LEAF retreat returns to Lake Eden this May

In the midst of the pandemic, the annual LEAF festival at Lake Eden in Black Mountain could not go on, so organizers created a smaller event in 2021 meant to bring the spirit of LEAF to Lake Eden on a smaller scale.

LEAF Executive Director Jennifer Pickering said this event, known as the LEAF retreat, is constantly “evolving and developing.”

“This was one of our bright silver linings of COVID,” Pickering said. “As we were calibrating and doing smaller events to just stay alive, we fell in love with this size of right around 1,500 people for the weekend, and it felt like something that was a great balance with having a bigger festival in October and then doing the year-round work that we do.”

The 2024 LEAF retreat will take place May 9-12 at Lake Eden.

Pickering said LEAF retreat is more “intimate” than the full-fledged festival in October.

“It’s a perfect entry step into LEAF,” Pickering said. “It’s also a great place for people who don’t consider themselves festivalgoers, but yet they love culture and music and connecting and they want to learn, they want to have life-enriching and transformative experiences in a beautiful place.”

Pickering said the LEAF retreat still holds many of the “core pieces” of LEAF as it is a family-friendly event that can be enjoyed together or by oneself. She described the retreat as “learning by day, play by night” in that the retreat offers more workshops and collaborative learning experiences.

The theme for the 2024 LEAF retreat is “World Changers” and will focus on how artists from around the world use their culture and art to “make some pretty extraordinary changes,” according to Pickering.

“They all are from such different perspectives,” Pickering said. “Yet, at the heart of it, they’re all brining each other together in terms of artists. I am really honored at the wide diversity that we’re presenting.”

Pickering pointed to several authors who will be at the LEAF retreat and presenting, including David LaMotte, James Navé and Amanda Lucidon as some to look forward to, as well as musical act Cimafunk. She said she is looking forward to seeing what all participating artists bring to the retreat.

Tickets are on sale now and can purchased at theleaf.org. Prices range from $56 to $246 depending on the day and type of pass. Work exchange is also available for the retreat.

The cost of the ticket goes back to LEAF, and Pickering said it is important to remember that LEAF is a nonprofit that is “dedicated to cultural arts, education, preservation and connecting through global understanding.” She said bringing attention to the nonprofit keeps it growing.

Pickering said the LEAF retreat will be “fun” and exists as a way to help not only bring global art to a local scale, but also to learn to connect with it to make the world better.

“In the world of LEAF and just in the world in general, it’s so extraordinary to be able to create a platform where so many people come together with their beautiful culture or their beautiful music and revive our spirit,” Pickering said. “The world, it’s a mess out there, and so we get to step into this sacred place and space at beautiful Lake Eden and really learn and connect and gain hope, but also gain some more tools for how we can show up better in the world.”