In addition to our monthly jams, drumming workshops and performance opportunities, the Tri-Cities Drum Circle also hosts special events about every two months which vary from oceanside campouts to meditation circles to campfire drummings to children's drumming workshops. These free drumming gatherings are completely facilitated, they are open to the public, and they are designed for new and veteran drummers alike. They usually consist of freeform jamming or thematic drumming (ex: at a candlelight drumming, meditational and trancing rhythms are used throughout the evening).
Children's policy: children are welcome to the Special Events but only if they are supervised by a legal guardian throughout the event and only if the children are there to drum themselves. Please do not bring infants as the volume of our activities easily upsets them.
The folks who meet for these jams are people of diverse spiritual paths, backgrounds, and drumming experiences. They come together for an evening for one purpose: to learn from each other and to share the heartbeat using their "bangy thing of choice." Our primary focus with these gatherings is to build a drumming community which encourages everyone's full participation, regardless of one's drumming skill or experience. As with all of our activities:
Bring: your drumcomfy clothesdrinking water
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Do Not Bring:religious agendaspolitical agendasbusiness/marketing agendas |
All of our special events are free to attend, but they are only held if enough drummers sign up for them by the event signup deadline. There's a lot of really fun stuff planned for this year and we hope you can join us for it:
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Tentatively Scheduled For August
Once again the Tri-Cities Drum Circle is offering a free Children's Drumming in August at the new Richland Library. The event is hosted by Tri-Cities Drum Circle member and Richland Public Library librarian Kelly Reed. Children older than 6yrs old are welcome to come and learn basic drumming rhythms for the evening. If you have a drum for your child, please bring it. We will be providing extra drums, drumming buckets and other percussion instruments for those who do not have drums for their kids. All children attending this workshop must be accompanied by their legal guardian and be there to drum (this is not a daycare event). Members of the drum circle will be facilitating this workshop and we invite all drum circle members to participate. We look forward to spending an evening banging on things very loudly with kids in our community. Last year we had a HUGE turnout of parents and children.
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Tentatively Scheduled For September
One of our favorite outdoor events, our Fall Campfire Drumming, is in the process of being scheduled in September near Ice Harbor Dam just east of the Tri-Cities (directions to location will be posted in the newsletter). Blankets are set around a big campfire in a firepit shelter, drummers from as far away as 200 miles bring hot coffee, tea, chocolate, soups and such to keep the high-energy going all evening, and it's a campout weekend with a big breakfast the next morning planned. Pencil the date in now so you don't forget. Past campfire drummings have had over 60 drummers attend. You won't want to miss our last one.
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Tentatively Scheduled For December
Our annual Candlelight Drumming will be held in December at the usual location for our workshops and jams. For those of you who may never have attended a Candlelight Drumming before, they have a very different tone to them than our monthly jams or our other drumming events: they are meditative, trancing drum sessions, they are held indoors, they last about 2-3 hours (from 7pm-10pm), and they take place by candlelight amidst the sweet smells of mild incense, brewing tea and spiced cider-- perfect for cold dark winter nights. The rhythms used throughout the evening (interspersed with a few surprises) are spontaneous, mellow, and kept deliberately simple to enable the drummers to 'zone out' together in the darkness. The night gets very tribal in some spots, and past attendees have described this event as introspective. A low table is set in the center of the room with warm blankets laid out around it (we also have stools for those who would rather sit upright instead of on the floor), and each drummer is asked to bring his/her drum, a candle in a stable candle holder to be set on the table, and a favorite mug for drinking hot tea or spiced cider (which will be provided). Candlelight drummings are not religious, political or ritualistic by design, and they provide a truly wonderful and unique winter drumming ambiance!
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