Lightning in a Bottle (LIB) is a transformational festival in California presented by The Do LaB, seeking to promote sustainability, social cohesion, personal health, and creative expression. Lightning in a Bottle is an eclectic mix of music, art, and culture. In addition to music performances, the event also features guest speakers, visual and interactive art installations, yoga classes, group meditation, and other attractions.
Lucent Temple of Consciousness
LIB was designed to be a heart and mind expanding oasis. Everything done is imbued with the idea of cradling you in creativity and smothered you in joy. LIB inspires you to the highest light within and gives you a beautiful place to get your wiggle out. The Lucent Temple of Consciousness, the spiritual heart of LIB, is the place where you will be able to stretch and open your body core with yoga and movement, learn new skill that will assist you in being a positive force on the planet with speakers and workshops, experiment with new, traditional and indigenous skills in The Village and various interactive areas. You will find an open sharing of information often locked behind doors unavailable to us in the ‘regular world’. At nighttime come dance to unique rhythms and music from around the world. The Healing Sanctuary is the place for massage and body work. You can bath in a Gong bath under the sun or get life changing advice from an Elder. Everything in the Temple is designed for body joy, mind broadening and heart opening.
Come expand your world with a magnitude of tools that just might assist you in making a positive shift in your life. For certain it will spark your curiosity and help you bring the LIB experience home with you.
Speakers
Bestselling authors, accomplished visionaries and master lecturers share insights and inspirations on diverse subjects including ancient civilizations, forward-thinking economics, human consciousness, sustainability and more. Let the knowledge and experience of these thinkers and doers expand your mind.
Yoga
Yoga continues to be an integral part of the Lightning in a Bottle experience. As the festival has grown, so has the roster of yoga teachers and practitioners. Yoga classes happen from morning until evening throughout the weekend to enrich your body and calm your soul. All experience levels and Yoga styles are offered–from high energy Vinyasa to relaxing classes integrating meditation. Some of the west coast’s top Yoga teachers join LIB and many are accompanied by live musicians. Whether you are looking to get your Yoga practice started, try out a new style, or just continue your practice with incredible people in an incredible space, we strongly suggest you make Yoga a part of your LIB experience.
Workshops
Participating in a hands-on workshop is a great way to add lifelong value to your festival experience. You will be able to learn from pioneers and experts teaching a variety of valuable skills and lessons. Explore a subject you’ve always been interested in, or pick up skills in your established field. Participate in a workshop and you’ll find not just fun awaits you at LIB, but the opportunity to become a better human, more engaged with the world around and within you.
Temple Music
Set in the center of the festival, the Lucent Temple Main Stage is filled with unique musical stylings from around the world. LIB has selected an incredible group of musicians for your listening and dancing pleasure. Hear inspiring speakers all day and dance with us under the moonlight.
Interactive Areas
At Lightning in a Bottle, you have a unique opportunity to stumble upon many areas outside of the musical stages that are full of lively, participatory fun and shenanigans. The interactive environments at LIB truly allow you to lose yourself in an entire universe of play. From immersive environments to roving interactive stations and pop-up art car environments, be sure to take some time to stop in and drop into an entirely different world that will make your LIB experience unforgettable. A few of the interactive areas you can look forward to are the Jive Joint, Giggle Juice’s “The Courtyard”, Om Shan Tea – Tea Temple, Silent Frisco, and The Grand Artique. Be sure to check out The Grand Artique’s lineup and read more about what makes this engaging experience one of a kind.
The Village
The Living Village is a cultural experiment born from the shared aspiration to explore what village life means and how to bring that into a contemporary context. LIB’s intention is to learn by doing, to be individually and collectively engaged with how to experientially create and sustain a Village.
This project is an interactive, intergenerational, education based environment focused on earth based wisdom traditions and the skills necessary to be a sustainable, thriving, interdependent community. There is a focus on honoring the elements and cycles of the natural world, on identifying and refining our individual and collective offerings and remembering a life that integrates the sacred and the creative into everyday. Restorative and social permaculture design systems are at the heart of the Village structure. The unique gifts of everyone present will be nurtured and cultivated, creating an environment where, like a traditional Village, every single person has an integral and valued role to play.
The Living Village consists of multiple micro-environments, including the Sacred Fire, Ancestral Arts Arbor, Tea Temple and Community Lodge, largely constructed from found and recycled materials. Within these spaces, participants will have the opportunity to experience many aspects of this way of being, such as song and story sharing, ritual theater, ceremony, and practical applications of traditional ways. LIB provides varied forms of ancestral arts classes such as carving, archery, fire making and weaving, as well as councils and presentations of traditional stories and prophecies with Indigenous Elders and lineage holders. The Living Village functions both as a site for learning to occur and as a hub for the promotion and networking of other organizations and businesses that are aligned with LIB’s mission.
When we begin shifting our core life question from “What do I truly want?” to “What do I truly have to offer?” then, as a community, we begin to evaluate wealth based on the whole system rather than the individual parts. The Living Village intends not only to begin shifting our collective awareness in that direction, but also to provide tangible guidance for how to recognize and develop these offerings in a way that benefits both our personal evolution and our ability to be of real service to the larger whole.
See Also: Lightning in a Bottle: A Model for the Evolution of Festival Culture
