Joel's Upcoming Speaking Events

April 15

April 21

May 6

June 2–3

June 9

June 21–22

June 30–July 1

July 17–18

July 21–22

July 28–29

August 4–5

August 17–19

August 25–26

September 7

Sept. 30–Oct. 1

October 13–14

October 21–22

Asheville, NC (Farm Where You Live Fair)

Fredericksburg, TX (Force of Nature Meats)

North Augusta, SC (Farm Where You Live Fair)

Columbia, TN (The Homestead Festival)

Richmond, VA (Home Educators Association of Virginia)

Walnut Creek, OH (Food Independence Summit)

Kootenai County, ID (Pacific Northwest Homesteaders Conference)

Swoope, VA (Polyface Intensive Discovery Seminar)

Swoope, VA (Polyface Intensive Discovery Seminar)

Lancaster, PA (Family Farm Day)

Swoope, VA (Polyface Intensive Discovery Seminar)

Swoope, VA (Bio-Fert Seminar with Jairo)

Marshfield, MO (Ozarks Homesteading Expo)

Columbia, South America (Expo Agrofuturo Medellin)

Wheeling, WV (The Vineyard Church)

Front Royal, VA (Homesteaders of America)

Indianapolis, IN (Indiana Homestead Conference)

Joel co-owns, with his family, Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia. When he’s not on the road speaking, he’s at home on the farm, keeping the callouses on his hands and dirt under his fingernails, mentoring young people, inspiring visitors, and promoting local, regenerative food and farming systems.

April 2023 column by:

rory feek

MY WIFE JOEY AND I used to put on a yearly music festival here at our farm called the Bib & Buckle Fest. Held the first weekend in June from 2009 ’til 2013, they were single-day affairs where singers and songwriter friends would join us to play music, and we’d have games and serve burgers from about 2 pm until after dark. It was open to everyone, with only a small entrance fee.

Some of the festivals were held in our front yard, using our front porch as a make-shift stage. The front lawn of our farmhouse would be filled with a thousand people in lawn chairs. Put on each year by Joey and me, along with friends and family, The Bib & Buckle gradually moved to the backfield and grew to a couple of thousand people by the last year. At that last one, in 2013, the performers took turns doing sets on a hay wagon until a torrential downpour came and scattered everyone into the wind. In the end, as the evening turned beautiful again, the remaining 500 or so people joined us inside a big tent, and we sang and told stories ’til well after sunset.

We decided to put them on hold for a while as our little girl Indiana arrived the next year, and then a few years after that, Joey passed away. Although I was often asked through the ensuing years if I’d ever start the Bib & Buckle Festival back up, I usually answered, “We’ll have to wait and see,” although I knew well the answer was no. I knew in my heart that inviting folks from all over to come here to the farm to spend a day listening to music wasn’t enough for me anymore. After all we’d been through, if it was ever going to happen again, it was going to have to be for something more meaningful than that.

Although I had no idea what that might be until a couple of years ago.

After being invited to take part in the Homesteaders of America annual event in Virginia in 2019, and then hosting some smaller Homesteading events here in our concert hall the following year or two, I was inspired to create a weekend that would combine the fun of having music and entertainment in the evenings with the opportunity for people to spend the days learning helpful skills and knowledge that could make their lives better. So, the idea for The Homestead Festival was born.

Since our farm had grown in size since the last Bib & Buckle event we held in 2013 (we only had six acres then, now we have 100), the size and scope of the new festival grew too. It would again be put on as a family affair, along with a lot of good friends and folks who work with us on a daily basis, but the new festival would have multiple tents, a huge main stage, a vendor village, and a demonstration area. The schoolhouse and grounds would be turned into a “Lil' Homesteader” area, where little ones could also learn about growing food and raising animals.

Although none of us on our little team had ever done anything on this scale before, we began dreaming and planning and meeting and, by last March, put the first tickets on sale. We made a fun promotional video called “Build It & He Will Come” that parodied Kevin Costner’s Field of Dreams vision of “doing something crazy in the field behind the farmhouse,” since we had no idea what we were doing either—or even if anyone would come. And in the end, like in the movie, people came from all over by the carloads, and as a special treat, Kevin Costner himself even came to kick off the first of what I hope will be many, many to come.

On June 3 last year, the gates swung open wide, and folks started streaming in. To say our first Homestead Festival was a success is an understatement, at least for me. We had dozens of wonderful speakers come and teach on four stages—Joel Salatin, Temple Grandin, Justin Rhodes, and many others. In the evenings, as the sun set, we had wonderful music on the big stage with The Isaacs, Jimmy Fortune, and myself. On the last night, Kevin and his band shared songs and stories about his time playing John Dutton on the hit TV series Yellowstone. Along with all this, we had hundreds of vendors, a demonstration area, food trucks, and a small stage with music throughout the day.

I was so proud of what we’d created and how perfect our place was to host it. Our whole team was. We had combined Music and Meaning all in one weekend. Something good, with something good-forus. Plus, the 40-acre hayfield that we had never been sure what to do with until then was the perfect spot to create a separate entrance for the festival and parking for 3,000 to 4,000 cars. Honestly, it felt like this is what the farm has always wanted to be. What God created it to be… a place where you can come to not only learn how to grow your own food but learn to grow a life filled with meaning and purpose.

And so now, all year long, our farm is a place where we personally learn daily how to grow more of our own food. Pigs and cows and chickens. Where we have our gardens and our families all live and do life together, my two sisters, Marcy and Candy, their families, and mine. But for that one special weekend, it’s a place where we share the gifts we’ve been given with others.

My hope is that our farm will continue leaning into the mission of teaching homesteading skills to folks who are interested in learning them all throughout the year, and, in time, hosting lectures in the concert hall and classes in and around the barns. And we learn right alongside everyone else.

Our 2nd Annual Homestead Festival is rapidly approaching, and I hope you’ll consider joining us. It’s on June 2 & 3 this year and again we have lots of wonderful teachers, speakers, and entertainers coming to our farm in Tennessee to be part of another incredible weekend. Go to our festival website www.thehomesteadfestival. com to learn more and get your tickets.

Hope to see you at our farm this June! // rory

2nd Annual Homestead Festival

Friday & Saturday • June 2-3, 2023