matisyahu shabbat tent at langerado 2008

friday night between 6-9PM, at any given time, there were well over 100 people in the tent, and another 50 people standing right outside the tent, because they couldn't fit in! kabbalat shabbat lasted about 1.5 hours just because people were so excited. dancing kept spilling out of the tent and encircling onlookers. i spent most of the time outside the tent telling people as they walked by what was going on. quite often, the response would be something like, "really? ok, i'm going to run in and stay. [to his/her friends] meet me back here in a couple hours."

between 10PM and 4AM is was fairly chill, maybe about 10-20 people in it, mostly just talking. a few guys stayed learning from some judaic books. at about 4AM, it started pooring, so about 50 more people sought shelter in the tent. it was beautiful, as you could hear people yelling, "quick, everybody into the shabbat tent." people who were already in the tent accurately responded, "everybody is welcome, come, stay as long as you want." it seemed as if everybody at the festival (about 50 thousand) knew that the shabbat tent was a safe place where anybody was comfortable. a few people in particular had to say kaddish or yahrtzeit, and were incredibly grateful that the shabbat tent was there for that. other kids told me that they only attended the festival because of the shabbat tent! about 10 kids brought tallis and tefillin, as they knew about the shabbat tent and wanted to daven shacharit sunday morning.

shabbat morning, we had services for a couple hours with over 60 people the entire time, then lunch. at about 2PM, it was so windy, that the entire tent broke and fell down. so, people's lunch moved outside the shabbat tent, and ended at around 3PM. at 5PM, about 30 people came back for mincha, dinner, and maariv. at about 7, another 30 showed up for havdalah. matisyahu played in front of about 25 thousand fans at 8. afterwards, a number of people came back looking for the guys who were teaching the whole time. several of them are planning on going to visit one another to spend shabbat together. many people asked us to have the shabbat tent at the next festival.

all in all, it was pretty awesome. we seemed to have effectively conveyed the idea that everyone was welcome, and this was a safe spiritual place on the festival grounds. many requested our presence at future festivals