I am much looking forward to the celebration of The ManKind Project’s 30 years in the UK & Ireland as part of the gorgeous Silver Sky Festival near Horsham in Sussex from 19th – 21st July 2024. I encourage you all to come join this event with other MKP men, their partners and their families.
To mark this significant anniversary, MKP will integrate fully into the festival: several of the UK & I founders will be part of a special ceremony on Saturday evening, there will be a delicious feast organised by our very own Tim Clements, much of the music will be played by MKP men and many of the workshops/performances held over the weekend will be led by our brothers.
The Silver Sky Festival is a coming together of UK & Ireland tribes including MKP and Woman Within. Over three days, with fifty workshops, music, dancing, feasting and laughter, this is a great opportunity to meet up with other men and perhaps women with whom you have travelled your journey.
At the last Silver Sky Festival, I attended 4 or 5 workshops, listened to the MKP (mostly) band, danced 5 Rhythms, ate delicious food, drank delicious coffee and alcohol and generally had a wonderful time. The mood was celebratory, alongside opportunities to attend workshops for deeper work, to connect to the land, to root oneself in ritual.
Particularly enjoyable was reconnecting with men and women whom I have met over the years since I did my New Warrior Training Adventure who came from Shadow Work, Tantra, MKP, abandofbrothers, Woman Within, Women in Power, Journeyman, Celebration of Being and even from a dating app (shhhh)!
This year, The ManKind Project will have its own designated tent where men can circle, check-in and connect. I so hope that tent is filled this year, particularly as it is the 30th anniversary of when men trained in the USA first brought MKP to the UK. Since then, our community has expanded and progressed yet at its core remains unchanged in its mission and I always find it joyful to meet up with men who not only have done the work but who share the experiences of the Weekend, the PIT, the leader and staff trainings, the staffings and MoS work whether men have stayed tight to the MKP fold or whether they have spun out wider into the community.
Silver Sky was previously held in 2022 north of London and this year the festival will be in the 100-acre grounds of the spectacular Gaveston Hall, near Horsham, West Sussex, RH13 6RG. The expansive fields afford space for camping and campervans, children’s activities and tennis, walking in nature, perhaps a five-a-side game, in addition to the long list of workshops, theatrical and musical performances and that MKP Founders Ceremony on Saturday evening.
Right now, the tents are booking up and the musicians are rehearsing. The timetable is being finalised but there are always room for more workshops should you feel called to bring your passion/training/interest to share with others over the weekend.
Silver Sky would also be grateful for anyone willing to lend a hand on Friday for set-up and Sunday for tear-down of the site or just to help for an hour or two over the weekend to move tables and chairs.
Tickets are still available here.
More info about the festival, including a shortlist of what is happening, can be found at www.silverskyfestival.com
And if you would like to offer a workshop, tell a story around the fire, sing a song or be part of the crew, please contact Melissa: silverskyfestival@gmail.com
I am pleased to say that many MKP men have already booked their tickets to please join us next month at Silver Sky. Bring your family, tell your iGroup or just bring yourself to Gaveston Hall from 19th-21st July. We shall celebrate MKP UK&I’s 30th in style!
- Mark F, MKP Member.
