10/09/2023
CONTACT: Tami Schwerin
919-444-9300
https://www.sanctuaryattheburrow.com/deathfaire
The Plant, Lorax Lane, Pittsboro NC
The Plant Announces the
8th Annual Death Faire
Each year, in a small rural artful town in central North Carolina, the Death Faire in Pittsboro provides an opportunity for folks to come together and talk about a subject that is largely taboo in our country. Death, loss and grief are topics we typically don’t discuss or we deny. We know that when these deep emotions are not dealt with, they cause mental illness, disease and sometimes violence.
The community in Pittsboro works together to create celebration of our dead, education around different healing modalities, ritual, and expression. Deep healing, learning, and personal growth is the outcome. Grief is not something to avoid, but something to move. When there is movement, there is healing.
Now in its eighth year, this year’s Death Faire will offer a weekend of activities from November 3-5. The goal is to leave with a lighter spirit and ability to live life to the fullest.
Festivities begin on Friday night with a session called “Tending the Heart” lead by Brooksie Edwards which includes sacred music, meditation and sound vibrations.
Saturday's Faire commences at The Plant, a 17 acre campus that focuses on sustainability and local economy. The day will include ancestral healing, a grief ritual, discussion of how psychedelics can help the living and the dying as well as trail walks and Grief Chronicles.
Keynote speaker David Hahklotubbe, a Choctaw Death Doula from California, will share stories of helping over 1000 people die. He will speak to the value of having no regrets on the death bed.
Poetry and an art exhibition are part of the weekend. The Paper Hand Puppets, the local giant puppet troupe, will be dancing around the event all day offering ancestral magic. Saturday will close with the upbeat and soul-filled music of The Rhonda Robichaux Band.
Sunday will highlight an opportunity to embark on a profound journey of self-discovery with Nora Yolles Young. She will guide a past life hypnotic exploration at Yoga Garden in Pittsboro, NC.
Death Faire will close with a mock funeral at the Sanctuary at the Burrow, in Moncure, NC.
The Durham, NC based Bulltown Strutters will shift things into high gear as they lead a parade through the deep pine forest of the Sanctuary's green burial site.
Their colorful mix of old-school New Orleans jazz and new-school funk, provides a template for how to normalize and ritualize collective grieving.
Throughout the weekend, an interactive altar will be present for remembrance and heartfelt speech. There will be vendors, food, beverages, and spirits.
Death Faire was created in 2016 after the death of 19 year old Zafer Estill, who died in the opioid epidemic and inspired his parents to start a public conversation about death and dying. His early death left a hole in the community, and his celebration of life created meaningful explorations of death, loss, and grief and ultimately life. Tickets and more info:
