An opportunity to start the day fresh! We would like to encourage participants to begin the day with presence. There are many different ways to step into the world each day, and we suggest however that is done, it is with a sense of awareness for self and others. This is supported through conscious practices such as Yoga, Aikido or Tai Chi. Otherwise you can slip into the beautiful fjord for a swim, or go for an energizing walk/jog in the stunning forests that surround the seminar. Or perhaps you'd like to start a morning game of football or frisbee to get the blood flowing? We encourage all healthy activities and invite participants to get involved with hosting groups in the mornings, so please step forward if you can offer guidance in your discipline.

Let's walk into Sense Festival invigorated, inspired and ready for action!

BREAKFAST (08:00)

Complete with local, biodynamic dairy!

With up to 250 friends buzzing around you at Sense Festival, it will be quite a challenge to know what's going on in all the different areas of activity! So, after we have fed our bodies with a hearty breakfast, we will host a speedy session of Community News, which allows us to keep up to date with the exciting co-creation that is unfolding all week.

SINGING

Every morning after the Community News we will host a lively singing session with talented choir leaders to get the energy flowing. Singing is good for your health! This will be a short session before the content of the day begins...

For your inspiration, we are arranging a series of "Power Talks" to kick-start the action of the day. These will be held by significant change-makers who have brought us powerful insight to change in the world. The exciting program of speakers will be announced in the coming weeks...

Edgard Gouveia Junior

We are delighted to announce that we have received confirmation that Edgard Gouveia Junior now has his plane tickets booked for his attendance at the festival!

In his own words, he is "committed to helping others discover and create their most Utopian dreams for their community". This inspiring attitude has lead him, along with several friends, to create a community empowerment methodology known as Oasis, that seeks to inspire communities to take their futures and surroundings into their own hands and collaboratively create their dreams in a very short period of time.

This years YIP participants connected very strongly to Edgard and his powerful social change work and we are now extremely excited to give you the opportunity to share in this inspiration at the Festival.

Kiara Nagel

Kiara Nagel joined us as a YIP contributor back in November of 2009 to do a week-long workshop on Place Making.

Now, we are pleased to announce that she will be joining us in Jarna once again for the Sense Festival!

Kiara is a great advocate for community development. She works to ensure that the people who would be most affected are directly engaged in decision-making about how their places are shaped, understood and represented. Places are important. They define our identity, foster social networks, and provide the platform upon which everyday life, love, and health are determined. We know that Kiara’s experiences, achievements, and charisma will be a great asset to the festival as we create and celebrate our community.

Reinoud Meijer

Has seen 34 summers and is currently looking forward to the longest one so far. He has been active in working with youth and youth-activities for many years. He has been involved in many conferences and initiatives for, with and by youth. Since June 2008 he and his family have moved to Järna, Sweden to be organizing the International Youth Initiative Program.

His profession is best described as a practical dreamer or imagineer.  He likes to move possibilities into probabilities wherever possible.

Founding member of:

• Connect Conference
  
• Connect Café
  
• Youth Initiative Program
  

We have invited Reinoud to give a powertalk for inspiration at Sense Festival!

Pieter Ploeg

In the mornings of Sense Festival we will be invited into a 20 minute powertalk to gear us up for the day. One of these talks will be given by Pieter Ploeg, a current YIP participant.

Pieter has worked with youth in social projects for about 5 years, from organizing international youth summer camps to setting up a youth network for social projects in the Netherlands and was very much involved in a project called Connectivity before he came to YIP.

He will be sharing his view on "Youth in the 21st century" and the magical quality of working with "Abundance".

Celebrating Community!

In these conscientious community collaboration sessions, participants will get to discover, dream, design and co-decide with the collective initiatives of the immediate community that are alive and growing in this beautiful countryside. There is a large host of pioneering initiatives living in this area, which are leading creative disciplines that support the growth of comprehensive sustainable development. One of our founding principles is that in order to promote a sustainable society, we first have to look at developing sustainable relationships in community and, building on this, our relationship with the environment will be naturally sustainable.

Think Globally, Act Locally

The idea is for participants to join hands with each other and the local community in a conscious practice of community development. The design of these sessions is well underway and we envision a healthy process to take place, one which allows you to realize your dreams for a sustainable and conscious society through grounded action.

Community Mapping

To this end, we are in the process of creating a map of living initiatives throughout the locality, profiling the extent of the local network, which will provide a base for us to engage the wider community. The participants of YIP will be carrying out this initiative during their Community Engagements program in May.

Update May 14th: (Jonas Darin)

In the schedule of Sense Festival, there is something called community collaboration. People from the local community and the international community are coming together in Järna to perform collaborative action in four days. The action aspires to create profound relationships with ourselves and nature.

Why do we need to collaborate?

We need unity and we need each other. Competition has destroyed enough on this planet. Business powers that are aspiring to economical growth separate humanity from nature. People can "collaboratively" be working with social ills as well, so we first need to explore and understand why we need "collaboration".

The best way to find this out is to simply ask people that are living in and caring about the community.

What are your dreams for this community?

What are we working for, where are we working, and how could that action look?
I see food and education as the basics in which we have the possibility to explore further to gain sustainable development. The food cycle starts when seeds are planted in the soil. We therefore need to investigate agriculture (farms and gardens) to see what the aspiration is. Education is the field and space for us to develop the best potential in human beings.

If we intend to perform action in Järna Community, we have to care about it. If we intend to ask the people in the community about their dreams we have to respect these dreams, fully embrace them and have the intention to fulfil them – through mind, heart or hand.

Järna Community:

LUNCH (1pm)

The meal of the day! No doubt with all that community action you'll be ready to enjoy a carefully prepared organic meal under the shade of our apple trees, and take some time to relax in conversation, sharing the insights of the morning.

In the afternoon we will gather for the workshop sessions. You will be hosted by an experienced team of Open Space practitioners who will use this self-organizing social technology to rapidly co-ordinate a simple schedule of workshops and activities for the duration of the afternoon. These will take place all over the seminar and there is no limit to what can happen! You are encouraged to take part either as a host or participant in this session, so if you have your own initiative or project you want to share with the group then this is the time and place for you to do it! Your offering can be as simple as a game of hacky-sack in the sunshine or as complex as building a new sustainable energy system for the whole community!

For those who wish to offer initiatives, the space is open! send your ideas to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

ideas so far:

• Guerilla Gardening
• Aerobics in the morning
• Henna tattoos at the chai tent
• Building a floating diving platform
• Yipopoly, a magic money box (brotherhood in community)
• Community Cooking
• Micro-soccer Sense Cup
• Macramé workshop
• Storytelling
• Arts and Crafts
• Hawaiian Lomi Lomi Massage Workshop
• Nature Quest
• Sweat Lodge
• Swimming to the Island
• Dance & body movement workshops

We are excited to announce that Raphael, a Palestinian Story teller will collaborate with Tina, a Swedish story teller at Sense Festival. These two weavers of words will join forces to lead interactive creative workshops in story telling. This will culminate in a visual story which will be painted on the story telling tippie throughout the festival. We are enthusiastic to see what happens in these amazing five days so get your wild words and colorful paints ready.

As the farmers provide us with the nourishment to live on this beautiful planet, so do we need to harvest the fruits of our labour. There will be space held at the end of each day to allow for the percolation of insight and the rising patterns of emergence, to be acknowledged and represented in a clear way for everyone to see. We wish to harvest the processes going on throughout each day and take a closer look at the diversity of interaction and involvement that is going on in this dynamic event. Feel free to add your talent to this initiative!

Barnyard

To store the harvest, we will provide a platform for everyone to contribute what they have collected during the day. This may be in the form of writings, art, graphic facilitation, photography, video, music, you name it! In this way we can co-create a fascinating live exhibition of content and insight that is available all week.

Learning Village

The opportunity of a sharing circle, to harvest in a different way. Through well-hosted meaningful conversation and circle practice, a lot of the daily digest can be centered and allowed to develop within. We would like to invite experienced hosts to step forward if they are inspired to hold space.

DINNER

A lighter meal than lunch, fresh produce and deliciousness!

Now that you are well fed with food for thought and the body is nourished, it's time to shower you with an evening full of culture and delight. We are arranging a program of performances to keep you on the edge of your seat, or rather right off it – dancing and celebrating community right into the night!

Disclaimer: that's if you can find any night in midsummer Sweden! Sunset 22h00 Sunrise 03h30!

Get your fill of world culture and beautiful music at Sense Festival...

click here to purchase your evening ticket (evening performances are included in the full program fee)

Tuesday 15 June: Opening

Ceremony & YIP Concert - Meet the YIP participants and enjoy a unique series of solo performances... then relax in the Night Café with Ivan Blomqvist and Paulina Boje performing the mellow jazz of Duoja

Wednesday 16 June: Local

Great local Swedish bands Water Kings, Clockwise, and Sture's Dansorkester!

Thursday 17 June: Rhythm

Congolese/Swedish outfit Bisikongo and the amazing dance for social inspiration World as a Garden performed by YIP participants

Friday 18 June: Urban

A night of conscious hip-hop and grafitti with Curro (YIP) and MC Matre from Los Angeles!

Saturday 19 June: World Music

Gosia Winter, Guy Collins & Kaspar - a midsummer night's dream - the perfect way to close this amazing week of making Sense!

The culture program is arranged and hosted by YIP participants Ediane Santana de Lima and Nathan Daniel Heller - please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more info

Community Café

We will also provide a space for conversations and tasty evening treats.