‘Towards 2000’ celebrates alternative lifestyles

Press, 12 February 1986, Page 17

‘Towards 2000’ celebrates alternative lifestyles

A bronzed, bearded, self-confessed hippy from Hawaii said he had obeyed a vision to attend a festival in New Zealand. Others received the information through more prosaic means: advertisements they saw in alternative health centres or health restaurants, or through the alternative grapevine.

However they came, and wherever they came from (and there were visitors from Germany, the United States, Canada and England), the great majority of those who attended the four-day Towards 2000 Alternative Festival at Whitecliffs over the Waitangi Day weekend felt they had shared in an experience of what lifecou/dbe like in the year 2000.

An estimated 400 people, ranging in age from eight months to 80, camped in fields on country singer John Grenell’s ranch, attended workshops that included instruction on acupressure, healing with herbs, homeopathy, osteopathy, polarity, rebirthing, touch for health, numerology, the tarot, and vegan cooking.

There were couples’ workshops, family workshops, women’s workshops, and men’s awareness sessions, as well as Maori workshops, workshops on anger, and discussion entitled “Beyond war. beyond hunger — towards 2000.”

Representatives of the Save Animals from Experiments group S.A.F.E. showed videos of atrocities carried out against animals which had been filmed secretly in laboratories.

A creative arts area gave adults the chance to express themselves through paint and clay, and a children’s area provided care and children’s entertainment.

A mixture of entertainment and alternative healing ... rebirthing, acupressure, numerology and vegan cooking were among the ivorkshops offered at the Towards 2000 festival. DIANE MOIR reports.

There was instruction it song writing and creative dance, and each night dif ferent entertainment was offered. John Grenell and friends performed, so did Malcolm McNeill (who

also taught song writing) and Playback Theatre.

Tower Productions, a group of young out-of-work Maoris who came together just three months ago, gave performances on the Friday and Saturday nights, and the North Island group Pacific Rhythms performed at the Festival’s close on Sunday night.

Those who had at,e tended the creative dance t workshop gave a performance one evening with the s help of instructor Sylvia d Forbes, and most nights d ended with music to 0 dance to.

Vegetarian food came from the Free Range vegetarian restaurant, and was organised by a chef from the Beachcomber restaurant in Sumner.

Towards 2000 grew out of the annual Whitecliffs country music festival, and out of a growing interest in alternative forms of healing. About the time that Christchurch

astrologer and acupuncture trainee Robert Hunt was thinking of arranging a gathering of all the alternative health practitioners in Christchurch, he was offered the use of the Whitecliffs farm by his friends John Grenell (formerly John Hore) and his wife Dierdre. There has always been a smattering of workshops in what are know as “the alternative healing arts” at the music festival, but previously they had been overshadowed by the music. Many people felt that the time was ripe for an alternative festival in its own right Robert Hunt and a team of 25 set about organising the festival and everyone seems pleased with the outcome. According to Elizabeth Fink, a homeopathist at the National Health Clinic, the festival was a nice mixture of entertain‘lt was like one extended family’ ment and healing. “I was amazed with the positive atmosphere and the willingness of people to share their knowledge,” she said. One of the busiest tents was the rebirthing tent, where 79-year-old Ted Viney and two assistants worked 12 hours a day. According to Ted, who was given a standing ovation at the final summing up session, people were a bit aloof at the beginning, but each day became freer and more loving. “In the end, it was like one extended family,” he said. A New Zealander now residing in the United States told everyone that the festival had made her aware she was not alone in her views and proud to be a Kiwi.

Said Ted Viney, “This festival is just the beginning.”