During August 25th-28th, there will be a gathering of the conscious-minded at the mountains of North Carolina. Three Days of Light Gathering turns five this year and to mark the occasion, as well as find out what’s in store for this year’s transitional gathering, we spoke with 3DL founder Scott Love. There’s alot of great and exciting elements this year, including a stellar lineup which we posted below this interview. Check out our exchange below to get all the details.
Shift: First off, congratulations on this being the 5th Three Days of Light Gathering!
Scott: Thank you! It’s hard to believe it’s already been five years. It’s beyond my dreams, that’s for sure. I was looking for a conscious community to connect with and I wanted to provide a place for the conscious community to connect and my whole life has been transformed because of the people we’ve connected with.
Shift: For those who have never been to 3DL, could you share what the gathering is all about?
Scott: The main part of it is that people from all walks of life, backgrounds, cultures, and conditions have a place where they can come for 3 days to have a conscious and transformational experience. For three days, and this year for four days, people can have an opportunity to be heard, feel complete, be festive, and have deep conversations with others they meet at 3DL.
Shift: This year’s theme is Activation; what’s the message behind this theme?
Scott: The very first event we did was the 11.11 Gathering, and that was a kind of ‘line in the sand moment’ for us organizers and those who attended. Alot of people were creating gatherings on that day and getting downloads so it was very symbolic…to the point that we had a ceremony where we literally crossed a line in the sand. The year after that we had Awakening in November before the 12.21.12 date. The year after that we had Epoch, which is the moment everything changes. And the year after that in 2014 it was about Returning to Innocence, getting back to our pure state and being able to feel safe. Last year was the Level Up year where we were starting to get ideas of what we’re capable of and what are some lessons we had to learn (like taking better care of people, communicating better, etc).
Now it’s time to act differently, now it’s time to be different; being our higher selves. Activation symbolizes tightening the bolts on the vehicle, tying everything together to create a functional conscious community that is self-supporting and self-sustaining. This is the year we stop talking about what we want to do and start doing it. Activation also represents an opportunity for the community. This is going to be my last year heading it up so this is the year we really activate other people who may be interested in taking the reins for 3DL and turning it into a community-sponsored, co-created, and co-owned entity. We have a huge community that looks forward to 3DL every year and for those who can’t make it in person, they will be able to tap in my watching a livestream from the gathering.
Shift: What are some of the elements of this year’s 3DL that people should look forward to?
Scott: We have so much new stuff this year! People are really excited about the lineup. It’s probably one of the most positive-vibed lineups you could have. The workshops are also fantastic, such as powerful shamanic breathwork, Stephen Kaminanda will be teaching a workshop on conscious relationships, and I will be doing a workshop this year on the importance of keeping 3DL going and what that might look like. Something else that people are excited about and that I’m really excited about is we have a number of groups coming in that are going to function like mini-festivals, doing workshops and engagements and activities.
We have this new property outside of Asheville which is simply incredible. It’s a beautiful property with a creek running through it and you could feel a great energy there that people are really going to like. This new venue is the private-owned High Country Motorcycle Camp in Ferguson, NC with a 30 acre campground with two football field-sized fields that is just beautiful and perfect for us. We’ll be close enough together to feel like we’re in the same cell of activity but far away enough from each other to not feel like we’re on top of each other. And with us selling twice as many tickets right now than we did during this time last year, it’s exciting to have alot of new people coming to experience 3DL.
Shift: Since 3DL is called a gathering, how does it differ from the other so-called transformational festivals?
Scott: To me, a festival has all the bells and whistles meant to trigger all your senses in such a way that you become entranced in the experience, and that’s beautiful but 3DL is a little slower. Where a festival might be jumping into a Ferrari and going as fast as you can up the California coast, 3DL is more alone the lines of jumping in a nice sedan with a bunch of your friends and kicking on some cool music and traveling through the mountains at a nice, even pace. Our gathering is like a nice, warm hug. It’s more in tune with “How is the individual being taken care of?”
Shift: Where do you see the conscious festival model going in the coming years?
Scott: There’s some festivals that are using the language and having the conversations, but aren’t necessarily reflecting those things. The conscious community can be a very fickle community that wants a truly genuine experience and if a festival is not living up to the promise of that then they will go elsewhere. They aren’t willing to pay $300 in order to pretend to have a sacred experience, they’re yearning for the real deal. And that’s why people come to 3DL, because they feel our genuineness.
There are some festivals recently that didn’t necessarily stand behind what alot of their agreements were. What I’m hearing from people is that those festivals are not acknowledging their mistakes and are ignoring people emailing them back yet they’re going on to do their festivals again. At 3DL we take the time to acknowledge our mistakes if there’s a mistake and find a way to learn from it so that we can make it better for the entire community. When you put it all together, I see more gatherings (and there should be!) and like everything else, if its genuine it will continue and if it’s not it won’t. There are three festivals in particular that I really looking forward to…Kinnection, which was fantastic, Zen Awakening in Orlando, which I’m looking to see what their third year is like, and I am really excited about Unify Fest in Sante Fe, New Mexico, where they seem to be doing a great job and calling in a lot of awesome beings.
Shift: Do you feel 3DL has changed peoples’ lives?
Scott: Absolutely! My entire life I felt there is more than meets the eye and I’ve spent alot of time looking for that. I heard from so many people how 3DL changed their lives and helped them be more genuine. People fell in love, found better ways to communicate, pursued their interest in permaculture by being an entrepreneur in the field, or they found something else that clicked with them at 3DL. They may have gone to a workshop and decided that wanted to be a community activist and next thing you know they’re sponsoring a food forest or opening up an after-school program for kids to learn about growing plants. All sorts of amazing things have happened because the seeds were planted and fertilized at Three Days of Light and I think that’s wonderful.
Tickets for Three Days of Light Gathering can be purchased here. You can read our previous coverage of 3DL here to get an insider look into what you can expect.
