Get Involved
This gathering is being built by many hands.
Lost Skills Gathering brings together teachers, makers, musicians, sponsors, volunteers, vendors, community partners, elders, homesteaders, herbalists, craftspeople, and neighbors who believe old knowledge still has a place in modern life.
If you want to teach, demonstrate, volunteer, sponsor, vend, perform, partner, or help carry the gathering into the community, this is where to begin.
The old skills survive because people keep showing up for them.
Ways to Be Part of the Gathering
Teach or Demonstrate
Share a hands-on skill, traditional craft, practical trade, plant knowledge, foodway, story, or old art that deserves to stay alive. Teachers and demonstrators may lead scheduled sessions, offer rolling demonstrations, or invite guests to learn by watching, asking, and trying.
Become a Sponsor
Sponsors help build the foundation of the gathering by supporting teachers, tents, promotion, materials, logistics, signage, guest experience, and the many behind-the-scenes pieces that make a first-year festival possible. Sponsorship is a meaningful way to show public support for heritage skills, local culture, and community education.
Apply as a Vendor
We are looking for vendors whose work fits the spirit of the gathering: handmade goods, useful wares, folk craft, apothecary items, homestead goods, natural products, local art, traditional skills, and offerings that feel rooted, beautiful, practical, unusual, or deeply connected to the living world.
Volunteer
Volunteers help the gathering feel welcoming, organized, and cared for. Day-of needs may include greeting guests, helping with directions, supporting teachers, assisting with setup or cleanup, guiding visitors, answering questions, and helping the flow of the festival stay kind and steady.
Partner With Us
Community partners help connect Lost Skills Gathering with the wider region. This may include nonprofits, schools, local businesses, civic groups, media partners, cultural organizations, tourism groups, and others who want to help preserve old skills and strengthen community life.
Share Music, Story or Performance
Musicians, storytellers, speakers, and performers help shape the soul of the day. We are looking for voices that fit the gathering’s spirit: acoustic, rooted, thoughtful, playful, folk-inspired, place-based, skill-centered, or connected to tradition, memory, land, and community.
Teachers & Demonstrators
Lost Skills Gathering exists because some knowledge still lives in human hands. If you carry a skill, craft, trade, plant practice, foodway, story, or tradition that deserves to be shared, we would love to hear from you. You do not need to be flashy or polished. Some of the most meaningful teachers are the ones who simply know how to do something well and are willing to show others with patience and care. Whether your offering is a scheduled class, a rolling demonstration, a hands-on station, or a quiet table where people can ask questions and try something real, your knowledge may be exactly what someone has been waiting to find.
Notice: Teacher fees are waived for 2026. If you're teaching, you're setup is paid for by our amazing sponsors.
Sponsors
A gathering like this does not rise on good ideas alone. It takes tents, signs, supplies, promotion, materials, teachers, volunteers, insurance, bathrooms, printing, and a hundred behind-the-scenes pieces that most guests will never see, but absolutely feel when the day runs smoothly. Sponsors help make Lost Skills Gathering possible, and in return, your business or organization becomes visibly connected to something generous, local, educational, and deeply community-rooted. If you believe old skills, practical knowledge, and intergenerational learning still matter, sponsorship is one powerful way to help carry that belief into the public square.
Vendors
We are looking for vendors whose work feels at home in a gathering of old skills, useful beauty, and living tradition. Handmade goods, folk craft, apothecary items, homestead wares, local food, natural products, art, tools, books, plants, fibers, useful household goods, and strange little treasures with a story all have a place here. This is not meant to be a generic vendor row. We want the marketplace to feel like part of the experience: a place where guests can meet makers, ask questions, find beautiful and practical things, and bring home something that still carries the touch of real human work.
Volunteers
Lost Skills Gathering is built by community hands. If you’ve been craving a day that feels real, with people learning together, sharing knowledge, and remembering what we’re capable of, volunteering is one of the best ways to be part of it. Whether you’re great at welcoming folks, keeping things organized, helping teachers, guiding guests, or jumping in wherever you’re needed, your time and care make this festival possible. No special experience is required. Just bring a kind heart, a willingness to help, and a love for the old ways we’re bringing back to life. Fill out the volunteer form and we’ll follow up with next steps and shift details.
Community Partners
Lost Skills Gathering is more than a one-day event. It is a community effort to preserve practical knowledge, strengthen local culture, and create a place where families, elders, teachers, makers, students, and neighbors can gather around something meaningful. If your nonprofit, school, civic group, media outlet, local business, tourism organization, or community project sees a natural connection here, we would love to talk. Partnership may look like promotion, resources, outreach, programming, shared visibility, local support, or simply helping the right people find their way to the gathering.
Musicians, Speakers & Storytellers
The old ways are not carried by tools alone. They are carried by songs, stories, memory, humor, reflection, and the voices that help a community remember why any of this matters. We are looking for musicians, speakers, storytellers, and performers who fit the spirit of the day: acoustic, rooted, thoughtful, playful, folk-inspired, place-based, skill-centered, or connected to land, memory, craft, family, and community. If what you share can help guests pause, listen, laugh, think, feel, or gather more deeply into the day, there may be a place for your voice at Lost Skills Gathering.
Before You Reach Out
A Curated Gathering
Lost Skills Gathering is not a generic vendor fair or open-mic event. We are shaping the day around old skills, useful beauty, hands-on learning, folk craft, plant wisdom, foodways, music, story, and traditions that help people reconnect with what human hands and communities can still do.
A Good Fit Matters
The best fit is not always the biggest setup or flashiest offering. We are looking for people who are kind, grounded, practical, generous with their knowledge, and able to help create a peaceful, welcoming, family-friendly day.
Year One Is Still Taking Shape
This is our first year, which means some details may shift as the map, schedule, tent placement, volunteer needs, and teacher lineup come together. We are building something beautiful, but we are also building it carefully and realistically.
Practical Details Help
When you reach out, please share what you offer, what kind of space you need, whether you require electricity, how hands-on your activity is, and anything we should know about materials, safety, timing, accessibility, or weather concerns.
Respect for the Gathering
Everyone involved helps shape the tone of the day. We ask teachers, vendors, volunteers, musicians, sponsors, and partners to support a peaceful, politics-free, welcoming space rooted in kindness, curiosity, and shared learning.
We’ll Follow Up
Once we receive your form or message, we’ll review it and follow up as we’re able. Some roles may be confirmed quickly, while others may take longer as we balance space, schedule, needs, and the overall flow of the gathering.
Not Sure Where You Fit?
Some good ideas do not fit neatly into a form. If you feel connected to Lost Skills Gathering but are not sure whether you belong as a teacher, vendor, volunteer, sponsor, partner, musician, speaker, or something else entirely, send us a note and tell us what you have in mind.