Saturday & Sunday, June 11 – 12, 2022
in Camden, TN

Online $60

At the gate $75

Next Festival: June 11 $60 online $75 at door

JUNE 11 Tickets

The Self-Reliance Festival at Special Operations Equipment gives you a close-up view of both tactical and practical skills. Dr. Ken Berry will speak on the proper human diet. Billy Bond will process a pig and how to raise chickens that feed themselves and create mulch for you! Many other thoroughly practical demonstrations are in the works and will be announced as they’re set.

Presentations | Demonstrations | Vendors | Community | Fun Activities

Keep an eye on this website!

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February Highlights
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Sponsors

Four Ways to Participate!

Early Bird Tickets
Presentation / Demonstration Application
Become a Vendor
Become a Sponsor

Presentations

Underground Networking

Underground Networking

Nicole Sauce

When times get tough, go-getters activate their existing networks to spread word, find solutions, and restart life.

Learn what’s going on and how to hop aboard the get-it done train.

Chicken Tractor on Steroids

Chicken Tractor on Steroids

Billy Bond

Learn to raise all of your eggs and meat while producing a cubic yard of the world’s best compost per week… for free!

Justice and Entrepreneurship in a Time of Incompetence

Justice and Entrepreneurship in a Time of Incompetence

John Willis

No one knows how to make a serious topic both deep and engrossing the way John Willis does.

Don’t Hate Money

Don’t Hate Money

Jack Spirko

Claim your rightful place in the world of money. Homesteading and self-employment are the same as working for salary: they’re real jobs.

Comprehensive Medical Kit Necessities

Comprehensive Medical Kit Necessities

Chuck Peoples

Learn what’s really needed in a comprehensive medical kit and how to use the equipment.

From trauma supplies to simple boo-boo supplies, do you know what you should have on hand? Get acquainted with what to stock up on in case no doctor is available.

After an introduction to the subject, hands-on tutelage will continue in a separate area for much of the weekend.

Proper Human Diet

Proper Human Diet

Dr. Ken Berry

Eat right, and your health will improve. Keep it up and you’ll be fit and frisky.

Hand Tool Rehab

Hand Tool Rehab

Kerry Brown

Learn how to choose, use, rehab, and maintain your hand tools – pruners, axes, mauls, shovels, hoes, garden forks and so on.

See the Vendors list: Kerry can repair and even return ailing tools to service (bring them along).

Sharpening on the Homestead

Sharpening on the Homestead

Patrick Roehrman

So many farm tools work easier when sharp. Master knife-maker Patrick Roehrmann explains what to do, then starts you on your sharpening career.

In front of your very eyes, he will cut hair with a well-sharpened knife.

Knitting Corner

Knitting Corner

Lani Johnson

Pick up needles for the first time and take home a project.

Experienced? Bring your work in progress.

Definitely hands-on.

Add-on Workshops

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Process a Pig, an add-on workshop

Process a Pig, an add-on workshop

Billy Bond

This 4 - 6-hour workshop will teach you how to convert mature pigs to table food.

You’ll learn dispatching, hanging, preparing for cutting-up, butchering, and wrapping for the freezer.

On Saturday, the pork will reappear as BBQ.

At the February Festival

When regular communications forms aren’t satisfactory, what options do you have? How can you effectively build a network of information that suits your needs?

When a medical situation becomes an emergency, you can be ready with equipment, supplies, knowledge, technique. This was a three-session series.

It’s illuminating to understand what influences and messages populate communications of every type. It’s even better to realize what a person can do to validate supposed news facts and deal with what they mean.

Learn how to distill fuel from common ingredients.

Tomahawk selection, care, and use

Traumatic brain injury? He won’t let it stop him. All of us can learn from Lance Manning how to find tactics, tools, and tricks to overcome obstacles and get back to living life on our own terms.

Choose your equipment with forethought and without going through several iterations before you find the right one. Once you have equipment, simple upkeep and repair processes will keep your machines online and working.

Cultivate vegetation to nourish your animals, decrease or eliminate your feed expenditures, and use your land more productively.

Learn how to turn meat animals into freezer packets.

How to decide and the heating and cooling methods your homestead needs, and how to compute the optimal capability.

Farm tools work easier when sharp. Master knife-maker Patrick Roehrmann explains how to sharpen the implements you use.

A La Caja box can roast whole pork in only a few hours. Participants tasted the delicious result.

Employing under-utilized spaces and maximize the potential of your land, regardless of how much space you’re working with.

See how a smith forges metal into useful items. Get your own hands on a hammer to really find out how it’s done.

Take a close-up look at a way to fly like a bird.

Hands-on help to learn knitting for the first time or advance your needle skills.

Chunk up, split, and mill wood for heat and construction.

Sponsorship

Without backing, Self-Reliance Festival would be a very different event. So say “thank you” to the people and businesses who support Self-Reliance weekend – or become a sponsor yourself.

There are three kinds of sponsorship: general, special activity, and advertising in the port-a-johns. You can also set up shop for the weekend by renting a booth or table here.

Become a Sponsor!

We’ll send you the information you need to make a decision. Please email Nicole Sauce, Nicole@LivingFreeinTennessee.com or Mama Sauce, Lani@Nysara.com

Have your own idea? Did we – horrors! – leave you off the emailing list and you want to help? Get in touch with Nicole Sauce, Mama Sauce, John Willis, or Amanda Willis.

General Sponsor

$3,000
  • 4 tickets
  • 5-minute introduction from the podium
  • all benefits of the $1,000 level
$1,000
  • 2 tickets
  • 12X12’ booth space in vendor area
  • thank-you from the podium
  • logo on event banner
  • all benefits of the $500 level
$500
  • 2 tickets
  • logo on website
  • banner in event tent (you provide the banner)
  • promotional material in swag bag (you provide)

Activity Sponsor

$Market Cost

What fun! Sponsor the Greased Pig Race, a beer garden, the Flea Market, a meal, or anything fun we dream up together. Includes 2 tickets and your logo on the event banner.

Back-a-Bog

$500

Embrace the humor! Sponsor a whole port-a-john.

You’ll get your company name and logo on an exclusive poster inside 5 latrines. After all, everyone has to go.

Bog ad

$100

Puts your company name and logo, along with other ads, in 2 latrines.

Thank You, Sponsors

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Special Operations Equipment

Special Operations Equipment

OriginalSOEGear.com

SOE hosts Self-Reliance Festival in and around their factory.

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Holler Roast Coffee

Holler Roast Coffee

HollerRoast.com

Holler Roast Coffee provides much of the event management for Self-Reliance Festival and runs a couple of giant urns of complimentary brew.

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The Liberty Lab

The Liberty Lab

TheLibertyLab.com

We design and develop highly professional websites, apps, and online tools for conservative, libertarian, limited government, and free-market organizations and communities.

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YOUR NAME HERE

YOUR NAME HERE

Your website address

This will tell everyone what you’ve made possible at Self-Reliance Festival.

Vendors

People who come to Self-Reliance Festival make some cool products and offer spot-on applicable services for people like us.

Like to buy quality products?

Buy cool stuff from people who have struck out to build their own independent lifestyle, including handmade knives, spice mixes, soaps and lotions, permaculture assessment and training, self-defense, medical knowledge, delicious food, body care items, and much more!

Sell your wares!

Learn more and rent a selling space here.

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Holler Roast Coffee

Holler Roast Coffee

HollerRoast.com

Premium, craft-roasted coffee will be available for purchase.

We will also run a couple of giant urns of complimentary brew to keep y’all caffeinated.

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Special Operations Equipment

Special Operations Equipment

OriginalSOEGear.com

Quality, sturdy, tactically useful gear and clothes made in the motherfucking USA.

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Perma Pastures Farm

Perma Pastures Farm

permapasturesfarm.com

Quality, sturdy, tactically useful gear and clothes made in the motherfucking USA.

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AMSOIL / LubeDirect.com

AMSOIL / LubeDirect.com

amsoil.lube-direct.com

Full line of synthetic lubricants and filters for cars, trucks, boats, motorcycles, ATV / UTV’s, heavy equipment and small engines sold through independent distributors.

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Drumm Emergency Solutions, LLC

Drumm Emergency Solutions, LLC

Customized medical kits

Wilderness, austere and tactical medicine training

drummemergencysolutions.com

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Strong Roots Resources

Strong Roots Resources

strongrootsresources.com

Permaculture-styled property evaluation, homestead planning and consulting.

Microclimate instruction, hand/manual tool care and rehabilitation services.

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TRBEDC Soap and Candle Co.

TRBEDC Soap and Candle Co.

TRBEDC.com

At TRBEDC (Tap Rack Bang Every Day Care), we make and sell handcrafted items in small batches for your beard, body, and home.

We have soap, beard oil, candles, laundry soap, and other handcrafted items.

Nysara Studios

Nysara Studios

Lani Johnson / Mama Sauce

We’ll help develop your business brand: design a distinctive logo, website, marketing copy, and promotional materials.

See Mama Sauce.

Honeybee’s Kitchen & Mercantile

Honeybee’s Kitchen & Mercantile

facebook.com/honeybees.kitchenandmercantile.3

Spice mixes and catering

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Tennessee Homestead Design

tennesseehomesteaddesign.com

Water catchment barrels
Herbal tinctures
Potted herbs and comfrey
Comfrey roots
Homestead design services
Small business marketing services

Medical Treatment Center

Medical Treatment Center

Chuck Peoples

Hands-on training for the sort of emergencies you’ll encounter on your homestead.

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Homestead Glamour

Homestead Glamour

https://www.facebook.com/Homestead-Glamour-1526103667698847

Ditch the department store and grab a little luxury straight from our homestead! Our superior butters and oils are made with organic ingredients and infused with homegrown botanicals.

Everything contains comfrey and is highly concentrated and free of water, artificial colors and fillers. Presented in luxe packaging and available in giftsets.

Southern Selections / Braving Birth Beautifully

Southern Selections / Braving Birth Beautifully

SOUTHERNSELECTIONS.CO

Cold unsweetened teas

Fine healthy foods from regional and local entrepreneurs, including Homestead Gourmet salad dressings and teas; Hugh‘s Hummus; Honey Child Jellies; Maid ’n Meadows Farm Cheeses; 4 U Snacks gluten-free grains; Old Hickory Bottling Company sauces; and Short Mountain Cultures fermented food.

Braving Birth Beautifully is a homebirth midwifery practice serving most of Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky.

Apply to Give a Demo or Be a Vendor

Seeking Demos

The Self-Reliance Festival is a great place to highlight a skill! Have something you would like to show everyone? Apply here.

Vendors! 

Have something to sell? Sign up here.

Booth

$350

12X12′ space to erect your popup and booth trappings. All spaces will be marked, labeled, and are located outdoors, with plenty of foot traffic. Booth rental includes:

  • 2 tickets to the festival
  • your logo on the Self-Reliance Festival website
  • You may hang your banner in the event tent.
  • Your swag or flyer in the swag bags. *
  • We will announce vendors from the podium.

Vendors provide their own tent, tables, and promotion materials, including logo, (4’X2′ width by height) banner, flyer, and swag*. We will do our best to provide electricity, if requested well in advance of the event. You supply extension cord or surge protector.

Table

$100

Space to erect your 6′ table. All spaces will be marked, labeled, and most are located outdoors, with plenty of foot traffic. Table rental includes:

  • 1 ticket to the festival
  • your logo on the Self-Reliance Festival website
  • Your swag or flyer in the swag bags. *
  • We will announce vendors from the podium.

Vendors provide their own table, shade, and promotion materials, including logo, flyer, and swag. We will do our best to provide electricity, if requested well in advance of the event.

Flea Market

$10, cash only, Self-Reliance Festival ticket holders only

Welcome, festival entrepreneurs. In the Flea Market you can offer anything that does not need the space of a booth or table: a few jars of jam, second-hand prepper items, whatever you have. We will designate a “Flea Market” area. No table or equipment provided, no specific seller’s space assigned. No need to be present for the entire weekend. No advance notice necessary.

Must purchase one ticket to the festival for each seller in attendance and pay flea market attendant $10 in cash. Sorry, no electricity available.

* Swag

This festival, we’ll give the first 500 participants a bag of goodies and information. Special Operations Equipment has provided the bags. Holler Roast Coffee has tucked in some beans. You can participate, too!

In order to have materials or items in the swag bags, send 500 copies to arrive by June 1 to:

Living Free in Tennessee
605 Long Branch Rd.
Lancaster, TN 38569

FAQs

Your ticket is nonrefundable.

FREE! Camp overnight at Special Operations Equipment. There’s a composting toilet and water.

Lodging closest to SOE property

New Johnsonville
5 minutes away

New Johnsonville Harbor Campground
130 Harbor Cir, New Johnsonville, TN 37134
(615) 319-4433
no website

Deerfield Inn (*closest hotel to SOE property*)
1331 Broadway Ave, New Johnsonville, TN 37134
(931) 535-3889
no website

Camden
under 5 miles / 10 minutes

Best Western Home Place Inn
731-584-2222
 Nicest hotel in the area

Country Hearth Inn and Suites
731-584-6666

Birdsong Road area
5 miles / 10 minutes

Cedar Ridge RV Park
3400 Birdsong Rd
Camden, TN 38320
Close to SOE

Birdsong Resort | Marina | Campground
255 Marina Road
Camden Kentucky Lake, Tennessee 38320-9699
(731) 584-7880
Close to SOE

20 minutes plus from SOE

Most affordable
34 miles / 40 minutes from SOE

Pike’s Peak Campground
$10-12
127 Perryville Rd, Parsons, TN 38363
(731) 249-0029

East
15 miles / 20 minutes from SOE

Waverly

Imperial Lodge
504 W Main St #1407, Waverly, TN 37185
(813) 304-5113
no website

South
15 miles / 20 minutes from SOE

Days Inn by Wyndham, Holladay
13845 Hwy 641 N, Holladay, TN 38341
(731) 483-2068

West
27 miles / 35 minutes west of SOE

The Heritage Inn
11790 Lexington St, Huntingdon, TN

North
28+ miles / 36+ minutes north of SOE
farthest, but largest city in the immediate area

Paris Landing RV Park
35 Point Pleasant Road, Buchanan, Tennessee
Larry Richardson: 731.363.3020
Faye Richardson: 731.363.3019
a KOA facility?

Paris, TN
Hotels

Super 8 by Wyndham Paris
1309 E Wood St, Paris, TN 38242

Paris Inn & Suites
1297 E Wood St, Paris, TN 38242

Quality Inn
1510 E Wood St, Paris, TN 38242

Knights Inn Paris
409 Tyson Ave, Paris, TN 38242

Other links

RV, camping, and camping cabin parks in the area

Hotels and motels near Camden, Tennessee

Vacation property rentals

Airbnb

VRBO

Evolve

Restaurants

Groceries, Food, Supplies

No.

Children who behave as adults are welcome. If children become unruly – or if adults act like unruly children – they will be ejected from the event.

Food and some beverages will be available for purchase. Water is in the orange and white Gatorade urns.

We will serve Holler Roast Coffee – free.

A Note:

Organizers seek food, drink, and snack vendors. What about you: do you make yummy things?

Please sign up to sell food at Self-Reliance Festival by completing the Vendor application. At least one of your tickets will be complimentary, and you’ll make a few bucks.

For questions, email Mama Sauce: lani@nysara.com.

This is Self-Reliance Festival: when you come, please be equipped to take care of yourself.

The event is held just outside a small rural town. Everything takes place in and around a sewing factory. We can’t entirely take over this production facility, so we fit in among the trappings of doing business and the memorable Willis Collection of Wonderful Items.

Bring your own chair, water bottles, clothing for Tennessee in June, and the all the things you need for comfort.

Some attendees have found cellphone service spotty; others have no problem at all. There is no internet onsite. We will try to set up a device charging station.

After two events, we can safely say that most people who come are friendly, helpful, and downright wonderful.

Attendee toilet facilities are outdoors in the form of composting outhouses and porta-johns. Please do not ask to and do not use the factory workers’ rest rooms.

The same is true of the kitchen. In order to feed 300 – 600 people, every attendee must stay out of the kitchen, the areas in front of it, and the restrooms – even those visitors accustomed to using these areas. If you want to cook or chill something, bring a stove and cooler.