This past weekend, we attended the 1st Annual Preppers Festival in New Castle, Virginia. Nearly 5000 people showed up to attend preparedness workshops, browse over 60 vendors, hear live bluegrass music, and interact with other preparedness minded people from around the region.
I taught the first workshop entitled “Why You Need to Get Off the Grid, and How to Get Started Now”, providing people perspective on where we’re at in America today and how people need to assess their situation and take action. There was a good turnout for the workshop and great feedback from the attendees. Other workshops included permaculture basics, a canning workshop, basics of community preparedness, and a home defense primer.
In my presentation, I provided the first public viewing of our new Beyond Off Grid teaser trailer. It’s a short glimpse of a few of the topics the film will cover.
At our booth, we showed clips from the film, and talked with attendees about the need for changing our mindset, reducing our dependence on the modern system, and taking action to prepare for the tough times ahead.
Next to the Beyond Off Grid booth display, we had my family’s heirloom seeds for sale, and had lots of great conversations with folks about the best seed varieties and gardening methods. My wife also had a booth for her It Works health and beauty products business. These are examples of how my family is working to build our local economy and local community network of relationships.
My wife even competed in the Preppers Cookoff, a cooking competition using a very limited number of ingredients cooked over a camp stove. While she didn’t win, she was the only person to make tortillas and have a baby strapped to her back the entire time.
There were people from all over Virginia, the east coast, and the midwest. Here’s what one attendee said:
“We had a great time at the festival yesterday!! We came from Ohio and spent 3 days in the New Castle area. I still can’t get over the friendliness of the people (every person that passed us in the car waved) and those incredible mountain views!! Such a beautiful place!!” — Kelley R.
We’re looking forward to next year’s Preppers Festival, and other similar events that we plan to attend this year to promote the Beyond Off Grid project.
We’re working hard on getting the supporter site ready to launch later this week, so stay tuned for news soon about the Beyond Off Grid film footage and webinar recordings becoming available to our supporters!
The trailer has me itching to see the film! Great job!