REST Fest – Revolutionary Embodied Sovereignty Together

Thursday kicks off the Fest with “Rest & Digest.” Revolution Spirits lifts our spirits with bold cocktails, Free Lunch feeds our souls fresh organic food, & we dive into dreamland with immersive performances. The late-night party continues with comedy improv by On & Off the Stage & Boss Street Brass Band – imagine SNL suffused with New Orleans jazz, with sketches performed by a licensed Behavioral Analyst & Drama Therapist. Their show, All Together Now, is an entertaining, hilarious, & healing therapy session wrapped in comedy, whose punchline doesn’t waste anyone’s time – All Together Now brings it all together.

Friday, Saturday, & Sunday, guests are invited to catch a live show, dive into dance master classes and improv comedy workshops, make artisan soap, experience a cold plunge, paint, social dance, daydream, cloud gaze, or nap to a sound bath in our hammock garden under “The Dreaming Tree.”

Sunday closes with a Rest in Peace ritual. Fast-paced economic development has brought about gentrification & increased disparities in the rapidly changing streets of Austin. Since Prob B was passed, Festival Director Denver Gonzales has lost hundreds of unhoused friends to extreme climate & humanitarian neglect, and it is now a criminal offense to sit or lay in Austin public areas. Gonzales’s installation with dadaLab artist Jamal Hussain will honor 700 Austin neighbors who now rest in peace. In remembrance of their lives, Denver invites attendees to legally lay themselves down & let dreams rise. We believe in RESTiprocity, solidarity through rest – because well-being & belonging are human rights. *wheelchair accessible & translation provided for deaf & blind attendees