AOF Activities & Events

California Freethought Day, the Twenty-first Annual Freethought Day Festival, will be an in-person event for the first time in three years. On this day the community of freethinkers will bring you a menagerie of wonders and a fabulous flight of free minds, along with music, speakers, awards and more. Attendance is free. Please join us!

AOF founded "CFD" in 2002, a rather rag-tag gathering on the Sacramento courthouse steps. It grew. Year by year it grew, until it left the nest and took wings. No longer an AOF event, we still promote it because we couldn't be more proud.

Now it 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. It is open to all -- combining "the fun and festivity of a fair with the education and activism of a conference," as the event chair fondly explains. It features exhibits, speakers, music, prizes, panels, performance art, and tons of fun.

Planners have packed the day with events to entertain you and uplift you. Projected speakers and entertainers include comedian and film editor Emery Emery, podcaster Kevin Cameron, religious freedom activist Chalice Blythe, the Rev. Nancy Brink, Nadya Dutchin of the American Humanist Association, and others. Even as you read this, the lineup grows.

So sign up now. But wait, sign up why? It's free, isn't it? Yes, the main event (Sunday) is free to attend, but advance registration (at no cost) makes you eligible for delightful & toothsome benefits, including doorprizes and updates. And would you care to staff a table? Would you consider joining us for the Supporters Reception the evening beore? CFD is a multifarious event, covering the weekend. Please visit the event website, or see the Facebook Page, 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 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.