Dear Soulshine Community,
I am sharing an important update that I trust will resonate as we move with care into the next chapter of Soulshine.
Soulshine has never been only about creating a beautiful festival. From the beginning, it has also pointed toward something larger: a culture, a network, and a meaningful response to the fractured spirit of modern society. It has been a celebration of the human spirit while also being intentionally designed as a tool for community building, rooted in the values of freedom and care.
At its best, the festival offers both a collective sigh of relief and a high-pressure environment for collaboration, reflection, and growth. It creates the kind of living social field where behavioural patterns surface, genuine collaboration is tested, and we begin to see more clearly what we each bring into community.
Through this, our gathering acts as both a playground and a proving ground. It reveals what strengthens resonance, what disrupts it, and what is actually required on a cultural, logistical, and infrastructural level as deeper forms of community begin to take root.
After five glorious years of breathing, envisioning, embodying, engaging, and clarifying, the field is now asking for a new kind of attention. One where sensitive vigilance and serious investigation prevail.
This kind of shift requires a great deal of time, energy, discernment, and sustained responsibility. It asks not only for inspiration, but for real capacity: people willing to hold vision, structure, and execution at a high level. At this time, our capacity remains limited.
After a lot of reflection, we have made the decision to pause Soulshine Festival for this year.
I know that for many people, this will be the headline. I understand that. The festival is visible, loved, and important. It has brought so much beauty, connection and shared experience into our lives.
But this pause is not about stopping something. It is about making space for what is emerging.
Soulshine is entering a new phase, one that asks us to strengthen the foundations beneath our celebration. A phase of deeper community building. A phase of infrastructure, stewardship, maturity, and clarity of long-term vision.
This next chapter includes supporting and developing emerging projects:
Clarifying our trajectory Growth of an on-the-land cultural and business hub Establishing a high-quality podcast and media platform Strengthening legal and financial frameworks Maintaining the festival grounds in Newcastle Envisioning and testing a community-backed economic engine Continuing to support core projects: Soulshine Pantry, Soulshine Socials, Soulshine Elixir Bar and the Soulshine Gardens Opening new channels for communication, collaboration, and collective inquiry, including community circles, direct path investigation dialogues and workshops
These are not side projects. They are essential parts of the broader architecture of what Soulshine has evolved into.
If we are truly committed to building a better way of life then we must explore and establish a deeper relationship with truth, responsibility, boundaries, and timing. Sometimes the most aligned thing is not to keep pushing outward, but to strengthen the roots.
That is what this moment is about.
I see it as an act of stewardship, a reorientation toward the deeper purpose that has been asking to come forward since the beginning. The real question in front of us is this: what does it look like to grow a true ecology of community that is aligned with reality, integrity, and our highest calling?
That is the work in front of us now.
My deepest gratitude for everyone who has loved, supported, contributed to, and believed in Soulshine. Everything we have built together is due to this care. The festival itself is a powerful expression of community, and its spirit is not disappearing. It is asking to deepen, mature, and take a more capable form.
This coming year, our focus will be on the deeper layers of the project so that what emerges next can stand on solid ground.
Thank you for being part of this journey.
Thank you for your care.
Thank you for walking with Soulshine as it changes, deepens, and grows.
With love,
Anas, with the blessings of Sarah and the Core Crew. 
P.S. Stay tuned for project updates, and mark your calendar for the Soulshine Springtime Social on Sunday, June 14, in Amaranth, Ontario.
