Lucidity Festival

Lucidity is an annual transformational festival held in the city of Santa Barbara, California. Its name alludes to the concept of lucid dreams – dreams during which the dreamer is aware of dreaming and may be able to exert some degree of control over his dreams. At the inaugural festival, the event producers encouraged attendees to “awake in their dreams”.

The Lucidity Festival was founded in 2012 and has been held each year ever since. It may be described as a continuing experiment in art, community, radical self-reliance, and radical self-expression. It has often been compared to major counterculture festivals such as Burning Man, Lightning in a Bottle, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, and Electric Daisy Carnival.

Lucidity is run and managed by Lucidity Festival LLC, a collectively owned production company that focuses on creating unique transformational experiences for communities and individuals. The festival’s philosophy is based on a number of core values such as participation and immersion in the artistic process, awake and aware consciousness, personal growth and global healing, creative play and family fun, social and environmental responsibility, transparency, and communal reciprocity. Although not identical to the famous Burning Man principles, they pursue the same goal.

The Lucidity Festival has three main stages and many subsidiary stages featuring artists, bands and DJs that play in different genres including electronic dance music, folk music, ethnic music, world music, experimental music, devotional music, and others. Along with official concerts, there are lots of improvised performances and jam sessions that take place throughout the festival campgrounds.

Although music plays an important role in the festival’s program, Lucidity doesn’t focus solely on musical performances. Its program also features exotic dancers, acrobats, spoken word artists, art exhibitions and installations, arts and crafts fairs, workshops, lectures on environmental protection, sessions with body workers and healers, and other events and activities. All events take place in thematic villages which include (as of 2017) Goddess Grove, Warriors’ Way, Nomads’ Nook, Healers’ Sanctuary, Lovers’ Nest, Trixsters’ Playground, and Family Garden.

The Lucidity Festival is a three-day event that begins on Friday morning and runs through Monday morning. The festival is a 24 hour event, but amplified music ends daily at 12 am. Nighttime activities held in the festival’s theme camps include acoustic sessions, silent discos, interactive art displays, and cuddle puddles.