Music
Players who came up in this and around it, on one stage, close enough to see their hands.
Horseshoe
Culture comes alive when people gather.
Why it exists
A place can look prosperous and still be losing the thing that made it worth living in. Venues close, rents climb, the people who cooked and played and made things move somewhere cheaper, and what is left photographs beautifully and means very little.
Horseshoe is a working answer to that, at the scale one family can actually manage: pay people properly, feed everyone, keep it small enough to stay good, and send whatever it generates back into the community it came from.
What happens
Food
Cooked on site, over fire, by people whose names are on the board. Long tables rather than a queue.
Makers
Leather, textiles, silver and vintage, sold by whoever made or found it, at prices that keep them working.
Wellness
Yoga on the grass, sound in the tipi, somewhere to sit down, curated by Francine of Medicine Wheel Wellness. Space to feel good and slow down.
Values in practice
This is not scenery. It is where people live.
Which is why the land is acknowledged before anything else begins, why the people who were here first are part of the weekend rather than a note in the programme, why what can be composted is, and why local comes before convenient when the two disagree.
Duane and friends playing on the Horseshoe stage, 2024.
What it adds up to
Horseshoe has been the proof that this way of working holds up: that you can pay people well, keep something small, and still have it matter. Verified figures for artists supported, local vendors involved and waste diverted are being gathered and will be published here when they can be stood behind.