Part of me likes the idea of making solstice higher investment. But I feel like the right balance is one high investment event and one very low investment event, and high investment is a much better fit for winter solstice.
I like that split because I see value in both high investment, high meaning things that will alienate a lot of people (because they're too much work, or the meaning doesn't resonate with them), and in shelling points for social gathering. These can't coexist, so better to have separate events specializing in each.
I love solstice, but also I like being able to leave at any time. There's people of all ages, and some ages have different needs than others.
Do you think it’d influence your decision strongly if the organizers were to charter a small motorboat to take people back to Tiburon on-demand? The ferries run every hour, the boat could make an additional two trips an hour, so average waiting time would be 20 minutes and often the boat would be immediately available. It’s still 45 min from Tiburon back to Berkeley.
I heard about this being planned earlier this year, and after about five minutes with Google Maps I concluded that it was an unsalvageably terrible idea. Unsalvageable because the core problem is Angel Island.
It takes a minimum of 75 minutes from central SF or 2h from the East Bay to travel, each way. And that's if the ferry schedule is convenient, which it will not be; the ferries are spread out far too infrequently to be able to attend conveniently. For those many who don't drive, it's technically public transit accessible, but double those times.
I have quibbles with the details (you're giving up the sunset!) but they are mostly uninmportant compared to the central problem that it is wildly inaccessible. If you go through with this plan next year, I'd estimate a maximum 'swolestice' attendance of 140 and I'd put the over/under at 80. This would mostly just be an event for the campers. Probably a pretty cool event for them, don't get me wrong, but it would be abandoning everyone else.
I think the idea of an island ritual is really cool. (I also think it's a fine thing to try one year even if it turns out not to make sense as a permanent thing)
One of the things that feels hesitationy/cruxy to me is that I think it requires a larger team than one might expect (even after an intuitive scale-up from the normal Summer Solstices).
I think an issue with Summer Solstice is that it requires a lot of basic logistical infrastructure to be "basically functional" / "Maslow Hierarchy level 1." And this ends up consuming most of the energy to run it. I think in recent years there hasn't been much spare capacity for planning ritual aspects.
A thing I expect with Angel Island is that you'll need even more infrastructure to be "basically functional" (handling Ferry rides, making sure to have more food than usual, etc). And then developing ritual that really capitalizes on the island will be an additional large batch of effort. So I expect it to need more like 3x the amount of organizers, rather than (what I might naively guess) of 2x.
Entirely separate from concerns about the site, I think your notion of the theme for a midsummer ritual is wrong.
If you look at midsummer rituals that have memetic fitness (traditions that lasted, or in neopaganism's case that stuck weirdly quickly), most of them are sunset rituals. Things that happen at night on the shortest nights of the year, and dwell on themes of darkness. Ghost stories, things like that.
Assuming, as I think we clearly should, that that's not a coincidence, a ritual that resonates for summer solstice should be aimed in a similar direction. It might have themes of fragility, or of near-misses personal and collective, mixed with recognition of things being good, of civilizational achievements or personal ones. (If at some point we invent the rationalist bar mitzvah it should probably be at midsummer, I feel, but I'm not sure why I think that given what I just said.)
The themes you mention of storing up energy for the winter, celebrating human accomplishment, etc., seem to me, based on my survey of existing rituals and holidays, much more appropriate for the Fall Equinox, the time of year where food is gathered and the cold days are encroaching. Competitions and skillshares, particularly, are my suggestions there, though the whole summer solstice that's developed the last few years would port across without changes other than dropping the amorphous sunset ritual.
I love this idea but I have the logistics concern that it might be difficult-to-impossible to reserve the island for the time we want.
It's actually feasible with proper planning, I looked into this last December (you have to book 6 months out). If this year is like last year in terms of policy, demand, and reservations meta, I'm 99% confident we'll get the picnic sites, 95% confident we get 60+ camping spots, 70% confident we get 100+ camping spots.
As the title probably already indicates, this post contains community content rather than rationality content. Alternate, sillier version of this post here.
I've been a co-organizer of the Bay Area Rationalist Summer Solstice for the past few years, and I've been thinking about how to make it a more meaningful and engaging experience, like what we have with Winter Solstice. The last few Summer Solstices, which I'd describe as mostly being big picnics, have been fun, but fairly low-effort, low-significance, and I think that's a missed opportunity.
Here's a few things that I'd like more of in Summer Solstice, non-exhaustive:
I have an idea for next year's Summer Solstice, which I think would get at fulfilling some of these goals. There's an island, Angel Island, in the middle of San Francisco Bay which is reasonably easy to get to, can accommodate lots of people, and has a bunch of qualities which would get at the goals above.
I've visited. It's naturally transporting, feels like a world into itself. I've done substantial research and think it's feasible to run Summer Solstice there. I'm posting this idea for discussion instead of running ahead with the planning for the following reasons:
Here's the idea so far:
This would be a 2-night campout on Angel Island from Friday to Sunday for likely 60-100 people (depending on how many camping spots we can compete to reserve). This gives people the chance to go in deep. Camping spots are spread out, some for larger subgroups, some for smaller subgroups. Each subgroup can have its own theme or project. Stag hunts may be held. Clandestine initiations may be held. The island holds its own secrets.
Staying both nights means spending an entire day outdoors on the island, sunrise to sunset. The perfect solstice observance. Resyncing to the rhythm of the sun. The chance to use an entire day thoughtfully. Oh, also, two nights of s'more's, what more could a human want?
The island also is a great camping spot for children (Boy Scout and school groups constitute a large percentage of reservations). There's a lot of kids in the community now, and this would be a chance to teach skills that involve teamwork or decisionmaking under uncertainty, like orienteering and building structures. Even just being able to plan the trip themselves is a level of autonomy that reliably excites kids.
Just this much would satisfy 4.5/5 of the solstice goals outlined above. But it couldn't be a chance to gather the entire regional community. Thus:
Everyone else, up to 400 people, would catch the ferry to the island on Saturday for the main picnic and celebration. The ferry usually only runs daylight hours, but we'd be able to charter a special ferry to get everyone that's not camping Saturday night off the island after sunset. I actually looked into this for this year but didn't put all the pieces together.
We'd have the run of the island, although not exclusive. Imagine possibilities for the day: you could run a huge orienteering course, send everyone on a scavenger hunt, turn Capture the Flag into a huge MOBA-style game, organize a LARP. Plenty of space to hide away with someone you've really clicked with for the first time.
In the evening the island will be exclusively for attendees. Participatory rituals of arbitrary scale are possible. Winter Solstice has a natural theme of how we get through dark and hard times. Summer Solstice has a natural theme too: to know what we can accomplish when we are our brightest, most energized selves, to celebrate what is worth celebrating in the human spirit, to take in excess exuberant energy and store it for darker days ahead. Unlike winter solstice, the community doesn't have a ceremony that really represents all of this yet. Here's a chance to design one and hold it in a unique setting. ◾
I want to get a sense of how much interest there is in this idea, both from potential attendees and potential organizers. Would you be up for the extra travel and time commitment? And, if you're interested in helping to organize, would you be willing to put in the extra effort to make this happen?