The Moon and Stars Music and Arts Festival will take place for the second year.
It’s set to begin at 4 p.m. Sept. 9 and end at 6 p.m. Sept. 11 at The Pacey Farm, 3560 S. Pixley Knob Road, Henryville.
The live music and arts festival is a benefit to raise money in support of The Pacey Farm, an organization founded by Tonya Pacey, whose mission is to promote and facilitate the emotional healing and wellness of victims of abuse and trauma with free services.
According to a news release, The Pacey Farm serves as a safe place to heal through the use of counseling, yoga, meditation, love and support of the community and other forms of emotional and spiritual healing, all free to those in need.
Programs at the farm are a resource for victims of abuse as well as new mothers and single mothers in need of community support.
Musical performers scheduled to appear at the event include Quiet Hollers, The Jesse Lees, Mama Said String Band, Good Morning Bedlam, Strung Like a Horse and many more local and regional acts.
The event also will feature hiking, yoga, guided meditation, spoken word artists, a live muralist, food trucks, drinks, vendors and other talent from Kentucky and Indiana.
The Moon and Stars Music and Arts Festival is the first of what they hope to be many events that will help support their mission, said Pacey, manager and chief executive officer of The Pacey Farm LLC and The Pacey Apothecary.
She and her husband, Seth Pacey, own the farm.
“We’re really excited about it this being the second year. Instead of toning it down, we’re going bigger,” Tonya said. “We had about 120 guests last year, but with the volunteers and vendors and everybody else, we probably had about 200.”
She said they’ll have a variety of music, from bluegrass to jam bands to rock and roll and even hip hop. There will be food trucks, around 15 vendors and all-day music. The complete list will be released on the website in July.
“Last year wasn’t bad for a first-year event, especially because COVID spiked again last September, but about 30 people who had purchased tickets couldn’t attend because they’d been exposed to COVID,” Tonya said.
She said the farm is located in the woods, and the seating is actually down the side of a hill, hand carved into the hill by her and her family, so it’s a natural amphitheater in the woods.
“We’re connected to the Knobstone Trail, so we have a mapped hiking trail so people can take hikes, and we have campgrounds all throughout the woods and the forestry is behind us,” Tonya said.
When the Paceys started their farm, Tonya wanted to grow produce, but it turns out she has a really brown thumb, so she decided that wasn’t for her.
“But I’ve always wanted to have a program for women, mainly programs aimed to release trauma,” Tonya said. “So we do a lot of trauma release programs through dance, meditation, yoga, screaming in the woods and we just do everything.”
The Paceys have a list of people who specialize in helping trauma victims in very unique ways.
“We even have drum circles for drum therapy healing, and we try to do things that are nontraditional because we want to keep it nonsecular and have it be a free place for people to come be their authentic self,” Tonya said. “We have a lot of paid classes, too, which pays for food and drinks we offer in the trauma release classes, so the paid classes pay for things like that.”
Some of the farm’s paid classes are Manifestation 101, where attendees learn how to manifest their best lives through spirituality and intention. They also have Cooking with Intention classes and more.
“We’re trying to get enough money raised so that I can hire babysitters, as well, and start doing transportation for the victims of domestic violence especially,” Tonya said. “They are getting out of a relationship and they usually just go and they might not take anything with them or they might grab a backpack of things, take their kids and go.”
She said many of those women don’t have transportation or child care, and a lot of them don’t have money for those things.
“So we’re trying to offer free child care here so they can come and do these classes and bring their child with them and know that they’re here and safe,” Tonya said. “We also have a shuttle that brings people all the way here from Seymour to Louisville and in between, so we’re trying to raise money so we can reach out more.”
All of the proceeds raised from the music and arts festival will go into keeping those services going.
Later this summer, Tonya plans to open an apothecary in Seymour, where she’ll be offering classes, as well. The plan is to have one room for child care and the other room for different classes, like yoga, reiki, meditation and new mom classes for lactation consulting.
“I grew up in Seymour and I didn’t know or hear about any of those things while growing up, but I found a community in Louisville after I had my baby, and that’s what kind of set me to want to bring this to my hometown,” Tonya said.
Tickets for the three-day event are currently $65 for the weekend or day passes are available on the website. Space and tickets are limited for this event.
For information, visit moonandstarsfestival.com.