Arise Music Festival 2015 – All are welcome, All are loved -

By Shanna Fisher

LOVELAND, CO — In only it’s 3^rd year, Arise Music Festival, located at Sunrise Ranch in Loveland, CO, supported us, fulfilled us, let us dream, let us play, let us dance, helped us to have no worries and aided our body & minds to be healthy. Their music, food, vendors, artists, speakers, healers and yoga teachers filled us with enlightenment by experience. From infant to 70 plus in attendance, love & respect was abundant.

Surrounded by beautiful red rocks at Sunrise Ranch, a ceremony to bless the native land took place before the music began. The sense of peace brought the fest into a pleasant place for all arriving. Live painters set up easels with intricate art by the main stages for inspiration. Scattered throughout the camp & festival grounds were various tents of healing, yoga sessions, encouraging talks & workshops. They went from sunup to sundown speaking of community, change, music, really anything to bring us all back to the helping the earth and ourselves. Even the children had their own space on the grounds to enjoy the festival; with puppets, music, hula hoops and art. Each space was filled with people opening up their mind & body of lessons to bring back to their everyday lives.

The music that hit the stages was full of so much energy that people couldn’t help but groove all day & night. Large acts such as The Polish Ambassador, Pert Near Sandstone, Emancipator Arise-23 Ensemble, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead and Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros brought people to their feet for hours and hours. Acts on the smaller stages that drew crowds were Spectacle, ill-esha, Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds (the girl can wail) and Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad. Artists from folk to electronic truly embodied the stages with their music and beautiful messages of helping nature and doing what you truly love.

All in all, Arise Music Festival happens because the world is a beautiful place. Filled with hope, an amazing sense of community, talented artists, dance and most of all love of all people and all things. Next year, join us at Arise, let yourself go for a few days and feel an incredible sense of purpose on your return.