The Fall is full of art and life in Almaguin!

Jillian Dancing to Hawksley Workman’s Autumn’s Here at Restoration Festival 2025

In the last few weeks this little place has been bursting with joyful life. Let’s start with the most recent: Restoration Festival.

I’ve attended 4 of the 5 of these festivals which combine eco education with the performing arts. The first one I attended featured James Gray and Madison Violet. A couple years later year I performed a dance for the Festival called “Roots and Afterword” which is inspired by the life cycle of a dandelion, choreographed by local, Anne-Marie Hood. Another year I accompanied one of Caroline Brooks’ songs during her performance of the Good Lovelies’ song “Young at Heart”—I was the featured dancer in the official music video that year as well! Each year there have been great community vibes during the day where we gather outside to learn from and share our love of nature with an indigenous elder in a beautiful way that feels intimate and productive. We’ve also planted trees!

This year, the featured artist for the festival was Hawksley Workman, a man who’s beginnings were here, who’s music often captures the sense of importance that nature holds in our lives, and who has the hearts of many long time residents here. His voice is absolutely incredible. And as I have witnessed at many of his concerts, he is an honest, funny, creative performer along with Mr. Lonely, who jams along with him with great skill and connection! My husband and I are big fans and have been since high school. One song in particular has been on my mind a lot lately as I work on a new dance creation inspired by my motherhood experience. It was a song that we often sang to our boys as a lullaby, “Autumn’s Here”.

When I saw that he was the featured artist this year I had to share with my friends and event organizers, Colin and Caroline—that this was a sort of magical coincidence—and in response they suggested I take part again this year to accompany the performance of this song! And what a wonderful experience it was! To embody the senses of longing, love, memory, and the projected futures and pasts that this song sparks in me… to the live performance of such a stelar artist… in front of a crowd like this…was unforgettable! I feel so grateful to be able to share this form of expression with the community, and along side artists I’ve admired for 20+ years. A big thanks to Hawksley Workman and Mr. Lonely for trusting that this collaboration would work! I think it hit a number of people in a good way.

I started my Harvest Festival experience with a bit of quiet, found a peaceful spot in nature to be alone, to breathe, and to be grateful for the experience ahead of me.

Now, jump back just weekend earlier, when the sun was again shining down on this beautiful town. Harvest Fest was on, and driving hundreds of people to our area for a different genre of music, but a similar feeling of connection to music and to humanity!

Due to the fabulous Corinne Alice in Wonderland, who organized volunteers to cater in the “Thermadome”, I was able to attend Harvest Festival at Screaming Heads of Midlothian in exchange for serving soup! By her hand, several local ladies got to take part in something really special! Thank you Corinne and Pulled Smokehouse!

The festival is full of art, intension, and really great vibes. An important part of the experience is the booming volume, and while next time I may invest in some of those cool sleek ear plugs that are out now, I wouldn’t want to miss out on that physical sense of music coursing through your body. The DJ’s create a sort of magic that brings you on a journey. In my experience this year, and the one other time I’ve been at the Festival, no matter when I join in the listening, whether part way through a song or at the very start of the set, the DJ gradually brings me in to their wavelength, and I move with them in a dance that sometimes accelerates, sometimes softens, and eventually, the “letting go” happens… and I find myself open to dance the way I love to, a somewhat anonymous dancer in a humongous crowd of colourful people, and sometimes sharing the sense of comradery with friends and strangers who all agree without the use of words—just dancing and smiling faces— that this moment is vibrant. We are alive!!

Hundreds gather here, in the beauty of nature, amongst the mysterious, ominous sculptures of Peter Camani’s property. The sculptures remind us that the human condition of death is universal… and because Harvest Festival installs temporary artwork and costumes and interactions that are so full of life and joy, it is a wonderful dichotomy highlighting the vitality and the darkness. It really does feel like everyone is welcome here (but if you are new, maybe a tie dye shirt, glowsticks, or a fun headband with horns or cat ears attached might be recommended, haha!).

At the festival this year, with a sense of connection through the catering experience, I really felt like I had some purpose. There’s another recommendation for attending an event like this: have an intention. Mine was to share what I loved about the festival with a friend who was going for their first time, to really look for the art, and to … well you can probably guess… TO DANCE MY BUTT OFF! These were not hard expectations, but a gentle intension, and that’s how I found my way really enjoying myself this season. Next year I plan to attend again, and I think it’s time for me to work in an intension of giving back in my own way.

Hope to see you taking in some art in the Almaguin Highlands!