Dear Turning the Tide Family,
Hoopla, Tides Family! Our celebration is THIS WEEKEND! Who’s excited? WE’RE EXCITED! As we are all busy preparing and packing in anticipation of a wonderful weekend of rituals, workshops, and fun, keep this letter handy.
This letter contains all the information you’ll need to know for this year’s festival. Feel free to print it out, save it to your favorite doc file, or otherwise have it handy at all times. If you have any questions, please contact our Coordinatrix Maven, Rayna, at raynatemplebee@gmail.com.
Please remember there are NO ONSITE REGISTRATIONS!
END UP AT THE RIGHT PLACE!
Our festival is held at CAMP GREYNOLDS. It is NOT at Greynolds Park. Please be sure to have the correct address/directions in your GPS so that you end up at the correct place. If you have to pass through a guard shack, you are in the wrong part of the park.
The address is: 18601 NE 22nd Avenue, North Miami Beach, FL 33160
Camp Greynolds is a private campground located north of Miami Gardens Drive along the Oleta River. Specific directions are at the bottom of this page. The campground is teaming with wildlife of all varieties. Nine cabins (all handicapped accessible) are steps away from a bathhouse and Great Hall with Kitchen. A Campfire ring is a short walk from the cabins and provides a beautiful spot for our rituals beneath the trees.
The spirits of the land are alive and present at Greynolds – it is a well-loved spot that Witches and Pagans from South Florida have used for gatherings for over 20 years!
PLAN FOR THE WEATHER
The weather report currently shows a warm weekend with some possible rain on Saturday. While our weather witches will do their best, please pack according to your needs for a warm, potentially wet weekend. Keep in mind that some of our event is outdoors. We will move things around to accommodate for weather and to make sure everyone is safe.
QuickLinks to Important Information:
- Registration and Accommodations
- Planning for Food
- Being Green
- Rituals Through the Weekend
- Donations to this year’s Charity
- Our Workshops
- What to Pack
- Rules for a Safe Weekend
- Festival Location and Directions
Registration and Accommodations
Please be sure to have your photo ID with you to help expedite our registration and the sign in process. Registration will open at 4:30pm for both our campers and cabin denziens Signup for a volunteer shift at registration. Registration will be in the Great Hall.
At registration, you will be given your cabin assignment. PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN BEDDING for twin-sized beds. Mattresses are provided by the campgrounds. If you enter a cabin and see a “RESERVED” sign on the bottom bunk, do not move it. This bunk is reserved for an individual in your cabin who requested a bottom bunk. Thank you for your understanding!
All cabins sleep up to eight and have electricity and overhead lights. Please do not plan to store food in your cabin. Critters will find their way inside! A sealed cooler with drinks and light snacks can be kept. Ice is provided in the kitchen. Your feast food should be brought to the kitchen as soon as you arrive. Label your food for feast. Your label should include your name, your cabin, and what the item is. Any leftover feast food will be given back to you on Sunday for you to enjoy at home.
We ask our family to have their cabins cleaned and ready to leave by 12:30pm on Sunday. This includes emptying any trash and sweeping the cabin. There are brooms and dustpans in each cabin. We do ask your assistance in cleaning up the campground before you leave. We do like to leave Camp Greynolds cleaner than when we found it!
Once you are done settling in, feel free to pitch in to help decorate the Great Hall! Opening ritual will be held at 9pm. Our gates will be locked during all rituals and workshop times.
This is for your safety and protection. We love our campground, and want to ensure that only Turning the Tide family have access to it during our celebration.
Planning for Food
A continental breakfast is provided on both Saturday and Sunday mornings. The Yuletide Feast on Saturday night is a pot luck with lots of home made deliciousness. Please bring a dish or drink to share! Unsure what to bring? A vegetarian side-dish is always welcome, as are desserts. Please bring your contribution in a serving dish with serving utensils. There is limited space for food prep, so your contribution should be ready-made or only need re-heating. You will be unable to cook on site in the Great Hall kitchen. Our kitchen witches will be glad to show you around the kitchen but will not be cooking for you. Crock pots are wonderful and can be set up inside your cabin.
You are on your own for dinner Friday and lunch on Saturday, There are many stores and restaurants very close to the campgrounds, including Publix. Saturday’s lunch would be a good time to get any last-minute Feast needs.
The camp does not allow alcohol in glass containers. If you choose to imbibe sacred brew, please do so discretely and in a non-glass container.
For a full and complete FAQ about Food at Tides, click here!
Being Green
In order to diminish our footprint on Mother Earth, we ask our TTT Family to bring your own reusable plate/bowl/cup/silverware to the gathering. A washing station will be available after every meal, and we hope to greatly cut down on the solid waste we produce by having each person bring their own reusable utensils. There will be no paper products available this year, so you must bring your own items. Clearly marked recycling bins will be available in the Kitchen and Great Hall – please recycle!
To help keep the campgrounds tidy, please also police your trash. If you are walking from your cabin to the Great Hall and see litter, please pick it up. Let’s leave the grounds cleaner than how we found them!
Plant Gifting will happen on Saturday during our lunch break (with live music on the patio). Please bring extra seeds, cuttings, or plants you have to share… but you don’t need to bring anything to go home with some new green friends.
Rituals through the Weekend
Our festival is book-ended and punctuated by community ritual. We start with Opening Ritual on Friday Evening. Closing Ritual will be held Sunday mid-day. But the focal point is our Main Ritual. This year we will be raising lots of witchy energy to protect the well-being of our nation and planet!
Anyone who wishes is invited to attend a devotional to Hekate Friday Evening after Opening Ritual. Feel free to bring eco- and animal-friendly offerings to leave for Her. Our devotees will have offerings that you may use for this purpose.
Weather permitting, after rituals our drummers will be building sacred energy around the fire. Feel free to bring your own musical instruments and drums to join in!
Donations to This Year’s Charity
As part of building Community energy during our gathering, we would like our family to bring either a single, new unwrapped toy to be donated after the festival to Amigos for Kids. This organization is dedicated to preventing child abuse and neglect by valuing children, strengthening families, and educating communities. You can find out more information about them at their website.
This Year’s Workshops
A full listing of all of this year’s workshops can be found on our workshop page. Some workshops will run concurrently, so be sure to check the schedule at registration or the White board of Power in the Great Hall to make sure you know when and where the ones you want to attend will be. Be sure to read our workshop descriptions ahead of time, as several ask that you bring items for use during the workshop. Be sure to download the (free!) EventsXD app ahead of time and search for our event, TTT2019. Our Turning the Tide workshop list is featured there, too!
What to Pack
| Your ID | Your Yuletide Spirit |
| Confirmation Email with Directions | Bedding, including blankets, sheets, pillow |
| Personal Toiletries & Towel | Reusable plate/bowl/cup/silverware for each person in your party |
| Pot Luck contribution for Feast | Food for dinner Friday & lunch Saturday (or go out) |
| Cooler for Drinks and Snacks | Cash for Auction Tickets |
| Decorations for your cabin | Ritual Wear for Saturday Night Ritual |
| Seeds, cuttings, plants to share | Flyers or business cards for your services of interest to the Tides community |
| Comfortable festival wear for days outside (check the weather!) | Comfortable walking shoes |
| Flashlight | Musical instrument and/or drum |
| Camp chairs or blanket for sitting outside | Notebook for workshop notes |
| Camera (but get permission before taking pictures of people!) | Binoculars for bird watching |
| WATER | Your Natal Chart! |
| Cell Phone Charger | Donations for Amigos for Kids |
| Offering for Hekate Devotional (something biodegradable: pomegranates, figs, honey, barley, rosemary, dark red wine, also flowers.) | |
Rules for a Safe Weekend
In keeping with the rules and regulations of our host site, no blades of any kind can be brought into Greynolds Park. We also regret that there will be no skyclad option. We request that our Tides Family respect our sacred ritual area and refrain from smoking anywhere near the Circle or the workshops. All buildings at Greynolds, including the cabins and cabin porches, are non-smoking areas. Smoking is allowed in the parking lot only.
In addition, we ask that you be responsible with your alcohol intake, especially with ritual in mind. While a glass of wine with dinner before Main Ritual is fine, if you are visible impaired or disruptive in ritual, you will be escorted out of ritual and back to your cabin. Should you enjoy adult beverages in the evening, remember that we are a community and to be respectful of those around you. Do not drive if you have imbibed. We will find cabin space for you if needed so that you can safely arrive home in the morning.
As a reminder, the camp does not allow alcohol in glass containers. If you choose to imbibe sacred brew, please do so discretely and in a non-glass container.
Finally, please be respectful of our family member’s boundaries. Whether it’s regarding smoking, alcohol, noise, etc…. we are a first and foremost community spending a weekend in sacred space. You will be in ritual space for the entirety of the festival.
Directions to the Festival
Getting to Greynold’s Park is very easy. Take I-95 north or south to exit 14 (FL-860/Miami Gardens Drive), and head east (toward the water) on Miami Gardens Drive for 2.2 miles. Take a left at the light at NE 22nd Avenue and the entrance to Camp Greynolds is immediately on your right, through a chain link fence. Pull all the way into the parking area, park, and register at the Great Hall, the building on the right as you enter the Camp.
The Everglades Moon Community is incredibly honored to host another gathering of our Turning the Tide family. Joining together to celebrate the beauty of Florida and our diverse but exciting community is one of our favorite things to do, and we are so glad you have decided to join us! As we gather, let us do so with a sense of strengthening our community in mind. As we part, may we take with us stronger connections, clearer paths, and a deeper relationship with Mother Earth. See you all on Friday!
Blessed Be!
Turning the Tide 2019 Planning Committee