News and Updates

March 2, 2010
Greetings Friends and Fellow Citizens of Darbukastan! Though you'd not know it from the scene out the windows of our home (Spirithaven is once again snow-covered - and it is still coming down!), it is just over three months until the Tenth Annual celebration of Darbukastani Independence Days!  It is sometimes difficult to believe that this event has been in existence for a decade, but it is true!  We are all in for a wonderful event again this year.  As I know you are aware, our faculty and musical offerings this year are second-to-none.  The plans are coming together for the first in a series of construction projects which we hope will yield us our performance area in three to four years.  This year we hope to have a covered and permanent stage which we can add to in the future to better take care of us when Mother Nature challenges us as she has on occasions in years-past.  Carla and Ted paid a visit to the farm in the last snow and we discussed details and came up with what seems a workable plan.  Kay and I met with the Environmental  Specialist yesterday and he feels our choice of sites is excellent and will disturb a mimimum of earth.  We have the name of a gentleman who does grading and we hope to meet with him when the current snow is gone to get going on leveling the site.  We have suppliers who will help us get building materials quite reasonably and a pool of volunteers who will assist with construction.  What we are lacking at the moment are sufficient funds to do the job.  We at DID-Central are not asking for donations to get this project going.  Some of you have, without being asked, sent us some "supply money" and we are so grateful for that.  What we are asking for is this:  First, if you plan to attend DID 10, and can possibly handle it, (and have not done so already) would you consider sending your registration money to us as soon as you can?  Secondly, if you know of someone who would be a "good fit" for DID, would you consider inviting them and encourageing them to attend? As this is our tenth anniversary we have planned an extra-special event for you and this has caused us to commit to spending more to bring this to fruition.  We have historically set a maximum of 100 participants for DID and we plan to continue to hold to this.  If we can make it to that level, we can afford to pay instructors what they are worth to bring their talents to the community and have a bit left over to help cover the cost of the stage.  In recent years our participant level has done well to reach half of  our maximum which leaves us nothing to work with.  While we do not want to see "The Vibe" change by opening this event up to "The Masses", (we still do not want to advertise this) we realize we need to either entice Citizens who have not attended DID for a while to come home for number 10 or find an influx of new folk who will add to, not detract from, the general welfare and good-energy.  We are asking your assistance to help us make this happen.  We don't want to have to raise the registration fees for future events.  We do want the event to continue and to grow appropriately. We will also be entertaining applications by folks who would like to be vendors at this and future DID's.  If you know of anyone interested, please have them contact us at their convenience.  There will be a jurying process and we would like to see photos of merchandise and the vendor's set-up.  There will also be a fee in addition to the registration fee for those wishing to vend. Thanks so much for being part of a community we know we can count on to help us take DID to its highest level.  Please let us know if you have any questions, comments or suggestions for us at this or any other time.  We will be sending out a tentative schedule and description of course offerings shortly.  May we request that any instructors who have not submitted course descriptions please do so at this time?  Thanks again. With Warmest Regards, Sheque, Kay, Katie, Amber and Jeanne


January 11, 2010
Dearest Friends and Fellow Citizens of Darbukastan, Greetings and Happy New Year from Spirithaven! 
We trust that your Holiday Seasons were happy and healthy and that you have a good start on this new decade.  Speaking of decades, it is hard to imagine that, in the midst of record cold and daily dealings with frozen water pipes, in a mere 5 months we will be celebrating the 10th Anniversary of our Independence!  When we consider that this event has been "Alive" for ten years, and begin to marvel at that fact, the reason for DID's continued existence is quite apparent.  It began as, and continues to be a community effort: a contribution of the energies of the Citizenry to create a little Magick once a year and to be able to revisit that sweet experience in our minds through the year until we attempt to "raise the bar" the following year.  Despite periodic challenges presented to us by Mother Nature, and economic issues that have recently made it more difficult for all of us, I believe we have been able to create a more complete experience with each successive attempt. While we could say that DID 2010 is just another event, and we should not place any more significance on it than any other year's celebration, we can't resist the somewhat natural tendency to celebrate a decade of Darbukastan's existence with an event which will leave us with sweet memories not only for a year, but for a Lifetime.  To that end, we have been working hard to try to lay the groundwork for a celebration which will bring some new and exciting energy to DID 2010 while not losing track of what has given DID "the legs" to make it for ten years.  I suppose we will find out whether we were successful in that attempt five months from now. 

I would like to take a few moments to let you all know where we are in the process at this point in time. As DID #1 began as an idea of pooling the creative resources of three different but like-minded entities, it was of paramount importance to have all three involved in DID # 10.  We are happy to report that this will be the case. The Ladies of Zafira will be with us for the 10th successive year to lead us in dance instruction.  After a too-long hiatus, Brother Daveed Korup will be back with us and we are so happy to report that DID 10 will host a Turku reunion!!  Other folks who have been staples of DID's-past who will be joining us again are (in no particular order): Onca O'Leary of Barakamundi and The Mezmer Society, Jennifer Speiden of Mandara, Ted and Carla Monnich, Denys Proteau and Farzad Faranghi of Turku,  Roxanne Bruscha & Wine and Alchemy, Mavi, August Hoerr, Dragonsong and The CeltHix.  I am sure I have forgotten a few friends and we have not gotten confirmation from some  we hope to see back. In the area of "New and Exciting", we are pleased to announce that Raquy Danziger and Liron Peled will be with us as instructors and  performing as Raquy and The Cavemen.  Nina Amaya will be with us as a dance instructor this year.
We are negotiating with a few folks at present to bring a different culinary experience to the event this year and will keep you posted as the plans come together.  We are also considering opening the event up to a few more quality vendors for #10.  Please let us know what you think about this and tell us of anyone we might consider who offers something a little different that you'd like to shop for.

After the success of the more organized performance area at DID 9, we are hoping to complete a permanent stage for this year's event which, with any luck and your continued support, will grow into a "bad weather-friendly" performance/class area over the next few years.  With that in mind, and with the Darbukastani Treasury nearly in arrears, we must ask you to send in your registration dollars as soon as possible this year.  We already have a few (Thank You, Thank You!  We appreciate you so much!), but with every registration we receive we can buy the supplies needed to construct the stage. We have precious little on-hand at the present time, and this significant improvement in infrastructure will only happen if we begin construction soon.  Anyone interested in participating in this project from the construction end, please contact us and we will let you know when we are planning work weekends.

Pre-Registration is being held at $175.00 again this year, which will include the meal plan.  We greatly appreciate your support in getting the fees to us soon.  We also need all of you to fill out new registration forms each and every year.  Thank You! We are trusting that many of our "First Citizens" will return to Spirithaven this year to help commemorate the 10th anniversary of the event you helped build.  As always, we welcome your comments and hope to hear from you all soon.
With Warmest Wishes, Sheque, Kay, Katie, Amber and Jeanne


October 18, 2009
Dear Citizens ad Friends of Darbukastan, Greetings from the colorful Capitol.  It is a lovely day at Spirithaven and we are closing in on the "peak" for Fall color.  We are a good several months away from the next Independence Day celebration but I wanted to give you all the official dates for DID this next year so you can put them on your calendars and reserve the weekend.  This is, after all, the 10th anniversary of Darbukastani Independence Days and we are hoping for a Grand Event with a major homecoming for those of you who have not been able to be with us recently. The Dates to remember are June 4th, 5th and 6th, 2010.  We hope to see you all back home again at that time. Also, The Citizenry has been very supportive of International music and has adopted The CeltHix the band to kick-off DID for several years.  Many of you have suppoted the band at other events as well.  We are currently collaborating with Klaus Weiland and Charlie Whipple on some really interesting music and have performed a couple of shows in the last few days.  I was too inattentive to invite you all to the shows at The Sawtooth Center in Winston-Salem, NC and Stonefield Cellars Winery north of Greensboro, but we will play two more shows before Klaus and Charlie have to leave us.  We will play at The Honduras Coffee Company in Stuart this coming Wednesday at 7:00 pm and at 6:00 pm to 9 or 10 on Friday the 23rd at The Daily Grind Coffee House in Martinsville, VA. We'd love to see any and all of you there. Please let us know if you have any questions or suggestions, All the Best, Sheque


March 22, 2009
Greetings from Flowering Spirithaven Farm! We trust that this note finds all well and enjoying Spring.  Sure wish all of you could be here with us as Spirithaven wakes up.  Kay and I ran into an amazing deal on bulbs which worked out to costing somewhere just under a penny apeice so we bought and planted 8000 daffodils, tulips and crocus this past winter and they are coming up now. Plans are coming together nicely for DID 2009 and we have had the good news that Chris Washburn will once again do the meal plan for us.  This year the meal plan is included in the registration fee of $175.00 pre-reg.. We are pleased to be able to offer each registrant the excellent quality plan Chris treated us to last year.  With Vegetarian and Omnivore selections this plan worked extremely well for us last year.  With all registrants receiving the eight meals it will save them time and The Darbukastani Treasury money as we will get a better rate for an increased participation.  This also makes it more convenient to the Citizenry as you will not have to bring as much in the way of supplies.  May I ask the instructors to make sure you have sent us a class description as we would like to post the tentative schedule early next week.  Thank You. Please feel welcome to e-mail any requests/questions to us at your convenience.  We are looking forward to having you all with us again this year! All the Best!
Sheque