Overheard at Envision

At the Envision Festival, a mini-Burning Man held for the third time last weekend in Uvita, on Costa Rica’s southern Pacific coast, the sky opened up and dumped water on thousands of hippies who had come from all over the world.

And they absolutely loved it.

The fact that the fairgrounds became a giant mud pit seemed only to intensify the wild experience as attendants danced barefoot and filthy, unconcerned about their sopping wet possessions and flooded tents. They were simply not there to stay clean.

To attempt to explain the Envision Festival and its stunning performances, psychedelic art, wholesome meals, etc. is a kind of injustice. But to share the words of those who attended, we believe, tells a kind of story.

Here we present you with a few things we overheard at Envision.

“I’m actually really glad it’s hot, because I like it when people sweat together.”

“Lately, I have been trying to invert some dominant philosophies. For instance, I’ve heard people say things like, ‘I wasn’t born in India, so my soul must be so great.’ But now I’m thinking that maybe my soul has so much work to do, I got put on the material plane.”

“Are you sure it’s okay that we’re sitting in this art?”

“I love California. I’m thinking ‘bout moving there when I get back because there’s, like, the perfect amount of pot there.”

About a painting: “…the radiating energetic synapses and the hairy trees and there’s this sensual, this sexual, I love this sensation, and dude this music really lends something to the tenderness and I would not hesitate to pay multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars for this.”

“You know. I think I finally understand dubstep.”

A man unzips his tent, leans out, and throws up. Upon noticing a neighbor, he smiles and says, “oops.”

Overheard several times in several iterations, from people in every age group: “I’m just not sure yet what I want to do in life. I don’t really live anywhere. I’m still waiting to see what inspires me.”

“I love your electric light-up fuzzy fur bra. Where can I buy one?”

About a piece of wood: “See this? It’s sort of like Google Maps, only more defined. And there’s a dinosaur. And some people wandering in a desert, and they’re definitely gonna die.”

“It’s raining. Good! Now everyone can take a shower.”

“He just got back from the ‘What’s Your Tree’ meeting. Just so you know, he is an Ash Blue.”

“There seems to be a past life trapped in your left kneecap, but don’t worry. I can take care of it.”

Woman: “It feels like space here, but also, Africa.” A passerby: “You’ve been to South Africa?” Woman: “No, just regular Africa.” Later, the same woman was spotted barefoot, covered in mud and mumbling about “the unmanageable terrain of Space Africa.”

A festival volunteer who had fallen down a nearby waterfall, apparently breaking her pelvis and causing blood to trickle from her eye: “I’m so sorry about this.” Touched by the injured woman’s ability to think of others first, another woman cried.

“This blue mud is the tits.”