Description of organisation

Waking Life is situated around the Barragem das Nascentes in Crato, Alentejo. The organisation encompasses a year-round ecological project focused on ecosystem regeneration and an annual week-long arts and music festival of roughly 10.000 attendees from over 100 countries. The festival program offers an enticing mix of music, performances, film screenings, debates, workshops, dance classes and more.

The festival started in 2017, the ecological project in 2020. In 3 years, we have planted about 10 000 trees (goal: 23.000) on the 40 hectare site. At the intersection of ecological restoration and festival production, Waking Life's goal is to develop new approaches to the challenges of Southern European rural spaces and invigorate their social and natural ecosystems. Specific measures so far have included: soil restoration and water catchment of the festival site, agroforestry courses, an artist residency on natural building, a research with the University of Évora on the lake's biodiversity, etc.

Our target group is vast and diverse: our participants, crew and artistic/scientific/technical collaborators from across the world, the local municipality, inhabitants of Alentejo region.

The site of the festival is transforming into a public park filled with biodiversity, showcasing Syntropic agriculture and arts while offering a platform for research, artist residencies and educational programs. The festival remains annual celebration and showcase of this year-round effort.