Forkfest Sponsors Porcupine Freedom Festival!

Forkfest Sponsors Porcfest!

Back in 2017 a few NH liberty activists, including Free Keene bloggers Derrick and Steven decided to create their own friendly competitor to the Porcupine Freedom Festival, initially called Somaliafest. The idea was that it would be a decentralized alternative to Porcfest, which is the yearly festival thrown at Rogers Campground by the Free State Project. A few dozen folks came out to attend it and it went by a few names at the time. People seemed to have a good time so they decided to do it again in 2018.

The most important thing to know is that there’s no central committee deciding anything for the decentralized event. Just about the only thing generally agreed upon are the dates. Even the name has changed, depending on who you ask. In 2018, Free Keene blogger Darryl W Perry came up with the catchy name, “Forkfest”, which seems to have stuck with many participants. An unofficial Forkfest website was launched along with an unofficial Telegram chat room and unofficial Forkfest Forum. Liberty.menu has created an event to which one can RSVP. Last year there were even two competing event calendars made by attendees.

Darryl’s “Forkfest” name speaks to the idea that this event “forked” off from the Porcupine Freedom Festival. Some have noted that attending Forkfest felt to them like the first original Porcfests, which were much less centrally managed early on than they are today. Porcfest is still a great event, but its direction over the years has resulted in some wanting an alternative, and now they have it as Forkfest 2019 is coming up June 13th through 18th, at Rogers Campground. There are no ticket prices, as there is no organization behind the event. It’s just a bunch of liberty loving people coming to the same campground at the same time. Whatever happens, happens.

Five-Hour Rave at Somaliafest & Shirefest 2017

Five-Hour Rave at Forkfest 2017

Some Forkfest attendees may just want to hang out and camp with other like-minded people while others may wish to create activities and events for their fellow attendees. Usually, they’ll announce their plans on the Telegram chat or Forkfest forum and already there’s going to be “Mancamp”, nightly dance parties thrown by Anypay, and looks like at least a couple of food vendors. Maybe there’s something you want to see happen? Make it happen!

One excited past Forkfest attendee, Chris Waid of tech talk show Freedom Decrypted has stepped up to help promote Forkfest by purchasing a major sponsorship of Porcfest! Thanks to Waid’s efforts, Forkfest is now a Gold level sponsor of Porcfest! That means Porcfest’s VIP tent will be provided by Forkfest and Forkfest fliers will be in all Porcfest attendees’ bags, promoting Forkfest 2020. When asked about his reasons for sponsoring the event, Waid said, “As a programmer and CEO of a tech company that deals in free or open source software where forking is a common solution to problems of centralization it would have been difficult for me to pass on an opportunity to help sponsor events I love and particularly when one has been forked from the other.”

Porcfest is also promoting the sponsorship in advance of this year’s event, alerting Porcfest attendees that Forkfest 2019 is happening and is a great excuse to stay in New Hampshire even longer. Together, the events span 10 days and are both held at the same campground. Forkfest is this June 13th through 18th and Porcfest is the 18th through the 23rd.

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13 Comments

kk on April 21, 2019 at 5:40 pm

That’s just superb! I’ll probably be attending both events assuming my schedule allows it. It’s great to see libertarians decentralizing everything. It’s strengthens the overall movement.
KBCraig on April 21, 2019 at 10:38 pm

Back in 2006, because FSP was slow setting the official date and people needed to make plans, the Shorty Dawkins Freedom Festival was organized on the FSP Underground forum.

Forked events aren’t new; they’ve existed almost as long as the FSP itself.
Jaq Eboy on April 22, 2019 at 2:32 am

AltExpo arose as a fork from Liberty Forum in 2007, because the talks that year at LF were “all politics, all the time”, and we wanted to keep people coming to one of the “freedom movement family reunions” who weren’t going to go to LF because of the focus on politics. Let’s build the alternatives!
Jumping Jacks on April 22, 2019 at 10:19 am

“Forkfest”? I’m surprised you didn’t use the word “Pho” in the name. Ian you are doing this because you got kicked out of porkfest. I remember reading your hype about how great porkfest was until you were kicked out and then it came to be a bash festival. At least the PD will know where all the criminals are.
Drac Vermell on April 22, 2019 at 11:14 am

I don’t know if you’ve heard the exciting news, Jacks, but Bitcoin’s been climbing up in value again! Say, remember how wealthy your political rivals got the last time that happened? Boy, just think of all the activism Ian could fund with that kind of cabbage!
David Crawford on April 22, 2019 at 8:57 pm

i hope Ian’s efforts to get back into porcfest work
freemattpodcast on April 24, 2019 at 2:10 pm

How many of the insults presented in this comment section are actually friends of the host? Where can I find friends like that to generate controversy for my podcast?
ZX81 on April 26, 2019 at 11:25 am

Jacks think you’ll find Ian organised a two or three Keene freedom fests whilst he was a member of FSP I dont think this necessary has anything to do with Ian getting thrown of the FSP
ZX81 on April 26, 2019 at 11:28 am

Anyway Jacks why you bitching nobody is forcing you to attend
happy wheels on May 10, 2019 at 12:54 am

Your topic is very great and useful for us…thank you
Jim on September 3, 2019 at 5:27 am

This looks like a great event
Jack on September 4, 2019 at 12:49 pm

Keep up the good work !
check us out on February 26, 2020 at 9:35 am

Definitely looking forward for the next one!