Where : YHA Minehead, Somerset

When : 14th – 23rd June 2024

 Yoo-Hoo Faeries!

Come transgender spirits, gender non conforming bodies, intersex inspirers, non-binary beings, a-gender wonders, queer women warriors, questioning cuties. It is our time to drop the masks we wear and blossom together.

When caught in the fray of society’s appropriation of our identities, we need to make space where we can feel free in the truth of our own skin, souls and honour the honesty of our hearts calling.

 The Building and Location

YHA Minehead description: A country retreat in an attractive house high in Somerset’s Exmoor hills. Enchantingly situated in a woodland hideaway, the hostel offers magnificent grounds while being situated close to some of Somerset’s most beautiful coastline.

Not only is Minehead a picturesque seaside resort with a cracking sandy beach, it’s also the northern gateway to Exmoor National Park, the area’s largest town and the start point of the South West Coast Path – the nation’s longest long-distance walking trail.

 ACCESSIBILITY : This location is not wheelchair accessible, there is specific information about how many stairs and where these are situated in the property on the Accessibility & Mobility page here, we welcome any access questions or enquiries at this email address: SummerTranscendence@AlbionFaeries.org.uk

We are investigating the property at the beginning of April to provide as much information as possible for people with mobility needs to navigate the space.

Accommodation is on the first floor up 14 carpeted stairs, in shared rooms, with a very limited number of smaller rooms for those who cannot sleep in larger, group shared spaces. There are also 2 sets of 4 steps into the front door and one set of two steps inside the reception area.

We do not have permission for camping/outdoor sleeping, so all attendees must sleep in the venue. We are currently asking about live-in vehicles and will update the notion website accordingly.

You can find extensive travel information for how to get to the gathering under ‘ Location & Travel’ on this page.

 Co-creation

Co-creation is the heart of any gathering, with individual Faeries offering a wide variety of events from drum circles, talent shows, auctions and drag balls, to workshops, walks and heart circles. You can find out more about Faerie Events here. If you have an idea for an event you’d like to run, you can request any equipment or support in the booking form, or bring what you need with you.

Key teams of fae give service at the gathering to provide us with things like meals, decoration, access needs and welfare. Volunteering together is a great way to build friendships and to show your love and appreciation for the Faerie community. You can read more about volunteering teams here, and step up for these roles on the booking form.

Co-creation doesn’t always look like planning in advance. Maybe you’ll contribute in the moment. You might suddenly feel the kitchen calling your name in the middle of the gathering, you might feel a spontaneous urge to sing or clean a toilet, you might whip up a workshop on how to honour self-love and care (self love is sexy!). Whatever you contribute is welcome and wanted!

 Compassion, Consent & Self-care

We strive as a radical community to be as inclusive as possible, to make adjustments, and to manifest the core principles of care for fellow fae, alongside care for ourselves. Gatherings are magical but they can also be a little overwhelming sometimes. We invite you to enter this space with compassion for the beautifully diverse needs of others, awareness of consent, and the preparation and tools to look after your own self-care if needed.

You can find out more about preparations to make and what to expect at the gathering here.

We also invite you to remember that the Radical Faeries is a non-hierarchical community where we all bear equal responsibility and share the workload between us. Please offer your love and support to those that give service to weave the magic of the gathering, and step up for roles where you are able.

 SUBSTANCES + INTOXICATION : We are setting the intention for a space that invites us to explore togetherness and community, part of this includes limiting the use of mood-altering medicines like alcohol, drugs, loud amplified music, etc.

We understand the need for these medicines in intentional ritual and medicinal use; in these situations, we ask that you be critically aware of others around you due to the varying needs we all have in regards to medicinal use, sobriety and addiction. Find more information under the heading ‘Sobriety, Addiction & Mood-Altering Medicines’ here

 Registration

Registration for Summer Transcendence 2024 opens at 7pm on 4th April for Faeries of Colour and 7pm on the 7th April for everybody.

When registration goes live, this link will go live and be shared in various Faery spaces of communication and websites.

We encourage faeries to register for the full 9 nights to make this gathering a cohesive, close-knit community container and a journey we all take together, rising up to Summer Solstice and resting together after. We also would love for faeries to stay til the end to close the container with as many of us as possible.

A link to the booking form will be shared via email and the Albion Faeries WhatsApp group. As this is the first gathering of it’s kind, we expect the spaces to fill up quickly. Booking is first-come-first served and there will likely be a waitlist, so please email us at the address below as soon as possible if you have a space but cannot make it, so that another Faerie can take your place.

We request Faeries do not turn up without a booking, as a mark of respect to those on the waiting list.

 Diversity Over recent years, the Faeries have begun a radical journey from a primarily white, gay, male community, towards a community that is more inclusive of the diverse spectrum of ethnicity, gender and sexuality that makes up queerdom.

This gathering is making space for the minorities in our community and continuing the tradition of a gathering held at the French sanctuary ‘Folleterre’, called Radical Rest.

Radical Rest – A gathering made for the comfort of Trans, Intersex, Non-Binary and Questioning Faeries, and Queer Women, in faery space.

In keeping with the gathering theme, we encourage you to explore your awareness of the diversity at this gathering and how we might radically recognise, celebrate and support minorities within the Radical Faeries.

 Payment

In order to breakeven, the cost of this gathering will be £26.50 per faerie, per night.

The breakeven cost will be £240 if all attendants pay this price and attend the whole gathering, we have included a table of guidance below to help you locate yourself in terms of our suggested contributions for this gathering.

Payment is requested by bank transfer at the point your booking is confirmed. If you would prefer to pay at a later date, or to pay in cash at the gathering, please drop us an email when you book, to let us know your preferred payment date.

For those financially able, please consider contributing more as this funds the gathering to be able to offer access to a wider demographic. You can read more about how the faeries create this financial accessibility through NOTAFLOF + ADAFAE below.

 NOTAFLOF & ADAFAE No One Turned Away For Lack Of Funds! A radical principle of the Faeries is that individual financial circumstances should not be a barrier to being part of the community. This means if your financial circumstances mean that you cannot afford the full cost , we invite you to contribute as much as  you can.

If you are able to contribute more than £26.50 per night, please do. The ‘Additional Donations And Finance Accepted Enthusiastically’ policy helps to support  NOTAFLOF, and your beautiful generosity enables all of our community to come together at gatherings.

GAYABAGS The Faerie finance initiatives are stunning examples of the care, generosity and compassion we show for each other in Faeriespace. Please feel called to treat them with the utmost respect and take a moment to think about whether you are contributing as much as you can genuinely afford. Remember: Give As You’re Able, But Always Give Something.

We are exploring radical new ways of fundraising for this event!

NOTAFLOF, GAYABAGS and ADAFAE have been wonderful pillars of our radical approach to financial disparity within our community. We value these a lot, and hope that the following table can better help us locate ourselves in terms of our contributions for this gathering. We hope by introducing these guidelines – which we’ve adapted from other radical organisations – that we will be able to feel into our integrity around what we’re able to contribute. This is for your reference only and there will be no monitoring of where on the scale you choose to locate yourself. Above all, we hold NOTAFLOF dearly, and wish for this sacred, radical tenet of our community to remain abundant and shameless – we will never pressure those surviving at the margins to pay anything, and we hope that those thriving will help us create radical resource justice to keep us in alignment with this value.

| NOTAFLOF Contribution £120 (and below) | 

+ Bursary places are available. If your personal or organisational economic situation doesn’t allow you to pay any contribution, please let us know on your registration form

+ I struggle to find stable employment due to discrimination: Are you an unpaid community organiser?

| Solidarity Contribution £120 to 240 | 

+ I am comfortably able to meet all of my basic needs.I can afford public transport.
+ I am able to buy some new items. 

| Comfortable Contribution £240 to 360 | 

+ Do you have a safe and stable place to live, such as a rented flat or house?
+ I do not have to rely on temporary accommodation like hotels or hostels; I have a regular income of less than £25,000/year. 

| Redistribution Contribution £360 to 480 (and above) |

+ Do you own your home or rent a higher-end property?
+ Do you have investments, retirement accounts, or inherited money?
+ Can you comfortably go on holiday?
+ Do you have access to family money and resources in times of need?
+ Do you receive a total income above the minimum living wage or work part-time by choice?

We are also holding a pre-gathering auction for faery made/donated items on our faeBay page to help fund the NOTAFLOF and GAYABAGS places. We are also holding a GoFundMe campaign for direct donations for those who feel called to support the cause financially.

Find the eBay store link HERE and support this gathering in exchange for beautiful handmade pieces, made and contributed by our beautiful community of faeries.

If you are financially privileged, you can also directly donate financially through our GoFundMe here.

Should you have and questions or concerns regarding gathering payments, feel free to email us SummerTranscendence@AlbionFaeries.org.uk

 What to Bring

A suggested packing list for this gathering can be found here

We always welcome more:

• Clothes for the dress-up space! We have a long tradition of clothes swaps and sharing in the trans/GNC community and would love if everyone could bring clothes, make-up and accessories they would like to share, swap and gift to give access to that yummy clothing-based gender euphoria
• Throws, rugs, lamps, electric candles and soft furnishings such as cushions to help manifest a soft playground
• Things for the auction (such as clothes, crafts, plants, or services like massage or tarot)
• Offerings for the gathering altar

 Questions, Help & Email

We have created this information portal where you can find a wealth of additional information about accessibility, what to expect at the gathering, volunteer roles and more! The Albion Faeries Website is also a great source of information. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, feel free to drop us an email at SummerTranscendence@AlbionFaeries.org.uk and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.