SAPFO FESTIVAL

My friend told to me, "You know, there is a lesbian festival in Lithuania ". My reaction was: WWHHAAATT??? Does such a thing exist in Lithuania? And it's been 10 years??

Location

This year, the festival took place on July 29-31, in Kavarskas. But the road from the Kavarskas stop to the festival site is 10 km. Everything happened on the homestead. FOR FREE

PEOPLE

What surprised me was that I did not know that so many lesbian couples live in Lithuania! I liked that almost all the lesbians at the festival were older than me (I'm 20). I met quite a few married lesbians with puppies who have started families. I also met 35-40-year-old lesbians. I thought that there would be a lot of "trendy" lesbians at the festival who haven't had a girlfriend and just follow the trend, but there were quite a few of them. Some were bisexual, or lesbian friends, or just people supporting LGBT, there were guys, gay and straight. Many international people: from Ukraine, Belarus, Italy, Armenia, and other countries. You don't know which person is from Lithuania and which one is international - everyone spoke English to each other, I even spoke to Lithuanians in English. Everyone is very friendly and open, everyone is very liberal, intelligent, and supportive of each other. I really liked the audience, a lot of certainty and understanding, and unity.

I was going by car with two Lithuanian lesbians who have been together for 6 years, and I was surprised that their parents don't know yet and maybe don't even suspect it, even though they've been living together for so many years. My friend was going in a car with two lesbians from Belarus who are already engaged. And has a puppy ◡̈

I have also heard many stories that love stories started precisely from this festival.

THE PROGRAM

The program itself had a lot of activities. What I didn't really like was that there were 4-5 activities going on at the same time, it was necessary to choose where I really wanted, even though everything was very interesting. Various lectures: about sex talk, suicides, lesbians in the Soviet era, trans people, anger, etc.

Various workshops: shooting with a film camera, self-defense training, writing poetry, drag king personality building, and makeup.

There were also art performances, and theater performances, during the entire festival you could get a tattoo at an affordable price, hand bending, art installations, drawing exhibition, tarot card reading, and performances. Movies were shown.

After all the activities of the day, at night they played electronic music like techno and other genres.

I liked the ecstatic dances, the poetry evening, and the discussion about lesbians in the Soviet era the most.

Did you know that Janina degutytė was a lesbian?:D There was a photo of the poetess Janina Degutytė with the artist Brone Jacevičiūte in the Gagra resort. It was also very interesting to hear about lesbians in Gulags and prisons because it was difficult to hide their love there. As written about lesbians in the sources:

"We were immediately shocked by those very noticeable women - "ono" - repulsive, disgusting, insolent creatures, insolent faces, hair cut in a man's style, coats on their shoulders. They had their lovers, and mistresses among the prisoners. They walked around the camp in pairs, holding hands, boldly demonstrating their love. The administration and the vast majority of the prisoners hated "ono". The women in the camp gave way to them with fear"

MEMORIES

I tried the tarot card reading :D I asked about my current state in life, the following cards came out, that now my life is harmonious, everything is calm, everything is as it should be, everything is very good with finances, with friends, studies, I feel good with myself, I live my smooth life, only one problem is that my hands already want to work, my fingers are itching to start creating something real. This is absolutely true, I keep thinking about what to do career-wise.

I also asked about my love life :D (classic haha). He said that I'm trying too hard. I'm trying to find love, even though I should be going with the flow. He advised me not to overthink too much, not to expect anything, to simply continue to communicate with people with whom I feel good, to spread love, and positivity, share my energy and enjoy others, and that love will come by itself, it will be somewhere in a large group of people. In other words, to trust the universe for what it will bring me.

Well, I asked what step I should take today. And they told me that now I should be alone, go to the fields or take a walk somewhere. It's a shame I didn't do it, maybe it was a sign.

Another big memory is the ecstatic dancing. I knew that I will really like it because I adore ecstatic dancing. Close your eyes, turn off your mind, and let your body move as it wants. That's how I jumped out, shook off and let go of all negative emotions, and filled myself with warm, pleasant, positive energy. Very good morning, very good mood. Every time I experience something spiritual in ecstatic dances, I always receive more than I brought in. I couldn't stop smiling and enjoying every second I was given.

Another memory is that on the way back home, in the car I met Vaiva, from Brighton (UK 30 minutes away from me). We talked non-stop for 3 hours about everything in life, a very smart and nice girl, immediately after that we met in Nida, we had an amazing couple of days. Probably, this is the beginning of a good friendship, I am very happy about such an opportunity.

Thanks for meeting Arianna (Italian), who invited me to the Zero Waste fest! (more on that later in this blog!)

FOOD / DRINKS

The food is very cheap, everything was under 5€, and the kitchen made amazing vegan dishes, very tasty! And drinks could also be bought in bars.

DECORATIONS

The volunteers put a lot of effort into the decorations. Everywhere is full of lights, flags, and all kinds of scraps, everything was colorful, and it really created a good atmosphere and charm for this homestead. I was surprised that it was a free festival, which means that the organizers paid for all the decorations and other things with their own money.

This shows how beautiful this mission is, just the desire to gather similar people so that they feel safe and understood.

I learned a lot of new information from all kinds of activities, I participated everywhere as much as possible, sometimes when I was too tired I lay down on the blanket to read a book, or in a hammock, or fell asleep in a tent.

It was Sapfo's 10th birthday. As I understood, everything started as a small gathering, there weren't many people until gradually everything started to resemble a larger-scale festival: people gathered, information spread from mouth to mouth, activities, and preparations increased. Until the end result pleasantly surprised me!

I will definitely be back next year, and the next, and the next…

10/10! BIG LOVE