The Polish Ambassador‘s non-profit organization ActionDays.us organized a community action day at the 9th Annual Purple Hatters Ball at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, FL. “What would our world look like if we were able to catalyze the energy of the millions of people that are attending music events world wide? What would happen if we used that energy to create community gardens, naturally built structures, water catchment systems, river cleanups, reforestation, all while educating people along the way?,” asked The Polish Ambassador, aka David Sugalski.

The Polish Ambassador, ActionDays.us and The SOSMP Green Team banded together to produce the first-ever Purple Hatter’s Action Day at Suwannee, where attendees of the Purple Hatters Ball 2016 united to offset our impact to the land on which we gather to celebrate. Nearly one hundred light warriors came together on Thursday morning June 16th, collaborating on a variety of ecology restoration and waste management workshops that will propel this beloved music park into a sustainable future. Projects included renovating garden beds to build and clean up the soil for a food forest, upcycling dilapidated pallets into artistic waste sorting stations, and learning about bottle-bricking, creative waste stream signage, mycoremediation, and hugelkultur – and then doing it!

The day officially began at 10:00am with an opening ceremony and inspiring words from ActionDays.us coordinator Danielle Gennety, who brought our hearts and minds together before separating into groups to distribute the tasks across many hands. While painters made signs and builders constructed, Leland Taylor, of local organization Great Southern Forestry, took the lead in the garden. Taylor is a permaculturist born and raised in the area, and he has dedicated his life’s work to sustainable farming. He oversaw the building of a massive hugelkultur bed in the park’s Butterfly Garden that will remediate the soil, adding nutrients and removing chemicals naturally over time.


Participants dug up hundreds of pounds of railroad ties that leach heavy metals and toxins like creosote into the ground and water; initiating a many-years long process of land restoration for healthy food production. Soil samples were taken to send out for testing, then we hauled the remnants of tree trunks over to the garden beds to decompose, and layered fallen branches, straw, and compost with mushroom mycelium to clean up (remediate) the area. The goal here is to build a food forest, and to feed festival-goers with food grown on-site at SOSMP. The early results were tremendous, thanks to the stewardship of Taylor and the fired-up volunteers who are excited to find out the test results as well as to come back and test again at Hulaween.

Action Days Workshop recaps:


Hugulkultur with Leland Taylor of Great Southern Forestry

Used for centuries in Eastern Europe and Germany, hugelkultur (in German hugelkultur translates roughly as “mound culture”) is a gardening and farming technique whereby woody debris (fallen branches and/or logs) are used as a resource to restore depleted soil.

Often employed in permaculture systems, hugelkultur allows gardeners and farmers to mimic the nutrient cycling found in a natural woodland to realize several benefits. Woody debris (and other detritus) that falls to the forest floor can readily become sponge like, soaking up rainfall and releasing it slowly into the surrounding soil, thus making this moisture available to nearby plants.

Hugelkultur is simple in its essence: making raised garden beds filled with rotten wood. This makes raised garden beds filled with organic material, nutrients, air pockets for the roots of what you plant, and more natural goodness. As the years pass, the deep soil of this raised garden bed becomes incredibly rich and loaded with soil life. As the wood shrinks, it makes more tiny air pockets – so the hugelkultur becomes sort of self tilling. The first few years, the composting process will slightly warm the soil, giving a slightly longer growing season. The woody matter helps to keep nutrient excess from passing into the ground water – and then returns it to the garden plants later.

Bottle Bricking Workshop, led by Jill TrAshley

One way to teach communities about the environment and zero waste is through the fun activity of making bottle bricks. We encourage bottle bricking as a skill that people take home with them, which in turn will significantly reduce our landfill waste, and turn it into a resource that can be used in the community.

Building a bench with bottle bricks (originally pioneered by earthbench.org) is a great way to encourage the community to come together and use their “trash” for something useful and beautiful. These benches always include a truth window, a window to see that the inside of the bench is made of trash. Bottle bricking is the ultimate form of recycling and a great teaching tool. It gets us as a community thinking about how much plastic waste we generate each day, and questioning why we need all this waste anyway? It offers us a useful way to reuse this resource and turn it into a community gathering space. Hopefully, one day we will see (and sit on) Earthbenches onsite at SOSMP.

Recycling and reusing pallets for waste stations, led by Dillon Bradley-Brown

If a used pallet cannot be repaired and reused, it must be recycled or sent to a landfill. The best option, of course, is pallet recycling. In the case of a used wood pallet that has reached the end of its life, the components are salvaged for reuse in other pallets or the wood is ground for use as landscape mulch, animal bedding, or wood stove pellets. At Suwannee, we used the leftover/damaged pallets to create waste stations; we then decorated them with colorful painting. These waste stations will be strategically placed throughout the music park as a hub for waste sorting and recycling, and hopefully one day, composting!

Besides the amazing work that was accomplished by so many motivated volunteers, the themes of the day were communication, cooperation, and community. A disparate conglomerate of kindred souls came together; stories were shared, friendships were made, connections were solidified, food and laughter was in abundance. The Permaculture Day at Spirit of Suwannee Music Park was indeed a shining example of what people can accomplish when they come together for a righteous cause. The extended Suwannee and Purple Hat families are clearly proud to be affiliated with these organizations and efforts; people are anxious to see what the future holds for ActionDays.us, both for repeated returns to Suwannee and far beyond. I would like to extend a special thank you to Lindsey Bradley-Brown, both for her monumental efforts on site, and for navigating the necessary red tape to make this inspiring event come to fruition. Here’s to returning in October, for an action day at Hulaween!

What They Are Saying:

I reached out to some of the key players that co-created this wonderful action day at Suwannee, and asked for a few reflections.

“Action Day at Spirit of the Suwannee was monumental. Seeing all the people that came together because they believe in this movement is a powerful statement about the shift occurring in our culture. I can’t wait to do it again!” Lindsey Bradley-Brown- SOSMP Green Team

“What an honor it was to lead and teach a group of motivated minds. Being involved with Action Days was both an inspiration and opportunity to connect with folks with similar passions. I hope this is our first of many.” Leland Taylor, Great Southern Forestry

“The Purple Hatters Ball is a shining example of what Action Days are all about. The people who come together at Spirit of the Suwannee for the music are also clearly in it for love of the place – the dedication to community was as live as the line up. Many of the people who showed up at this Action Day had stories of showing up at SOSMP for years already, in service to social justice for their fallen friend of the park. It was clear that this seed of preparing the soil will grow into a strong and healthy forest of food and family in the years to come.” Danielle Gennety, ActionDays.us

“PHB kicked off with the first of many action days to come! A second home to thousands of us, we have exercised patience and intestinal fortitude over the years when it comes to how we can give back to a place that has given us so much in memories and connections that will last a lifetime. This day went down in Suwannee history for me personally as I plugged in and participated in such a genuine exchange of knowledge, collaboration and regeneration. To top it off my Suwannee family just got bigger. I thank David and the permaculture action movement for the opportunity to plug in over the years as we brought this movement (second) home where it will no doubt continue to flourish and impact the sustainable future of the SOSMP. I also thank the Suwannee family for being so dedicated and passionate to the culture we are co-creating on this land with every festival.” Jill TrAshley, The NOHM

“A festival happens AND we harness the energy of the concert-goers to make our communities stronger, more resilient, more diverse, healthier, a more beautiful life-experience for all. Many times, I’ve witnessed what people can get done when they come together for a day’s work. I’m dreaming about what could happen when we’ve got hundreds of artists, and hundreds of thousands of fans pushing action days around the world.” The Polish Ambassador

Words by B.Getz, Photos by Rex Thomson