Few know the magic and magnetism of festival culture quite like Fest300’s own Creative Director and Social Alchemist, Eamon Armstrong. When he's not providing psychedelic first aid with the Zendo Project, he's reflecting on challenging times, and serving up helpful tips on how to make friends at a festival. That’s why when it comes to articulating what it is that we individually seek in attending festivals, one need look no further than this intriguing TEDx Talk. Without fail, Eamon's talk cuts right to the heart of how when festivals look to achieve utopian visions, "the community is the real prize."

In this special TEDxBlackRockCity edition at Burning Man  2015, Armstrong explains the history of festivals, how they fit into the collective vision of a utopia and how festivals— guided by quixotic principles — have emerged from one community to the next. "What we're really doing here is striving towards something together," Armstrong says.  Out of a Utopian dream, festivals help us communicate, connect and eventually share the guiding principles we create, so in an iterative way we’re practicing the birth of a new utopia every time we gather. But when the world isn't quite what we imagined, it's our commitment to our defining code that gives us the full value of festival community.