AOF Activities & Events
AOF invites you to California Freethought Day, the Seventeenth Annual Freethought Day Festival. It is a day when the diverse state-wide community of freethinkers all join hands to bring you a menagerie of wonders, an arabesque of dreams, a fabulous flight of free minds, along with music, tablers, speakers, and so much more ... really, you must be there to see. AOF founded this event in 2002. Then it grew, left the nest, and took wing. No longer an official AOF event, it stands on its own. And we couldn't be more proud.
If you're new, we'll explain. If not, skip the next paragraph.
California Freethought Day (CFD) is a public jubilee and gala. It celebrates secularism, salutes independent and rational thought. It is open to everyone, and free. It combines "the fun and festivity of a fair with the education and activism of a conference," as the event chair fondly says. It features exhibits, speakers, music, food, prizes, a "family fun zone," outreach tables, panels, performance art, and tons of fun.
Planners are packing the day with events to entertain you as much as uplift you. Projected speakers, panelists & entertainers will include: Eugenie Scott, erstwhile Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education; Kavin Senapathy, science and health writer for Forbes, Slate and other periodicals; humanist activists Seráh Blain and Evan Clark; Abby Hafer, author, scientist, educator and public speaker; Steve Hill, activist, cheerful satanist and standup comedian; Roy Speckhardt, President of the American Humanists Association; CA Reps. Jared Huffman & Jerry McNerney; local activist & gadfly Judy Saint; Uncle Sam; and more. The lineup is growing as you read this. This year's event theme is: Discover Reason.
So sign up now. But, sign up why? It's free, isn't it? Yes, the main event (Sunday) is free to attend, but your advance registration (just as free) makes you eligible for delightful & toothsome prizes. Also a fun Supporters Reception (less free, but worth it) will occur the evening before, Saturday, with a leadership seminar for secular leaders. CFD is a complex event. To learn more, visit the event website, or see the Facebook Page, or read the Freethought Day Blog.
The seed of this festival, of course, is the celebration of Freethought Day, a secular holiday that 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.
So ... if you'd like to staff a table at CFD, vend, volunteer, sponsor, help promote, help plan, set up, clean up - 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.
