Kerrville Folk Festival, Texas
Posted by TinTexas on Mar 30, 2008 · Member since Aug 2006 · 1216 posts
They've got the performance schedule up:
http://www.kerrville-music.com/2008schedules.htm
I'm hoping that DH and I can attend Days 9-11, Fri. May 30 - Sun, June 1. It pends on when DH finishes his school year. Our other choice will be the last days of the festival, June 6 - 8. There are really cool performers both weekends. The main "attraction" of the festival is the attendees ourselves. The music after the shows around the campfire and just making new friends.
I hope some of my fellow vegexans can be there too. I know that Kelsi will be off on tour conquering the music world and we'll lift a glass (plastic mug) in her and her BF's honor and send them some Kerrvertness telepathically! :D
DH and I are attending the Kerrville Folk Festival May 23-26 (Memorial Day weekend). I'll be wandering around wearing my "Secret Society of Vegans" fidel cap. If anyone else is attending that weekend and wants to meet up, let me know. ;)b
There's a river near the site of the Festival and I'm thinking of doing a variation of the Buddhist release cermony. I got the idea from the book Animal Grace: Entering a Spirtual Relationship With Our Fellow Creatures by Mary Lou Randour, Ph.D.:
"The animal-releasing ceremonies of Buddhism provide another vivid example of ahimsa in action. The origins of these ceremonies come from Buddhist scriptures, which encourage the rescue of nonhuman animals. The great Buddhist leader Ashoka, an Indian emperor from 265 to 238 B.C., followed the injunction to liberate and protect all living beings. He issued a “Pillar Edict” making it illegal to kill certain animals and exhorting his followers from injuring or killing any living being. Japanese emperors in ancient times also issued decrees liberating animals, as did those in China.
In fact, until the Chinese Communist revolution in 1949, the practice of releasing animals was common. Many large monasteries in China would keep a pool of water for released creatures near their main gate. The pious would drop live fish they had rescued from fishmongers into this pool. Cows, pigs, and other land animals were rescued and sheltered in stables behind the monastery. At times, thousands oof animals were liberated en masse as offerings to the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Kuan-yin.(19)
The Buddhist release ceremonies are still practiced today. Roshi Philip Kapleau introduced this practice to the Rochester Zen Center, where he resides. Other groups also have adopted this custom, such as a Buddhist sangha, or community, in Vancouver, whose members, on the last Sunday of every month, visit the market in Chinatown, carrying a large bucket. Walking through the aisles of the market, they select sea creatures who seem healthy enough to survive release.
By the end of their mission, they have collected clams, angel fish, goldfish, lobsters, and crabs. Before their release, the sea animals travel to the Buddhist temple, where a short ceremony is performed. The Great Compassion mantra is recited and they are blessed. Then they are driven to a nearby inlet where they gain their freedom.(20)"
I'd use minnows because they will be the mostly likely to survive and they are about all I'd be able to afford to buy and liberate. I'd like to be able to ransom one of the captive white-tail deer that are being held for breeding purposes at the local ranches but I don't have the big bucks ($$$, bad pun) to do that!