My Dear "Kindred Spirit,"

My Dear “Kindred Spirit,”

Before you start making comments about how much you love bacon, let me tell you: “PorcFest” is actually short for “Porcupine Freedom Festival.”

No need to be sad, though! There’s still plenty of bacon, ham, and sausage there for eating, even though that’s not the main focus of the festival.

I always have a hard time explaining what PorcFest is. It doesn’t fit well into any “boxes” for easy description.

The best way I can think to describe it is that it’s a one week Libertarian Utopia up in the mountains of NH.

Yeah. Buhlee-dat! Can you say awesome!?

So I got to experience this awesomeness last week. And boy, did I ever enjoy it!

From the 5 maple lemonades I drank over the course of the week, to the One Pot Cook Off I participated in, to the dance classes, the lectures and talks, and the 15-minute massage I bought for myself, it was just an all around great time!

PorcFest is extremely diverse. As it should be. People are different, and if we’re willing to live and let live, to let others be different from us, then of course we’ll end up with an amazingly diverse atmosphere and society. And living and letting live is what PorcFest is all about! There’s a little of everything there, and no matter what your interests are, you’d be hard pressed to not find something to go to at some point during the week.

While my brothers and I completely skipped many of the events such as the poly-relationship and open relationship talks, the late-night bonfires, and the Big Gay Dance Party, we found plenty of other things to go to.

Talks on Bitcoin, a live silver melt, “Religions of Liberty” panel and “Making a living pissing off politicians” were among some of the events a few of my brothers attended.

A talk on “tiny houses” and a panel on finding your home in the free state were what interested another brother.

And I was in hippie heaven…

I went to Permaculture 101 (which was only an hour long, but really should have been about 3 hours), as well as classes on Kombucha, soap making, First Aid with Essential oils, Massage Basics, Wilderness Survival, and the Paleo lifestyle.

I also had the time of my life trying out a Merengue and a beginner Waltz dancing class. (Waltzing is so much fun! I totally need to teach my sister how to waltz so I can have someone to dance with!! I can’t believe I’m 24 years old and only now finding out how much fun dancing can be!) I tried to drag some of my brothers to these dance classes, but they refuse to have their lives enriched in that area. Oh, well. Their loss.

I also found some free samples of “Magic Mud” tooth powder in the ladies room. You bet I grabbed some to try! That stuff works good!

But I think my favorite part of the whole PorcFest experience (besides people watching – boy you see some interesting folks! Bless their hearts…) is watching the free market in action: Agora Valley.

Agora Valley is the section of the campground where most of the vendors are set up. It’s so much fun, and so refreshing, to walk through and see what an unregulated, truly free market could be! It’s awesome to see all the brilliant businessmen and women at work.

Food. Drinks. Snacks. Tee Shirts. Books. Silver. Soap. Massages. Sessions in a sauna. Ammo. Custom postcards. Cigarettes. Essential Oils. Bulletproof Coffee (they drove around the campground delivering in the mornings).

There was plenty to buy!

And plenty of ways to buy it – alternative currencies galore. There are people who come to PorcFest and won’t spend any US dollars – they only use alternative currencies for the entire week. Where else but at PorcFest could you buy all your meals with Bitcoin or silver??

And bartering… oh… I love bartering.

I bought my first Maple Lemonade with an egg sandwich.

I bought another of my Maple Lemonades with a bowl of Minestrone Soup I had leftover from the cook-off.

One of my brothers brought along a bag of random things to try to barter with. He did actually manage to barter his clock that runs backward for some little trinket.

Despite the 16 hour days, PorcFest is really the perfect vacation. Just getting away and doing whatever the heck you want to for a week. At a large campground with an absolutely gorgeous view of the mountains, and 1500 or so other people who are very happy to let you do whatever you want to do (as long as you’re not harming them).

It’s a wonderful taste of what a truly free society could be.

I didn’t want to go home.

That’s ok, though. I’ll be back next year. You should come too!

Love, N.

P.S. The Mountains…