Providing innovative festivals…
Providing innovative festivals, events, & workshops to support the challenged community well-being, education, & social interaction.
Touch Mother Earth provides earth-based community, mind, body, spirit, and arts training, workshops, classes, retreats, and festivals.
We believe in the sanctity of the planet, her peoples and all living things. As such, we strive to provide a peaceful, holistic, loving environment to open up and enlighten minds, body, hearts, and spirits.
“Everyone has the power to make a difference, to themselves and others, and to our world.”
― Yasmin Davar, Our Peaceful Planet: Healing Ourselves and Our World for a Sustainable Future
Bringing the Outside “In” with innovative events brought to the challenged community
We are a registered 501c3 please donate.
Bringing The Outside “In”
Our Vision:
We digitally support community well-being, education, humanities, and enhanced social interaction by providing innovative events, classes, festivals, and workshops, on multi-media platforms to the physically, psychologically, mentally, emotionally, and age challenged community.
Touch Mother Earth integrates the virtual community with physical events to accomplish cultural synergy. We produce innovative festivals & content that informs, teaches, enhances wellness, enriches cultural experience through the humanities, promotes thought leadership, expands physical and emotional awareness, encourages spiritual and psychological expression, and provides practical education of earth-oriented topics and subjects.
We bring virtual programs home to those that cannot go out. We bring the Outside “In”.
Who Benefits?: Our Subscribers:
Anyone who cannot physically get out either temporarily because of the environment or permanently. This includes nursing homes & other institutional subscribers & individuals.
Providing innovative festivals:
May 24th-27th, 2024
BEST Fest
Are you ready to experience the BEST Fest in New Jersey? Get ready for four days of non-stop excitement, entertainment, and unforgettable memories. Whether you’re a local resident or visiting from out of town, this event promises to be the highlight of your year. Here’s a sneak peek of what you can expect at the BEST Fest:
Day 1: May 24, 2024 – Grand Opening Extravaganza
Location: Camp Sacajawea, Farmingdale, NJ, Monmouth County
The BEST Fest kicks off with a bang at Camp Sacajawea in Farmingdale. Join us for the Grand Opening, featuring live music, food trucks, and an awe-inspiring drum circle around the fire.
Bring a camp chair and enjoy a relaxing evening with your family and friends as we set the tone for an incredible festival weekend.
at Camp Sacajawea in Farmingdale, NJ, Monmouth County,
BEST: Belonging, Emerging, Synergizing, Transforming
Touch Mother Earth non-profit returns with BEST Festival. May 24th – 27th 2024. (Renamed from Gathering of the Tribes Festival).
How would it feel if you joined the community at Touch Mother Earth BEST Fest. May 24th – 27th 2024 held amidst the serene surroundings of Monmouth County Girl Scout Camp Sacajawea in Farmingdale (central NJ)? It’s a magical Weekend awaiting you, brimming with an array of captivating activities: workshops, live music, drum n dance classes and circles, yoga, Kirtan, massage, sound, and energy healing, ceremonial gatherings, hand-picked vendors, camping, hiking, healthy food, new friends.
Can you imagine the enchanting experience of escaping the hustle and bustle of everyday life as you immerse yourself in the heart of the forest for a day or four. Picture a realm where you can indulge in sound healing, embrace the tranquility of forest bathing, revel in live music, dance to the rhythm of drums, practice yoga, participate in enlightening workshops, explore enticing vendor offerings, engage in activities for kids, and even opt for a camping adventure to truly unwind.
Best of all the BEST Fest brings together varied interests with villages like Music, Drum and Dance, Mind-Body-Spirit, Sacred Moon and Earth Camp all at Camp Sacajawea, nestled in the trees of Monmouth County, NJ (NOT SPARTA)
DAY 2: May 25, 2024- BEST Fest brings you Music Madness: the main stage will have continuous performances while yoga, healing workshops, dance classes, drum classes and nature walks take place in the forest setting. Early Saturday night the whole community comes together with concerts featuring Ubaka Hill (drum & song artist), and Mirabai Moon. Stay tuned for the artist lineup and get ready to dance to your favorite and then join us around the fire for a heightened drum circle.
Now is the time to reunite in community with all that we have learned and set into practice with unique workshops, new presenters, and performers mixed in with some favorites! We will blend live music and jam time on stage, offer even more yoga, have time in the woods, and offer dynamic workshops, plus spiritual connections.
DAY 3: May 26, 2024- You might have noticed that this is Memorial Weekend- 4 days. Sunday brings us continued entertainment with the jumping music of Tony & the Trees.
They will be joined along with Gaia Raga, Swardas and friends, Bele Bele featuring Drumlady Kristen Arant and Friends, Spook Handy, Scott Pehnke, Dennis McDoNoUgh, Tommy and Mommy, Sawmill Run Old Time Band, Amanda Conti, and more.
. They will be joined along with Gaia Raga, Tony and the Trees, Swardas and friends, Bele Bele featuring Drumlady Kristen Arant and Friends, Spook Handy, Scott Pehnke, Dennis McDoNoUgh, Tommy and Mommy, Sawmill Run Old Time Band, Amanda Conti, and more.
DRUM n DANCE CAMP
Ubaka Hill, Mamoudou Konate Simbo & Clyde Williams Jr will offer djembe classes to get your hands tingling and We will offer a Middle-Eastern Doumbek class. Drumlady Kristen Arant will lead a circle.
African dance instructor Audrey Davis-Dunning with Victor Marshall will return with a new class! We will also have belly dance classes with Maria ‘Naja’ Richardson and Bridgette Dance,
Audie OS & her belly dance troop, and nightly drum circles around the fire!
Our Drum n Dance program is sponsored by Hub City Drum n Dance of New Brunswick, NJ
Drum circles, hikes in the woods, yoga with Bharati Carla activities for kids, food vendors and plenty of shopping!
We will also have activities for the Touch Mother Earth Kids with AnneMarie Dralus and others.Immerse yourself in the magic of music, love, friendship, spirit, nature, and acceptance. Make new connections with the diverse, mindful culture of people, workshops, classes, and performances plus shopping found at the Positive Vibe Tribe Festival by Touch Mother Earth happening August 25th – 27th at Monmouth County Girl Scout Camp Sacajawea in Farmingdale (central NJ). Note, this is not up north- NOT Sparta ( NOT Sussex County).
PARKING is at the Program Activity Center 127 Yellow Brook Road, Farmingdale, NJ
The festival is not just a fun experience, not just a learning experience, it’s a bonding experience where your facilitators, teachers, leaders, vendors, and others are all together in the communal forest. You get to come for a day or camp, hang out with a tribe, learn together, share meals, and talk together in one place and all workshops are included!
Float from tribe to tribe.
Music Jam Stage
Sacred Moon Market
Drum N Dance
Mind Body Spirit Zone
Mother Earth
Touch Mother Earth Kids
Sacred Moon Fire Camp
Food vendors will be onsite or you can bring your own. We will have vegetarian/vegan food, drink, and snacks available! We have flush toilets, compost toilets, outdoor swimsuit showers, picnic tables, and pavilions onsite. Weekend campers may use the onsite grills. We are a pack-in, pack-out camp so plan to take the general trash and recycling away.
SHOP OVER 50 HAND-SELECTED VENDORS
Find unique gifts and treasures at the Sacred Moon Market, Drum and Dance Camp, and Mind Body Spirit Zone with custom silver, gold, wrapped jewelry, beads, homemade wellness products, room sprays, soaps, salves, tinctures, oils, crocheted items, tote bags, customized African jean jackets, scarves, and clothing, tie-dye items, and inspired fashions of Asia.
You will also find hand-blown glass, pottery, ceramics, crystals, gemstones, minerals, fossils, botanicals, teas, art, prints, African tapestries, wood carvings, flutes, drums, books, incense, smudge, candles, angel, tarot, and oracle cards, Runes, medallions, charms and pendants, readers, chair and Thai massage, Shiatsu, muscle testing, sound and energy healers, BioMat sessions, and more!
Support your local artists and bring some cash .
Doors Open to the Public
3 pm – 11 pm on Friday
10 am – 11 pm Saturday
10 am – 11pm Sunday
10 am- 4 PM Monday
Create new memories this Autumn Weekend filled with4-days of workshops, live bands, hand-picked vendors, African drum n dance classes and performances, Belly dance classes, talking circles, yoga, Kirtan, massage, sound and energy healing, ceremonial gatherings, camping, hiking, healthy food, and new open-minded friends!
Saturday night music headliner are Ubaka Hill
ALL WORKSHOPS INCLUDED!
Kids program also!
Friday evening, we let loose around the glowing fire with plenty of drumming and dancing with Mamoudou Konate Simbo, Jim Dav, Clyde Williams Jr, and Dave Miller with Cheryl Glover from
EarthMovers Drum Collective. We have another drum circle on Saturday after the concert ends starting at
11 pm for the campers.
All dance classes are held at the Pavilion between the Drum n Dance camp and the lower Camper Parking Lot.
Come for a day or stay the weekend.
Don’t forget to shop at the Sacred Moon Market.
We have multi-culture drum, dance, music and workshops.
Touch Mother Earth is a 501c3 Non-Profit that streams real content to disabled, aged & institutions. Donate Here
and on stage, dance to the live music, do yoga,, meditate on a sound healing, get a massage or hike the trails!
Choose from the onsite tents already set up on platforms or huts (each sleeps 2 – 4), or pitch your own tent in one of the villages complete with a fire circle and vendors! Camping Choices
Food vendors 
will be onsite or you can cook over the fire if camping. Hand-picked vendors will be set up in the villages and along the paths, so you can buy a drum, pick up some handmade soap, jewelry, tinctures, and more!