use spaces that your community already has (Lighthaven?), even if they’re not quite set up the right way for them
Not set up the right way would be an understatement, I think. Lighthaven doesn’t have an indoor space which can seat several hundred people, and trying to do it outdoors seems like it’d require solving maybe-intractable logistical problems (weather, acoustics, etc). (Also Lighthaven was booked, and it’s not obvious to me to what degree we’d want to subsidize the solstice celebration. It’d also require committing a year ahead of time, since most other suitable venues are booked up for the holidays quite far in advance.)
I don’t think there are other community venues that could host the solstice celebration for free, but there might be opportunities for cheaper (or free) venues outside the community (with various trade-offs).
I don’t think there are other community venues that could host the solstice celebration for free
Instead of having one big gathering for the whole Bay Area you could have several gatherings small enough to fit in the houses of community members who have large spaces. Since the main bottleneck is organizers splitting like this wouldn’t make sense for the Bay, but hosting them at houses is pretty common in cities with smaller gatherings (ex: Boston, which I help organize).
Staggering the gathering in time also works. Many churches repeat their Christmas service multiple times over the course of the day, to allow more people to come than can fit in the building.
Staggering it sounds kind of nice. It could allow there to be a solstice event on the actual solstice (Dec 21st) as well as small solstice celebrations in the week leading up for those who cannot be there on that date.
I’d be excited to try that at Lighthaven (if the solstice organizers wanted to give it a shot), though I also really like having a big get-together. Perhaps we could have a week-long solstice celebration at Lighthaven with multiple rituals and other little fun things for people to do.
If it were done at Lighthaven, it would have to be done outdoors. This does present logistical problems.
I would guess that making Lighthaven’s outdoor space usable even if it rains would cost much less (an order of magnitude?) than renting out an event space, although it might cost other resources like planning time that are in more limited supply.
If Lighthaven does not want to subsidize Solstice, or have the space reserved a year in advance, then that would make this option untenable.
It’s also potentially possible to celebrate Solstice in January, when event spaces are more available.
Not set up the right way would be an understatement, I think. Lighthaven doesn’t have an indoor space which can seat several hundred people, and trying to do it outdoors seems like it’d require solving maybe-intractable logistical problems (weather, acoustics, etc). (Also Lighthaven was booked, and it’s not obvious to me to what degree we’d want to subsidize the solstice celebration. It’d also require committing a year ahead of time, since most other suitable venues are booked up for the holidays quite far in advance.)
I don’t think there are other community venues that could host the solstice celebration for free, but there might be opportunities for cheaper (or free) venues outside the community (with various trade-offs).
Instead of having one big gathering for the whole Bay Area you could have several gatherings small enough to fit in the houses of community members who have large spaces. Since the main bottleneck is organizers splitting like this wouldn’t make sense for the Bay, but hosting them at houses is pretty common in cities with smaller gatherings (ex: Boston, which I help organize).
Staggering the gathering in time also works. Many churches repeat their Christmas service multiple times over the course of the day, to allow more people to come than can fit in the building.
Staggering it sounds kind of nice. It could allow there to be a solstice event on the actual solstice (Dec 21st) as well as small solstice celebrations in the week leading up for those who cannot be there on that date.
I’d be excited to try that at Lighthaven (if the solstice organizers wanted to give it a shot), though I also really like having a big get-together. Perhaps we could have a week-long solstice celebration at Lighthaven with multiple rituals and other little fun things for people to do.
If it were done at Lighthaven, it would have to be done outdoors. This does present logistical problems.
I would guess that making Lighthaven’s outdoor space usable even if it rains would cost much less (an order of magnitude?) than renting out an event space, although it might cost other resources like planning time that are in more limited supply.
If Lighthaven does not want to subsidize Solstice, or have the space reserved a year in advance, then that would make this option untenable.
It’s also potentially possible to celebrate Solstice in January, when event spaces are more available.