Saturday March 25th marks the fourth year of the Conscious Concert event, held in Dublin city. The events aims to ‘celebrate mindfulness in a fun,entertaining yet profound way’ without having to ‘subscribe to any religious or dogmatic belief system’. I spoke to Enda Donnellan, one of its organisers, about its origins and what makes it different from more conventional concerts and seminars.
Explain the inspirations and vision that helped create the idea of the ‘Conscious Concert’
Conscious Concert was born out of a vision to celebrate mindfulness in a way that is fun, non-linear and that brings people on a journey. A devotional singer opens the space at the event. We then invite a wisdom speaker to address those present. The template slightly changes this year so we will have a mindful comedian after the wisdom speaker. The final part is a theatrical Celtic musical performance.
The aim of the concert is to be engaging, involved and expansive in comparison to the format of a seminar or a conference. Most of the performers are international so we are drawing new wisdom to Ireland from around the world. We consciously weaved and chose the line-up in a way that is both compatible and brings attendees on a sacred mind, body and spirit journey.
Your event is not based on a typical profit-making business model.
We are very direct in our work and clear in our approach. We will not engage with organisations of the old paradigm. Unfortunately due to the large scale greed of charity organisations in Ireland we have opted to work only with people on the front line, bypassing the bureaucracy and the nonsense that we have found in wealthy charity organisations. Since the concert began we have gone onto the street and engaged with homeless people and worked with people on the frontline of suicide support. We continue to donate tickets to people who we feel would benefit from coming to the concert and who would not have the money to do so.
Tell us about the line up for this years concert and why you chose to invite them.
This year we open the concert with sacred music from Nepal. Manish Shrestha plays his native Nepalese instrument, the sarod and accompanies this with eastern sacred songs and mantras. The guest wisdom speaker this year is Jill Purce. Jill is considered by many to be the first person to introduce overtoning chanting to the west many decades ago. She has worked closely in the past with Deepak Chopra and Terence McKenna. She will be offering a very unique experience at the concert by facilitating attendees to get in touch with the power of their own voice.
After Jill, we have the youtube mindful comedian JP Sears, who is being skyped into the concert on the big screen from the USA. This will be an interactive Q&A time with the audience as they “bounce” off each other and create alot of fun and giggles. To finish this year we have Celtic music storytelling and meditation led musically by Pol Brennan of Clannad. This group is collectively called “Woven”.
The ‘Conscious Concert’ also incorporates a space for organisations and campaigns. Tell us about some of the organisations and campaigns that have been part of the conscious Concert in the past and your aims in this regard.
Each year we wish to work and promote different organisations that we feel operate from a place of servce, charity and with the greater good of society in mind. We feel that we are motivated to create the concert each year as an act of service. We are not motivated by profit, however we do focus on making it sustainable. We make space for similar projects in Ireland where people are giving themselves to a cause that creates a better society. By offering an organisation a promotional table we wish to honour the good deeds of charity these people do, deeds that often go unnoticed. This is both to show appreciation to the organisation and also with the hope that it might inspire attendees of the Concert to be more of service in their own communities. Some of the organisations we have supported for example are:
Shannon watch: campaign to stop war planes stopping in Irish airports.
No fracking Ireland: campaign to stop the use of fracking in Ireland.
Girl against Flouride: campaign to take flouride from water.
Healing Hub: a movement to help alternative and orthodox medicine communicate better.
LGBT: Marriage Equality Vote Yes.
You are planning another Earth Fest this year. Tell us what you learned from organising the event last year, how you felt the festival unfolded and what changes, if any, we can expect.
‘Earth Fest’ is about re-imagining what a festival could be like, festival that enhances peoples lives and connects with nature. Because of the great feedback we received we are going to do Earth Fest again! There is a growing need here in Ireland for people to come together and celebrate community, which is something that has been deteriorating in modern times. The festival, like the concert, is about offering a life enhancing experience rather than an event that one needs to recover from (which is often the the case in Ireland due to the amount of alcohol and drugs that normally get consumed).
We had an alcohol-free policy at the festival until 7pm each day last year. It worked really well and parents felt very safe to let their children run loose into the late hours of the evening. We do feel that the festival offers something very unique. In particular because people are coming to contribute to the festival rather than sit back, be passive and get entertained. The festival generates an amazing sense of community and good spirit. It is the type of event we believe creates a beautiful setting for people to engage in a meaningful and heart-centered way.
You see ‘Earth Fest’ as being part of a new model of transformational festivals worldwide. Please elaborate on this.
There is a huge shift in how people want to celebrate. Transformational festivals are a platform that allows people to be who they are in their uniqueness. It encourages people to be themselves and not be afraid to shine in the world.
