Hello all you Beautiful ones coming to the retreat this week, here is a post to help you prepare, and understand more about how to arrive, accomodation, and more...
List of What to Bring:
For your dancing feet & Boogie-ing Body:
If you dont have dance shoes bring socks, you don't need to bring heels or specific tango shoes unless you want to. If you do and are not sure what to get click here to go to a site with dance shoes, you can get flats, heels if you wish ( I personally prefer wearing flats), or even practice shoes which are like being barefoot. You need something that lets you 'pivot', or slide, barefoot feet are grippy, and it can hurt your precious knees!
Comfy clothes for floor work, and somthing you feel beautiful in for the final night.
All meals are provided, but if you may want to bring snacks. You may want to bring your own brand of coffee if you prefer, we are foraging for wild herbs for tea :) And there are no coffee beans in the forests of Wales, for now ;)
Prep for rain, it's Wales, so assume it will be wet. Wellies, warm socks, and umbrella or rain coat.
Hot water bottle, we have a few on site but worth bringing incase, especially if your in a van as there is no hook up available.
Comfy warm PJ's as Loo's/showers for cabins are outside.
Towels for shower and extra towels for the sauna, there are no towels on site.
Torch as there are no lights from main hall to the cabins.
Biodegradable beauty products for the showers, the water from the showers run into a natural plant filter, if you use harmful soaps/conditioners it kills the plants.
If you want to be part of the "Olla Popular" (por of the people) ritual on the Sunday, bring an organic vegetable if you have grown it yourself :)
OPTIONS OF EXTRA NIGHTS OF ACCOMODATION:
The retreat starts May 16th at 5pm.
When the retreat ends on the 20th after breakfast, but you would be welcome to stay for lunch as we will have left overs from the night before :)
Please Join This WhatsApp Community Group Chat, you will be able to offer car shares, co-ordinate lifts, and be updated with things you may need to know :)
USE THIS LINK TO JOIN, or scan the QR code below
TRANSPORT:
Location of Retreat:
Coed Rural Art Space
St Hilary, Vale of Glamorgan,
CF717DP
We are doing a pick up from Cardiff Central around 4.30pm on Thursday 16th of May
Bridgend is also an option to travel to to get to Coed if it helps.
CAR SHARE
Please register with the retreat Whats App group to organize car shares, if you have a car, or need a lift please organize through the group. See link above.
ENDING WITH A DANCE & DINNER
To close this beautiful event, we will open the space up to Milonguros to come dance with all of us in a practica hosted at Coed Hills. Feel free to invite friends & family. We will be cooking a "Olla Popular", which translates to the Pot of the people, each person brings a veggie to add to the giant pot, and together we create an abundant dinner for all :) The tradition is practiced in Argentina to feed the community, bond and no one is left hungry :)
THINGS TO BE AWARE OF:
Coed & this retreat is a alcohol and smoke free space & experience. Please don't bring any mind altering substances, we want to welcome you in your naturally born state :)
We try to make the space free of phones so we can focus, but your welcome to take pictures if you want to & have permission.
Some footage will be taken during the retreat, if you don't want to be in any videos, please let us know.
If you have any injuries please let us know in advance
It is also dog friendly, so expect a few four legged friends. If you are bringing a dog, please make sure they are well trained :)
Please organize your transport with time, coed has no buses or trains that arrive directly, if you come from far you may want to consider accomodation options above.
there are no shops nearby, so if you want extra nibbles, bring them.
We will have an open space for musicians to jam, bring your instrument
We have gone to great lengths to have a gluten free, vegan, organic & local menu, there are certain things we can't supply or cater for like severe allergies.
If you have an outstanding payment for the retreat please try to pay the rest before the retreat starts. If you have anytrouble doing so just let me know so I can organize.
Also if you have not recieved a recipt from us, please email me to let me know on thelovingcollaborative@gmail.com
If you have come on an exchange place to food costs are £90 for the week end, and a donation towards accommodation for Coed. Let me know if this is more than what you can afford. And please make sure you have joined the WhatsApp group to organize. Many are arriving on the Wednesday to do a pre meet & set up the kitchen, beds & spread fairy dust in the space :)
Schedule will be posted soon (I will let you know on the WhatsApp group)
COED HOUSE RULES:
Coed consists of some 180 acres of beautiful, rolling country side
including almost 80 acres of woodland with a small swimming lake. We have large extensive permaculture gardens, an organic market garden and an abundance of wildlife which includes hundreds of birds, foxes, hares and our apiary of over 30 bee hives. There are also 3 horses, all friendly, and the local farmers cows which graze the fields over the summer months. We also have a number of dogs: Ruby, Simba, Saffy and Rifka.
Please park ALL cars up in the main field as to keep the lower carpark free for disabled, loading and unloading and emergencies.
The fields with cows boarder right on the edge of the events space and veg gardens, so please close the fences when you go for a wander so we have no unwanted visitors with munchies.
Sauna rules:
No glassware in the sauna building as it might brake and we are bare feet in there.
Don't combine alcohol or drugs with sauna use as it might cause health problems.
Please sit on a towel so you don't sweat into the wood.
Shower before entering the plunge pool so we not all plunge in eachothers sweat.
All our showers are solar heated, but we also have one electric shower in the outside shower house and two wood boiler heated showers in the barn with a limited amount of hot water so minimize your shower time otherwise others don't have hot hot water.
Because we have created a natural reed waste water system for all our outlets it's important that products you use are biodegradable, like shampoo and soap. So please no chemicals or sanitary products down the toilets neither.
Please bring with you: bath towel, extra sauna towel, bio degradable soap, shampoo and toothpaste, soft/warm soled
shoes/slippers for use in the barn, wellies/walking shoes and wet weather clothes.
There is one compost toilet around in which we kindly ask you not to put any baby wipes/tampons/condoms. We will find those back when we use the 2 year decomposed humanure in our gardens...
We have a filtered tap in the barn for delicious drinking water, so please don't bring bottled water.
Our recycling is explained on pamphlets above the bins, please have a read before you deposit something. Make things small (bottles/cans/tetrapaxs), you may save jars WITH lids for our preserving. We don't use binliners so as to save plastic.
No smoking inside any buildings or accommodations.
Candles and Incense:
Because of fire regulations, these are not allowed in the
accommodations. The only place they can be used is within the main barn under supervision. When a ceremony is finished they need to be extinguished and collected.
Don't disable any fire alarm in any space or cover up the fire exit lights. Also because of fire regulations you are not allowed to sleep upstairs in the main barn.
In the event of a fire alarm going off all participants must gather at the Assembly Point, even if you are not in the building where the fire resides. Evacuate the building using the nearest, safest exit. The fire assembly point is at the Barn Apron,
outside the main barn. Please do no re-enter the building until you are told
it is safe to do so.
Any serious accidents should be reported to the event leaders so they can be recorded.
The first aid kits are situated in the barn, in the bar area, inside the cupboard with the first aid cross on it.
Energy Conservation:
Please do not leave lights on unnecessarily, turn off electric plugs and electric blankets in your
rooms if you are warm and do not leave outside doors open. Last to bed, please turn off
the lights.
You are welcome to borrow books from the shelves dotted around Coed but please ensure you return them at the end of your stay as these books form part
of our personal library.
The Shop:
We have a small shop where community craft products and other items can be purchased. There are quite a few different artists and producers participating in the shop, so please help us to get your money to the right person by writing down what you bought on the provided sheet of paper.
You can pay cash in the golden bowl provided or by money transfer.
At the end of your stay it would be amazingly helpful if you had time to strip the bed to get our laundry lady on her way. Just leave them in your room on the floor.
Please don't take any bedding, crockery, etc out of the cabins and please return anything brought in from the barn back to the barn at the end of your stay.
All makeup, blood, oil stains etc or damages must be reported to us so we can take action. Please be aware there may be costs if things need to be replaced.
If your cabin has a fire stove and you are unsure how to light this please
ask for assistance or watch this video, as a guide on how to light a stove.
And don't forget your items, check everything really well cause Coed won't send or save any items. They will be incorporated into the community or a charity shop.
We hope you have a great stay.
The coed family