23 Jul Big Time Festival

So the queen stage of my internship is now over. The final big climb, the last big push. It’s all done, and we are very happy with the results. I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard in my life. I’m no stranger to 40-hour weeks, but 55-hour weeks are something I didn’t exactly expect. Regardless, I am very happy with the outcome.

The Big Time Festival is a Native American trades festival which has been hosted by the Point Reyes National Seashore for the past 38 years. In recent years its visitation has dropped exponentially, however this year was recorded as one of the biggest of all time with just over 2,000 visitors. We worked very hard to make this happen, and exploited every form of media we could to get the word out. The picture above is one of three dance groups from the Pomo-Miwok group that we had come and that gave incredible performances.

Most importantly, this was an important day for Native Americans to share their rich heritage and have a day about them where education is a well used tool. I would walk around the festival doing things and many people asked me questions about the site and festival, and I always told them to ask one of the Natives here. It’s their story and they can tell it way better than me. I even made Junior Rangers make sure they talked to one of the natives before they could get sworn in. The whole day was inspiring seeing all these members of the tribe get together and feel so welcomed in a national park, of all places. Everyone for the most part seemed to have a good time and we got such good weather for the day too. All around satisfaction here at Point Reyes again.

Thanks.