By Bob Allen
Dates and venue have been announced for Wild Goose 2013, an annual festival of music, spirituality, social justice and art for progressive evangelicals under a theological and missional tent commonly known as “emergent Christianity.”
First held in 2011 and modeled after Greenbelt, an outdoor music festival with spiritual and justice-oriented undertones that has been held in England for more than 20 years, this year’s Wild Goose festival is scheduled Aug. 8-11 in Hot Springs near Asheville, N.C. Planners said 2,000 tickets will be available and go on sale Thursday, Jan. 24. The festival lineup will be announced soon.
Ten years in the making, Wild Goose launched its debute festival in 2011 in Chatham County, North Carolina, in June 2011. Headliners included Jim Wallis, Phyllis Tickle, Brian McLaren, Peggy and Tony Campolo and Lynne Hybels and attracted an audience of about 1,700. In an effort to make it easier to attend, last year’s festival added a second site in Corvallis, Ore.
This year, planners returned to one major annual festival at a location more accessible to travelers from as far away as Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York City, Miami and Houston. Future plans call for up to three smaller regional gatherings beginning in 2014, in places as diverse as Florida, Texas and Oregon.
The “Wild Goose” is a Celtic symbol for the Holy Spirit and a metaphor for unpredictability, beauty and grace.