Fest300
Why Fest300?
The more virtual we get, the more ritual we need.
Our need for in-person human connection is a reaction to how obsessed we’ve become with our iPhones and Facebook. In his world travels, hotelier Chip Conley found that there is a unique “collective effervescence” to be experienced at festivals. Yet, when he looked for a place that documented the most diverse, iconic gatherings and spectacles of our time, there wasn’t one. He wanted to see a beautifully curated site that offered a window into the living human museum of festival life. Fest300 was born.
Photo credit: Nick Gamman
Why 300 festivals?
As we started evaluating the best festivals in the world, we found that most resources cataloguing these events had between 100 and 500 listings. As we made our own lists of favorites, we hovered in the range of 300 which felt like a workable list. The list is large enough to be both inspirational and aspirational. Fortune lists the 500 largest companies, and Forbes the 400 richest people in the world. We chose 300 experiences as the right number to capture the wide diversity and best festivals the world has to offer.
Why this particular 300?
Why does a museum curator choose particular art pieces and display them in a specific way? At Fest300, we're curating experiences. We didn’t want to be too dependent on one particular genre (like arts or spiritual festivals), particular part of the world, or time of year. Truth is, we could have focused solely on European summer music festivals and had an impressive list of 300. There are hundreds of thousands of festivals - many just being hatched, some more than 2,000 years old. We intend to publish an annual list and crowdsource the final ten percent each year. We will present 270 festivals in early 2014 and then invite you to join us in selecting the final 30 to complete the 300. Our annual Best of Fest subset highlights what we believe to be the 50 most influential and interesting festivals on the planet, again with an eye on diversity. Creating your Bucket List? Consider some of the Best of Fest.
Why Chip Conley?
Did he wake up one day with a calling to be the world’s leading expert on festivals? Actually, yes, it sort of happened that way. Chip had an epiphany when he realized he’d spent 25 years of his life focused on creating “joie de vivre” at work with the boutique hotel company he founded. When someone asked him why he loved both Bali and Burning Man so much, he realized that his cultural curiosity led him to travel the world seeking out parades, pilgrimages, parties, and anything that created the magic of collective joy in a festival format. Fest300 allows Chip to be a new kind of concierge: part travel pro, cultural anthropologist, and armchair psychologist, helping people to discover the festival that may create the conditions for a transformational experience. He spent the first half of his life working Joie de Vivre. Now he's spending the second half living joie de vivre. And he hopes Fest300 brings you some joy, too.
Why should you join us?
Given the momentum of growth in festival culture around the world, we believe there’s a nascent movement afoot. While Fest300.com is a URL, more and more people are seeking an IRL (In Real Life) experience that gives them a sense of meaning. Being culturally curious creates a more resilient and robust life and, as a planet, it creates a safer and saner world. We invite you to join our community and attend at least one festival per year - preferably one a little out of your comfort zone because it’s on that edge that our personal growth and insight flourishes. We also welcome your photo "festimonials" and your suggestions for festivals we should cover in our Fest300 magazine. Let’s go!
www.fest300.com
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