Tribal Gathering Experience
Tribal Gathering 8-24th of March 2025
The special Early Bird price is just 278$ for the whole two weeks of the festival!!
GET YOUR TICKET HERE
Just till the end of April or sold out.
What is Tribal Gathering?
It is a magic festival that takes place on a remote beach – Hippie Beach on the Caribbean coast in Panama. The Festival is located a couple of hours drive from the picturesque town of Portobello where the main town domain is an old marine fortress from colonial times. The festival site itself is literally in the middle of nowhere. You are surrounded by a beach and beautiful natural rock pools from one side and by hills and jungle on the other side. On quiet days, usually before or after the festival, you can see small monkeys jumping in the trees and amazing bird life – parrots, eagles, herons. The sea is full of small fish and sea life.
Journey starts
The way to the festival is an adventure on its own! If you want to be more comfortable, I highly advise to book one of the official festival shuttles, which takes you from the airport or Panama City center directly to the site. The fee is more than reasonable for 5 5-hour journey, and it is a great way how to make first friends.
Then you have an option of very limited public transport (approx one bus a day with sort of flexible schedule) or a private car/taxi.
This festival is LONG and I really mean it – it runs for more than 2 weeks straight! But if you ever attended some bigger festival in Europe or another country don’t expect the same level of craziness for the whole two weeks.
Indigenous Immersion
It starts rather slow with so-called Indigenous Immersion. On the first day, the Sacred fire is lit and there is an opening ceremony where the Tribes present themselves and share a bit about their culture. The first week is full of workshops covering fields as jewelry making, ceremonial body painting, bamboo flute making, natural fiber weaving, yoga, sound journeying ecstatic dance…you name it! During this first week, a place for Temazcal (traditional sweat lodge) is built where you can experience powerful cleansing ceremonies.
In a beautiful space of naturally built maloca (traditional roundhouse) called Geohaven you can attend many talks and presentations and learn even more about different cultures and ethnic groups, about a social and environmental problem they might be facing and the ways how you can get more involved to find a solution for such a problem. You can watch documentary movies about indigenous cultures and NGO projects, listen to inspiring talks, and join live discussions.
Later in the night, relax by the Sacred fire or join a spontaneous drumming circle or jam session. Dancing and celebrating human family. There are live concerts on a main Global stage during this first week, and you can dance to a colorful mix of world music and local bands. Other nights there will be DJs playing some groovy tunes.
Oh, did I mention Carny show that happens almost every night on a main stage and includes shows with fire dancers, clowns, acrobats, and magicians? Well, here you go!!!
It does sound pretty amazing, right? And this is just the first week!!
GET YOUR TICKET HERE
After Indigenous Immersion there is a Transition Day, where everything goes a bit more quiet, people usually rest and integrate the first week and many of the teachings and new skills they received. It is a great moment to explore the surrounding beaches and nature.
Global Dance celebration
When the second week roles in Global Dance celebration starts!! The concerts on a main Global stage continue and more and more DJs arrive to share their creations and to motivate us to shake our bodies! Among the stable highlights is the local indigenous Guna Yala punk rock band, and every night you can choose from various electronic music genders from trance to techno to DnB you name it and you’ll find it! We have DJ from South America, Europe, USA, India and much more! At the beginning of Global Dance celebration the second – Lotus stage opens and a captivating beat of psytrance starts to dominate the area around Lotus stage. Want to dance more? No problem last weekend we play non-stop for 3 days! You can enjoy spectacular sunsets and sunrises right on a beach, dancing with your friends, or just chilling by the ocean.
Even during the Global Dance celebration, you have chance to attend many different workshops or spend a quiet night by the fire watching the stars and talking to your friends old and new ones. Would you like to teach some workshop? Do you do yoga classes, do you like to meditate in group or teach others your amazing massage technique? Well, it will be the right time for you to sign up in Geohaven and offer some of your great knowledge and skills. The options are endless!!
By the way – you remember that all this is happening on a remote beach in the Caribbean full of coconut trees, right? Good 🙂
Tribal Gathering Family
What is the most special about this festival is the community, that creates at Tribal Gathering every year. It is rather smaller festival with about 500–1000 attendees and because it is over 2 weeks long it gives you plenty of time to truly meet and get to know the people there. One of the most precious friendships I have in my life are from this festival.
It is a festival made by people for people and the sense of community is always very strong during the whole festival. You can get involve in many different ways – as a volunteer, as a workshop facilitator, or do you have some good tunes in your pocket and you would like to play them? Well, go and talk to people at the bar or in the DJ cabin and I’m sure they will point you in the right direction and find a free spot for you, so you can share your music with others. Again, the possibilities here are endless and it is completely up to you how you are going to live the festival and what experiences you take from there.
Tribal Gathering is a journey, it really starts with the mission to get there and finishes days after the actual festival when you have time to integrate all that you just lived in the past two weeks.
You become a part of worldwide family there and live a lifetime experience, that is for sure!
Tribal Gathering survived the hard times of Covid restrictions and this year 2024 it got reborn, and we did very well and created a magical celebration once again.
Be sure to be there for the next Tribal Gathering 8-24th of March 2025!!
See you on Hippie Beach amigo.
The special Early Bird price is just 278$ for the whole two weeks of the festival!!
GET YOUR TICKET HERE
