By women, for women: 'Wild' NEPA Festival creates opportunity for reconnecting with nature & holistic wellness
Aug. 23—Melissa Roberts and Kailin Bouse want to help the women of Northeast Pennsylvania find themselves while connecting with each other and nature.
Roberts, who owns the Ski Shack in Moosic, considers it a passion of hers to bring women together for restorative experiences outdoors. Every summer, the Trucksville resident trades in her snowboard for a paddleboard and teaches classes on the water.
Last summer, she connected with Bouse, a Scranton resident and certified yoga and meditation instructor, reiki master and sound healer with Kailin of Earth Studio in Dunmore.
The two worked together to host a floating sound healing session with Roberts leading a group on the water and Bouse playing calming sounds on land. They quickly bonded over their shared values and interests. When Roberts suggested organizing a women's festival, Bouse didn't hesitate to get on board and fill what they both viewed as a need in Northeast Pennsylvania.
Now, the Wild Women NEPA Festival makes its debut Sunday, Aug. 27, at Lazybrook Park in Tunkhannock Twp. from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is reserved for women and girls only, but vendors and staff may include all genders.
The inaugural festival focuses on reconnecting with nature, holistic wellness, creativity and building a community of women across the region. More than 30 workshops and activities will take place throughout the day, with topics ranging from yoga and mindfulness to ecstatic dance and hula hoop fitness.
The co-founders also will bring their own expertise. Roberts plans to lead a forest bathing hike — also known as shinrin-yoku, the Japanese concept of spending time in nature to destress. Bouse will host a sound healing meditation session.
"The term 'wild women,' not only is it about reconnecting with nature, but it's also reconnecting to the core of what we are, and really breaking out of these labels or stereotypes of what it is to be a woman and kind of redefining that," Bouse said. "At our core, we all are these strong, powerful women, but how that looks is going to be completely unique to the individual, and to be able to really be and express yourself authentically and genuinely without that judgment or competition between women, I think is really, really important. It's about reestablishing that sisterhood between women, and a sense of community."
The Wild Hymns, a pop, art-rock, folk and Americana duo from Central Pennsylvania, will provide live entertainment. Between workshops, festival goers can check out more than 70 vendors offering food and beverages, handmade goods, services and more.
"This is a great opportunity to not only highlight the women-owned businesses, but also the products, services and resources that are available to women in our community," Roberts said.
She and Bouse saw an outpouring of support just from putting out the basic information for the festival with a call for facilitators and vendors in late May. Soon, they had women buying tickets and others wanting to host a workshop or secure a vendor booth at the event.
"We couldn't believe it, and it just showed us and really validated what we had been talking about all that time and that there is a need for this in the community," Roberts said.
Wanting to reach women across the region, they chose Lazybrook Park in Wyoming County as a centralized location between Lackawanna and Luzerne counties and an ideal setting for connecting with the outdoors.
"There's something so extremely healing about spending time outside," Bouse said. "I love that we're doing this at Lazybrook and that it is such an amazing outdoor space because there is something very powerful about reconnecting to the earth and to nature and to remember that we are part of nature. We are ever changing just like the earth and the seasons."
As the festival celebrates strong women, Roberts thinks of her late mother, Lee Ann Mitchell. The Ski Shack's former owner died in 2018 after a fight with cancer and loved Lazybrook Park.
"It really touches me personally because it makes me think of her," Roberts said.
Through Wild Women NEPA, they want to create a safe environment for women to connect and learn that's inclusive and fun. It's also meant to appeal to women at all stages of life. Young children are welcome, and the festival will offer tents for breastfeeding mothers.
Wild Women NEPA also teamed up with local nonprofits to offer free and discounted admission for their clients. Fundraising initiatives at the festival will benefit local women's organizations.
Bouse called women the backbone of families and communities and noted they often wear many hats. When women feel supported, connected and seen, the positive effects extend to others in their communities, she said.
"By offering all of these different healing modalities and just really exposing women to different types of self-care and practices ... we can really be advocates for our own health and feel empowered to be able to not only keep ourselves well and healthy mentally, spiritually and emotionally, but also to be able to fill our own cup first so that we can really show up and be all those roles that we fit into," Bouse said.
They hope to make the festival an annual event and find other ways to connect women in the community through Wild Women NEPA.
Tickets for attendees ages 18 and older cost $35 online or $45 at the gate. For those ages 17 and under, it's $25 online or $30 at the gate. Admission includes all workshops and activities.
For tickets, a workshop schedule and other information, visit wildwomennepa.com or Wild Women NEPA on Facebook.
Contact the writer:
bwilliams@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100 x5107;
@BWilliamsTT on X
