After noticing that most queer community spaces revolve around the use of drugs and alcohol, Madison Eker felt that a space for trans, womxn, and nonbinary folks focusing on health and wellness was essential to the well-being of the LGBTQ community. That’s when the Sum of Us Festival came into fruition; the first-ever wellness festival for this intersection of folks who so much need a place of their own.
“There’s just a need for it in the queer spaces, I’ve been involved with the queer scene for almost 15 years and I’ve just found that there’s either bars that we can go to, or there are sober spaces, but there’s really nothing in between that focuses on consciousness, wellness, or health. Just space where we can meet up and a space that’s not really involved too much with nightlife,” Eker said.
After conceptualizing a festival that brought her community together in 2018, Eker received her business license in 2019 to begin to make her dream a reality. She planned to bring The Sum of Us Festival Live in 2020, but due to COVID-19, the event was forced to move to virtual streaming, but that isn’t stopping Eker.
“The mission of Sum of Us is really to keep the community together and focus on wellness, authenticity, and connection. Because we couldn’t do that in a vehicle of a live event, we are now able to do that in the vehicle of a virtual event. As long as the mission sill gets transpired, that would be the goal,” Eker said.
The original live event was going to take place in a reservoir in Northern California, but due to the virtual shift, more members of the community have found that they can now attend, making the event bigger and more exciting than before.
“I want people to meet like-minded people that can help them be the best version of themselves, I want people to leave that weekend feeling like they gained knowledge, feeling they are more involved with the community, they are better activists, they are better self-healers, they have more friends, maybe they found love. So that’s the goal of the event, and I hope to keep the community together and have on-going meet-ups and events and festivals for the community to stay together,” Eker said.
The festival takes place from July 24 to the 26 with over 25 different sessions. Eker wants the festival to be personalized for each attendee by offering a “choose your own festival” layout. Whether participants want to stop in for one or two sessions or stay the whole weekend, Eker just wants the community to come together.
“That’s one of the goals there, too; we are not trying to say one size fits all, we are trying to say, here’s a whole variety of different modalities that you can choose from in a safe space with our community and queer healers, and go for what fits you,” Eker said.
One event that the founder is particularly excited about is the trans swim event.
“I wrote a census asking trans folks if they didn’t have to worry about transphobia for 24 hours, what would they do? The top answer was to go swimming. So we took that statistic and decided to have an event based off that to keep a safe space, have people feel safe in their body, not worry about any judgment, and just have fun with people who are just like them,” Eker said.
Originally, this event would have taken place in a private swimming area on the reservoir, but with the new virtual format, the event has adjusted. The founder still plans on holding this event and has organized for people to join a video event of people jumping into pools, bathtubs, and running through hoses in order to create the same effect. In addition, Dr. Brunners is sponsoring the event and giving the most creative water dance winner a prize of soap while Thank You Marsha, a trans focused party in the Bay Area, will be hosting the event.
For a full list of events and information on how to get involved, visit the Sum of Us website.
