointment and a sense of being let down expressed by the organisers and hosts at this failure - despite their not having actively sought there involvement. All in all the festival looked to be a disorganised and ill-attended failure. But night finally rolls on and things look better.
At dusk their is a burning man ceremony. At this point the crowd is more numerous and settled. Upon reflection it was the earlier lack of scheduled events that contributed greatly to the festivals inability to hold patrons: if everyone arrived at a single given time for a particular event, the place would be busier and more lively at that time and thus more likely to keep peoples' interest and patronage. But now there was a focusing event, and a critical mass was finally being achieved.
Once the burning man ceremony was complete, the night time festivities (a dance party in the hall, and a bar and bands outside) roll on. Numbers and enthusiasm are up, and this part of the festival looks to be an emotional success, even if not a financial one. My recollections start to get hazy hereon, but the police did ultimately (and rudely and aggressively) shut down the party in the wee hours, and Molly and I woke very sore heads.
Festival over, it was now time for Molly and I to move onto our next WWOOF and community.
