At 25, I lunged at the opportunity to make the journey to ConFest with friends over New Year 1993/94. Tales of exotica and high adventure had been conveyed by early explorers. While I was intrigued, it is fair enough to say that I was also more than a little anxious as various 'ordeal myths' had filtered through to me, such as stories of obligatory public nudity. I had also anticipated politically quiescent hippiedom. Nothing prepared me, however, for what I was to experience that summer - random acts of kindness, gestures of refusal and pure unpredictability, almost every waking hour for five days. I was thrown into new territory, exploring a lifeworld which I had not been privilege in my youth but to which I had steadily gravitated. The shock of difference was inspirational. For me, the effect of the ludic otherness encountered is comparable to that of a circus on a child-novice. Like the mesmerised child, I desired to run off and join the circus.
It was not until after that summer 'on the road', travelling north from Melbourne to the Northern Rivers of northeast NSW, that it began to dawn upon me that ConFest deserved closer investigation. I had been conducting an uninspiring MA (on mortuary practices) at La Trobe University at the time. From a theoretical perspective, my shift to alternative culture was not a radical departure, as I was able to pursue my interest in Victor Turner, liminality, performance and transformation. Yet, over five years, my views on the master ritual theorist were to undergo revision.
In that period, I attempted to combine, with varying degrees of success, appropriate academic disengagement with full immersion in 'the field', to resolve antinomies existing between my researcher role and ConFester status. As a researcher, I have been provided privileged access to the thoughts and feelings of a large contingent of participants. As a ConFester, I have made biannual pilgrimage to an event host to those who are, in the large, 'fellow travellers'. At ConFest, I have experienced the quality of regeneration for which it has popularly acquired credit and respect. Through my own presence and interactions, I have shared in the construction of ConFest as a collective experience.
Data for this thesis has been gathered via participant observation, interviews, questionnaires, archival and documentary research, cyber-research (Internet 'billboarding' and feedback and email exchanges).1
Participant observation
The first ConFest I attended (Moama I - 1993/94) inspired this research. Since then, over a period of more than five years up to and including Easter 1999, I attended every consecutive event (12 events) and roughly 70 DTE meetings (RGMs, SGMs and AGMs). There were, thus, two broad areas of research involvement (ConFest and DTE) rendering my 'field' rather multi-sited. Though DTE meetings have been important, my principal field location was ConFest. Long periods of reflection, reading and analysis followed brief biannual periods of full-immersion. Sustained analysis in the 'off-season' enabled the reconfiguration and synthesis of theoretical models. Although there were meetings, other events and chance encounters with research subjects and other participants throughout the rest of the year, seasonal distancing precluded the 'withdrawal from analysis' experienced by Muetzelfeldt in his research on Friends of the Earth (1989:51).
The thesis draws largely upon five events held between 1994-1997 (when the first questionnaires and much of the interviewing were conducted). However, since my experiences at other ConFests are important, those experiences are occasionally drawn upon. Also, my participation in numerous other alternative cultural events (e.g. Rainbow Gatherings, Earth Haven, All One Family Gatherings, earthcore) has enabled further comparative work.
As a ConFester, I have been involved in numerous workshops, funshops, rituals, performances and site work over the years. Something of my enthusiasm is conveyed in a letter published in the DTE News (May 1996:4). Dense organisational networks and complex informal webworks have made it necessary to maintain 'mobility' both on and off-site - traversing unfamiliar territory, adjusting to new situations. Casual dialogue with participants at key locations - like the Gate, Information tent and around the camp fire - have been most helpful in aiding my understanding of an unfolding cultural phenomenon. Generating dialogue is perhaps the most effective means of gathering information. Of course, much dialogue has been entered into without being conscious of any research role. A great many friendships have been struck up at ConFest and within DTE. Many informants have become friends, and friends - by virtue of their ConFest attendance - informants.
As I planned to access the personal thoughts and feelings of a broad membership, I made a decision, supported by most of my informants, to avoid becoming a member of DTE in the early period of the research as I realised this would have diminished the distance necessary for conducting interviews. Since DTE is an adversarial democracy, personally voting and 'taking sides' in the organisation would have unnecessarily compromised my project. Despite my official non-membership, however, I felt like 'one of them' anyway. After the bulk of my data gathering, I decided to become a member of DTE in 1998. As an eligible ConFest Committee member I compiled the ConFest Handbook for Guilmartens I and II, and, with an interest in promoting ConFest, contributed an article in Green Connections (St John 1998/99:24-5).
Interviews
I have conducted 68 interviews in total. Most were single-person interviews, though 3 were with 2 informants, 1 with 3, and 2 were with more than 3 informants. There were 3 follow up interviews. Of varying duration (between ten minutes and four hours), interviews were conducted on and off site (and a few at other events - especially at the AOF Gathering in 1996). Many interviewees are DTE members involved in site infrastructure and workshops. As I considered oral histories to be important material for shaping a thesis, and as I believed it necessary to possess prior background understanding of individuals for the purpose of designing appropriate interview strategies, interviewees were often approached after lengthy deliberation and prior interactions. It was often the case, however, that strategies had to be discarded or modified as they were no longer suitable to changing circumstances (such as the political climate within DTE) or other contingencies (such as, interruptions, delays and the presence of others during interviews). Random on-site interviewing was also undertaken. I was specifically interested in biographical details, unique contributions, skills and roles at ConFest. Rather than asking standardised questions in a directive interrogation, a discursive interviewing technique permitted an iterative process of refinement such that the commentary, responses and themes raised by early interviewees gave shape to the direction of inquiry of later interviews. Some interviews were retrospective, with interviewees asked to recall personal and historical information. Most interviews were open-ended, the line of questioning and scope for discursive elaboration consistent with the qualitative goals of the research.
Questionnaires
There were two separate paper questionnaires, one electronic and one special questionnaire. The first paper questionnaire was distributed randomly at Toc III (Easter 1994) (with pre-paid envelopes attached) and Moama II (1994/95). The second paper questionnaire was distributed via the DTE newsletter (DTE News 83, June 1995) prefaced by my letter of introduction outlining my research motives to the broader membership. The total combined response was 66. Almost all respondents were not those interviewed, and most were not DTE members. Specially designed questionnaires were distributed to a small number of DTE members between 1997-99 (6 returned). The electronic questionnaire, similar to what Neuenfeldt (1996) refers to as delayed 'electrographic interviews', conducted in 1998-99 (with 14 returns), was shorter and more theme specific than the earlier questionnaires. Most respondents were those I had never met.
Archives
During my candidature, I conducted four separate trips to the State Library of NSW in Sydney where I researched the Mitchell Wing's Rainbow Archives: newsletters, media reports, personal documents, ephemera and audio-visual material on DTE, ConFest and other manifestations of Australian alternative culture. I have also accessed DTE archives held by Cheryl Boston (DTE secretary) and the personal archives of several members.
Cyber-space
Computer mediated communication technology has added a most useful dimension to the research project. A small series of brief documents on DTE history and ConFest culture appeared on a GreenNet link as a promotion for Moama V. Between August 1997 and early 1998, Chapter's 3 and 4 were posted on the DTE website. The 'billboarding' of these chapters was undertaken to inform participants and members about the history and culture of DTE and ConFest, and to attract potential participants. The site has enabled constructive feedback for the purpose of the accurate and collaborative documentation of historical and cultural events.
Email has been a useful communication tool, as it has enabled extra-event contact with many ConFesters. The DTE email-group, formed in 1997, has enabled me to inform members of my research progress, broadcast matters concerning the history of DTE, to provide attachments of Chapter's 3 and 4 to interested members, and to conduct electronic questionnaires. With the permission of authors concerned, I have also introduced comments from individuals mailing to either the DTE email-group or myself into the text of the thesis.
Agreement
It has been my intention to provide DTE with a hard copy of the completed thesis (and not to mention this URL!). As part of my agreement with DTE, in 1996 I provided the Co-operative with drafts of an eventually published article (St John 1997). An early condensation of the thesis, the draft was 'stationed' at the Toc IV Information tent for public perusal. Some participants provided valuable feedback.
Generally, the thesis employs pseudonyms in place of proper names. However, in cases where informants have requested my use of their proper name, or have expressed permission to do so, proper names are used. Where I have used published or publicly accessible material, the author's proper or stated name has been used.