75 Reclaiming the Sacred: A Festival Experience as a Response to Globalisation Karin Mackay University of Western Sydney Abstract Pressures of globalisation such as the focus on the growth of productive economies, consumerism, and long work-hours have fragmented cultural beliefs and practices worldwide. Devaluation of deeply held soulful, creative, and nature-based practices in the dominant neoliberal capitalist discourse has challenged the way cultural and spiritual wellbeing are lived. Instead of being completely subsumed into the neoliberal global discourse, local responses incorporating global themes are emerging in the form of the “neo-tribal” festival experience. Although festivals have primarily been seen as places of consumption, this misunderstands the drive to participate in a festival experience. This article investigates a women’s arts and ecology festival held in The Blue Mountains, Australia, where members of the local community celebrate the return of spring. Findings suggest that this festival was a site for reclaiming a localized sense of connectedness, where participants reclaimed what was sacred to them. I will argue that consumerism is secondary to the desire for a sacred synergy of connectedness at this festival where critical creative action challenges the neoliberal and patriarchal discourses in the negotiation of global culture. On a sunny Sunday morning, on 30 August 2009, I stood on the path leading to the local community gallery in Springwood, a small town in the world-heritage listed Blue Mountains of Australia. To one side of me, Gaia was setting up his brilliant red tent, where he and his wife Eleanor would serve chai tea on tribal rugs and colourful cushions. Inside the gallery, sixty women’s artworks were displayed, accompanied by personal poems and stories, exploring the “Ancestral Connections” theme of this year’s art exhibition. Today was EarthSpirit festival