Annual Wild Goose Festival Fosters Transformational Community

Hundreds of spiritual seekers, misfits, mystics and justice-advocates descended on Van Hoy Farms near Union Grove, North Carolina, on Labor Day weekend for the annual Wild Goose Festival (WGF). The event drew people from various spiritual and religious backgrounds, with many festivalgoers leaning into progressive or post-evangelical Christian traditions.

The event began on Thursday with pre-festival conversations and presentations led by “co-creators,” Wild Goose’s term for the numerous visionaries and practitioners who make the festival possible. It ended on Sunday with Good Faith Media’s (GFM) Starlette Thomas “sending the Goose” with a fiery and inspiring sermon from 2 Corinthians 3:1-6.

In between, hundreds of opportunities for learning, conversation, contemplation and creation, as well as a good amount of partying, took place throughout the campgrounds. Each evening ended with music, including “Beer and Hymns” events in a big tent under the starlight. 

Notable co-creators at this year’s festival included Flamy Grant and Sara Cunningham, two of Good Faith Magazine’s inaugural “25 Who Inspire” honorees. In addition to Thomas, GFM’s Kali Cawthon-Freels and Mitch Randall offered attendees wisdom through various conversations and presentations.

Cawthon-Freels, who heads GFM’s Faithful Pride Initiative, led table conversations on “Queer Jesus: Seeing Ourselves in Christ and Christ in Ourselves.” Randall, GFM’s CEO and the leader of the Faith and Democracy Initiative, gave a presentation on “The Doctrine of Christian Discovery.” In addition to her closing sermon, Thomas, who leads GFM’s Raceless Gospel Initiative, presented a talk titled “African American Spirituals for Place-Making and Future Casting.”

GFM Contributing Correspondent Grace Ji-Sun Kim spoke about her book When God Became White and led a panel discussion on her latest book, Earthbound.

Frequent GFM contributor Jamie Marich presented a one-person show inspired by her book You Lied to Me About God.

Billed as “a transformational community grounded in faith-inspired social justice,” the Wild Goose Festival community embraces seven core commitments: Co-Creation, Storytelling, Radical Hospitality, Real Relationships, Non-Violence, Always Evolving and Conversation with Civility.

Comparisons to Burning Man and Woodstock are readily available and frequently drawn. But like those countercultural movements, Wild Goose has its own personality and unique spirit.

Hosanna Gifford, a 31-year-old from Buffalo, New York, attended the festival with her book club, which members refer to as the “Doomsday Fellowship,” who heard about Wild Goose from Brian McLaren, a frequent WGF co-creator. They made the nine-hour drive south to experience it for themselves.

Although she grew up in the Christian tradition, attended an evangelical college and even worked at a Southern Baptist church, Gifford is now ambivalent toward the idea of church. Much of her break began on Jan. 6, 2021, when, as she joked, “the parking lot [of her Virginia church] was full because everyone carpooled to the Capitol to riot together.”

Gifford noted some of the generational differences between her group of friends and many of the other WGF attendees, but overall, she had a positive experience and said she would return if given the chance.

Another group of first-time attendees consisted of three Lutheran ministers: Jenny Greg from Pittsfield, Massachusetts; Emily Hartner from Huntersville, North Carolina; and Mindy Roll from Houston. The friends met as classmates at Yale Divinity School. Each said they found the festival enjoyable and meaningful.

Roll said the group came in with no expectations but had a “really positive experience.” Her favorite presentation was on mysticism and writing. “It was beautiful. I really loved it.”

Hartner was impressed with the “incredibly inclusive nature” of the Wild Goose community. She most resonated with the contra dance experience, which she explained as “like square dancing, but very inclusive.” Hartner added, “Everybody dances with everybody. Nobody is left out.”

Music permeated the festival, an aspect that appealed to Greg. On Saturday afternoon, she sat in the tent and listened to Brother James. “Some of his songs just really spoke to our times,” she said.

In her “sending the Goose” sermon, Starlette Thomas concluded with a passionate litany for attendees to take home with them. It included encouragements to “engage in resistance … open your mouth and say something you can’t take back … divest from privilege … raise your voice for somebody else … and exercise your love until it is strong enough to survive anything.”

The 2026 Wild Goose Festival will take place Sept. 3-6. For more information, including ticket details, visit wildgoosefestival.org.