Reprising an Old Salt Festival Favourite

Two years ago, on a warm northern Summer Solstice, the legendary Fred Provenza stood on the back of a truck in a field at the Old Salt Festival in Montana, and gave a now famous talk called Cosmic Dreaming. There was scarcely a dry eye on the grass. Organiser, and co-founder of Old Salt Coop (one of the great stories going), Cole Mannix, said he'd have run the festival for that alone, in a heartfelt and uncanny end to ep217 on the podcast.

We’d only just missed it, on our journey across the Americas during 2024-5. But resolved if we could get back there before returning home, we would.

And we did. Deliciously greeted to the 2025 edition by a balmy summer’s day.

And into a romantic evening.

Though by now, we had a sense of what was coming.

This was actually the Thursday night ahead of Friday’s festival launch. There’d been a pre-festival gathering of varied folk dedicated to furthering regenerative efforts, which I was lucky enough to attend. There was so much good stuff talked about on that day alone, it still feels worth sharing. Now that we’re home, I might do that.

But right now, I can tell you that after this highlight moment of low-key campfire tunes and chatter, celebrating good things on this Summer Solstice eve …

It snowed.

And rained.

Which, yes, as the glass half full folk would tell it, brought us closer together.

And yes, in fairness, we did get a little reprieve on Saturday evening. Enough for the big stage to fire up.

But it’s fair to say that it got this cold-averse punter dreaming of the year before - toasty warm, with Fred standing on the back of this truck.

Actually I was dreaming about it anyway. And when Fred and I did meet in person soon after his Old Salt talk, floating down his beloved Madison River, we talked about the continued evolution of Cosmic Dreaming, and all sorts of ideas that might contribute something to it.

For those who don’t know, Fred Provenza is the legendary behavioural ecologist and author who has revolutionised how we understand the nature of animal health and intelligence, and its connection to our human health and intelligence. And through his own deep personal trials and transformations, Fred has come to embody this knowledge in ways that shine a light not only on the extraordinary regenerative capacities of nature, including humans, but how regenerating all human systems stems from the wisdom of our bodies.

We did a podcast on it, back in 2022; first time we’d ever spoken. And I released this highlight excerpt last year for newer listeners.

Anyway, as Solstice approaches this week, I got to thinking about the Old Salt Festival gearing up once again, and in turn about Fred. Cosmic Dreaming has been in high demand ever since that first run. In fact, Fred nearly made it to the recent Grounded Festival here in Australia to offer the latest version, but not quite (though another notable Montanan who saw Fred back at Old Salt that day did).

So I wondered if we might reprise that first run this Solstice, on its second anniversary. I reached out to Fred and asked him if he'd share a reading with us live online, with a conversation afterwards. And he was only too happy to.

It’ll launch something I’ve wanted to do for ages, but haven’t been able to due to so much time travelling with the podcast over the years - live podcast gatherings with paid subscribers (here and on Patreon). A little something to revel in together, and in thanks for making all this possible.

Of course, if you’re heading to Old Salt this weekend, have a terrific time! If you’re not, I hope you’ll join us. I’ll have a special guest helping us out on the day too - writer, co-founder of our Confluence river journeys, and a paid subscriber, Katie Ross.

We kick off at 10.30am Saturday 20 June AEST / 6.30pm Friday 19 June MDT, and will go for approximately 90 minutes.

I’ll send a link to paid subscribers closer to the date. No need to RSVP, just join in if you’d like. Some parts of it will likely become a podcast afterwards, and/or be available to paid subscribers as a recording later. But for the live experience with Fred, and each other, we hope you can join us on the day!

If you’re a free subscriber, as they call it these days, or a new reader, you can become a paid subscriber any time and gain access to this event, for about $1 a week ($5/month).

So standby for more from me soon. And this time, I’ll have my blankets ready.