Few things make me happier than seeing the heart of PorcFest and the libertarian movement–the community–we are building in New Hampshire well-captured. Great to see so many movers I know featured, and fantastic job by Dennis Pratt, David Friedman (nice chocolate chip cookies shout out!), and Matthew Barney, a recent mover who is working on Trumind.ai.
Squee! PorcFest is coming up! This, the Year of Our Porcupine 2024, is the first time since 2009 that I have not helped load the PorcFest truck.
I have mixed feelings about this. The “people pleaser” in me (that I’m slowly murdering) is panicking that I SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE. The “I’m growing into new and different things” part of me is sighing a deep sigh of relief.
I am deeply grateful to everyone who showed up. Thank you!
I am grateful the Free State Project has grown to where I don’t feel personally responsible for every single thing that happens (or doesn’t happen).
I am grateful to all the leaders who have stepped up over the years to make PorcFest the amazing success it has become. To each and every one of you who have come before, THANK YOU.
A special thank you to Constance Spencer, Olga Sorens and Chris Lopez for being the Dream Team this year to bring us such a laudable PorcFest XXI lineup, with liberty luminaries like Ron Paul (virtual), Naomi Wolf, Jeffrey Tucker, and a host of other incredible speakers and thinkers. I can’t wait to learn new things!
Please come visit me at the Team Porcupine Real Estate OWN Hub at RV-74, where we will be doing talks starting on Wednesday about NH real estate, investing, short term rentals, buying land, etc.
As my focus shifts from day-to-day FSP management (hallelujah, Eric Brakey!) I am eager to help new movers find their home. Check out Porcupine Real Estate’s LIBERTARIANS UNITE newspaper on the campground for fascinating articles, and our full weekly schedule. Free coffee onsite every morning!
This is going to be the best PorcFest… YET!
How do I know? That YET is important. That YET is doing a lot of work. That YET is the key to a growth mindset and is a very important key to excellent interpersonal relationships when dealing with voluntary teams.
Why?
Because that “yet” allows you to include everyone who has come before while anticipating the improvements and innovations that will be revealed this year. That “yet” honors all the people who have contributed to making TWENTY ONE YEARS of PorcFests happen.
So many egos.
So much drama.
But here’s the reality, guys… THIS IS JUST LIFE.
There is NO PERFECT MOMENT. There is NO UTOPIA. There is NO VALHALLA. There is no ONE DAY I’LL…
There is only NOW, and what YOU are doing in every moment.
Yes, PorcFest is a fun time to let your hair down, but it is also YOUR chance to practice mindful personal responsibility.
The flip-side of freedom is HOW ARE YOU SHOWING UP IRL?
Please be considerate of your fellow campers. Please respect the campgrounds 11PM silence (yes, you need to switch off your music). If you want to hang and chat, there is only one spot: down on the field at the bonfire.
Live free, but also, don’t be an asshole. 
Let’s get rocking for a weeklong celebration of our beautiful project. Let’s put our best feet forward to embrace and welcome potential Porcupines to our libertarian homeland. Let’s show up with beauty and love. Let’s shine like the beacon of liberty we are. It starts and ends, with YOU! 
RFK comes to Porcfest, members partake in the nude Olympics, a new secession bill is voted on in the House, board shakeups bring a new Executive Director: These are just a few big moments from this past year in the Free State Project. We check in a year later, in the 20th anniversary of the birth of the Free State Project, to see how much progress the libertarian migration has made.
Sprouting from a graduate student’s thought experiment in 2001, over the last 20 years, the Free State Project has made a significant impact on the state of New Hampshire by gathering like-minded, liberty-loving folk who share a passion for freedom and independence. At this year’s New Hampshire Liberty Forum, Matt Kibbe sits down with Carla Gericke, president emeritus of the Free State Project, to discuss the history of the project, where it is today, and where it’s going in the future. In addition to making substantial legislative changes in the state, the Free Staters are also attracting the attention of major figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, indicating that the real gains for liberty are yet to come. Subscribe to Kibbe on Liberty everywhere you get podcasts. The revolution is here. A movement of people free to live, work, and choose. We won’t tell you what to think, we just demand that you think for yourself.
Join us this week for a recap of the Free State Project’s 2024 Liberty Forum, with Tulsi Gabbard, Bryan Caplan, and “Mayor Kane” Glenn Jacobs. Hear more about our surprise guest, Jeanne Dietsch, a one-term NH senator with a penchant for making lists, like Fascists and Commies do. Love what we’re doing in the Free State? Get your tickets for the next upcoming event, the 21st Annual Porcupine Freedom Festival! More HERE…
Read Annalisa Quinn of the Boston Globe’s article about her week at the 20th Annual Porcupine Freedom Festival. This article will appear in this Sunday’s Boston Globe magazine.
Whoa–That time CNN came to PorcFest (back in 2015 long before the current NBC BOSTON docu-series). Sharing this makes me… uncomfortable?!?
1. This is close to Peak Sick for me. Not only am I overweight but that rasp in my voice was from allergies that I now have under control through lifestyle changes. Did YOU know antihistamines suppress serotonin uptake? Neither did I…
2. Of course CNN found the one guy with a Confederate flag to include. I remember that dude bc the PF producers that year had to ask him not to park his ATV & flag in the middle of our group photo. Never saw him again.
3. Seems I have a long record of calling us “weirdos.” Perhaps, like me, y’all can adopt this into your lexicon to help explain away things you don’t personally agree with but understand other ppl might choose to partake in.
As individualist, you don’t have to agree with everything other ppl are doing. It’s a permanent built-in TEACHABLE MOMENT to explain INDIVIDUALISM.
4. The current dramas have all happened before in some way, shape, or form, and the degeneracy at PF has always been WILDLY overstated.
Always has, always will be.
If you’re a complainer, ask yourself about the tradeoff between looking away or going somewhere else on a massive campground when something is not to your liking vs. complaining publicly online and creating a permanent, searchable record to be trotted out to besmirch us.
Also, may I suggest if you complain:
A. Did you volunteer yourself?
B. Did you first THANK THE ORGANIZERS & VOLUNTEERS for the 99% that WAS amazing or just hone in and complain & make demands about the one small part that wasn’t to your liking?
5. Every time you ask for a new rule at PF, you are creating a strain on the organizers and on-site staff.
It’s called an APPEAL TO AUTHORITY and we prefer YOU sort your own shit out. We DO expect ppl to stick to their words & agreements too, tho, so if you make representations to PF staff STICK TO THEM.
6. I’m struck by how in this clip, even “friendly” politicians didn’t want to attend PF, and yet, now, eight years later, we had A SLATE OF REAL PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES bending the knee bc they KNOW they NEED Free Staters to do well in NH’s First in the Nation. We have *just* enough sway to be a spoiler or tipper. This is actual evidence of our actual success on the ground in NH. Embrace it. We are going to win in the long run!
7. Life will never be perfect. There are not enough rules to be written at PF to satisfy each of the thousands of attendees personal preferences.
The ethos of “live & let live” and “don’t hurt ppl & don’t take their stuff” should be able to carry a high-trust event…
In the end, the goal of PF is to showcase all the weird & wonderful things we ARE accomplishing, showcase the growing community, attract new attendees we can persuade to move, and to leverage legacy media coverage to help more ppl learn about the Free State Project and the better future we are building in NH.
Ultimately, we want more great people like YOU to join us!
Live free or die!
Live free and thrive!
How do you get a politician to answer your questions? You invite them to your party… which is what I did! Watch the video to see history in the making!
The NH Democrats made a stupid, unforced error today, just another disaster in a long line of choices with regard to the Free State movement. Chairman Chuckley told RFK he shouldn’t attend PorcFest… and RFK rightly told Ray-Ray to go pound sand. It’s almost like the Democrats main propagandists are so out of touch with reality (which does actually exist, no matter how much you scream PERCEPTION) they don’t realize that PEOPLE CAN ACTUALLY SEE THE TRUTH FOR THEMSELVES… Watch this to see the “dark dystopia” we are building…
Today, @ChairmanBuckley called on @RobertKennedyJr to cancel his upcoming appearance at a libertarian event run by Free State extremists.
— NH Democratic Party (@NHDems) June 16, 2023
Read the full letter here: https://t.co/D4fRMdiQUe #NHPolitics pic.twitter.com/oZYpU8HEpe
Watch this WMUR clip about RFK’s upcoming talk at PorcFest XX. Get YOUR tix today!
Very exciting to hear NH libertarians and liberty voters and people interested in self-ownership being given their due…
Posted by Carla Gericke on Monday, June 5, 2023