AOF Activities & Events
The Annual California Freethought Day Festival will convene again (for the twenty-third year, lordy!) on the West Steps of the California State Capitol. As in years of yore (we've got oodles of yore here), the local community of freethinkers will bring you a menagerie of wonders and a fabulous flight of free minds, with music, speakers, awards, display tables and more. Attendance to the main event is free, yes we say free. So please join us.
Full disclosure: "CFD" is not an official AOF event. But AOF founded it in 2002. The first was a rather rag-tag gathering on the Sacramento courthouse steps. To our pleasent surprise it took root and grew. Year by year it grew, until it left the nest and took wing. We still promote and sponsor it because we're so damn proud.
Today CFD is an annual public jubilee and gala hosted by the independent Freethought Day Committee, a wide-ranging celebration of free speech and free thought, civic engagement, enthusiasm for science, social justice, and the separation of church and state. Open to all, it combines "the fun and festivity of a fair with the education and activism of a conference," as the event chair fondly tells us. It features exhibits, speakers, music, prizes, panels, performance art, banners, balloons twisted into small animals, and tons of fun.
Planners are packing the day with events to entertain you and uplift you. For details see https://freethoughtday.org/main/schedule/.
So sign up now. But wait, sign up why? It's free, isn't it? Oh yes, the main event (on Sunday) is free to attend, but registration costs nothing, and makes you eligible for delightful & toothsome benefits, including doorprizes and updates. And would you care to staff a table? Would you like to attend the Supporters Reception the evening beore? CFD is a multifarious event, covering the whole weekend. Please visit the event website to learn more.
The seed of this festival, of course, is the celebration of Freethought Day, a secular holiday that technically falls on October 12 (click that little link to learn a bit about it), and one of many celebrations held world-over at about the time.
Finally ... if you'd like to table, volunteer, sponsor, help promote, help plan, participate - or if you just have ideas - then please do visit the event website now, and contact the chairman (see below). Sooner = better -- the team will love to have you, because hands that help ... are beautiful hands.
