Report by Sripad Bhakti Vigraha Nyasi Maharaj
Pictures and web-pages by Krishnendrani D.D.

Several thousand pounds of potatoes and vegetables plus thousands of pounds of dahl and grains and over a thousand pounds of flour for puris were transported by truck from Denver and then carried by hand cart to our festival kitchen site. Al (Las Vegas), Dan, Jane, Krishna Sundar Prabhu, Jaya Gadadhar Prabhu, and Suddha Krishna Prabhu executed much of these arrangements, labouring long days into the night, well past the 10 p.m. sunset. Damien, a regular service participant of the Golden Road Centre, downtown Santa Cruz, was amongst the hardest of workers and was the unchallenged winner of the “rookie of the year” award. Madhura Priya, Krishnendrani, and Sita Didis helped with all aspects of the programme, while focusing on organising and working with the several hundreds of volunteers who helped with vegetable cut-ups, puri rolling, pot-washing and camp clean-up.

 
Situated on a hilly grove on the main trail that leads to the Main Circle and many other Gathering campsites, our camp was expertly positioned by Nitya Hari Prabhu for maximum exposure of our Harinam chanting, preaching and Prasadam distribution programme. At the centre of the camp was the main kitchen tent - an impressive fifty-two feet in diameter sloping canopy. The kitchen housed seven propane gas powered cooking stations, the rock-lined main open fire pit, and two large rectangular platforms for cutting vegetables and rolling puris. Just to the front of the kitchen tent was the distribution-and-Kirttan tent - an open winged tepee about twenty-five feet long by eighteen feet wide.

 
From this position, within about fifty feet of the main entrance pathway, the Mahamantra, dynamically vibrant by the connection of a true Vaishnava, reached to probably every festival participant as they made their way in or out. Just to the side of the kitchen tent and the kirttan tent was another canopy tent arrangement, maybe twenty by sixty feet in size, which gave shelter from the sun and rain to hundreds of partakers of holy Prasad, blessed by offering to our beloved Srila Gurudev. At the end of long hard day’s works, devotees slept in tents, pitched amongst the trees, just above the main kitchen camp.