We Found Support and Kindness in Abundance at Hippie Fest

Dude, Where’s Hippie Fest?

You might ask yourself why our team packed up the tiny home for about a 3 hour drive to exhibit at the Hippie Fest? This was our first time exhibiting or even attending this event, so we were not exactly sure what we would find, but we have a goal to raise funds and awareness for A Tiny Act of Kindness. We hoped this would be a group of individuals who would accept and embrace the concept of a tiny home community for the homeless. Hippies have historically been known as a group with an appreciation for coffee houses, literature, music and art as well as renouncing materialistic pursuits instead seeking joy, peace, love and kindness. These ideals are in parallel to our beliefs and our ultimate message of #LiveKind.

Peace

We pulled into the venue (Buck Lake Ranch) to be welcomed by vintage Volkswagen buses, beetles and campers as well as iconic hippie memorabilia everywhere. The event was outside with over 200 vendor booths, entertainment options including live music on several stages, stilt walking, fire twirling, photo opportunities, food trucks and much more.

Hippie Fest Fun

Photo Ops

Tiny House at Hippie Fest

We setup our tiny home and an area to sell our fundraising items. During the two day event we raised money and talked to almost 500 people who toured the tiny home, viewed our community model and overwhelmingly shared their kindness and support for this much needed initiative. There were people from all over the midwest who shared our concern for the homeless including those they see in their own communities in Indiana from Terre Haute, and Fort Wayne, to Bloomington, as well as in Cincinnati, OH, Chicago, IL, Nashville, TN and even Los Angelos, CA. Many expressed interest in helping this shunned and forgotten population and many shared that they were once homeless or they have family members who are homeless.

We packed up after two full days with promises from several Indy folks to followup with us after the event, some who want to volunteer, some who want to help us with resources and even some who want to make an investment for the cause.  We have high hopes for what will follow our efforts and feel very encouraged that we are on the right track to help the homeless get back on their feet.

Couple Dressed Up At Hippie Fest

If you have ideas of other events we can attend or would like to know more about our fundraising items please feel free to contact me at Nancy@DE-Serves.org