ABOUT US
THE SELF-RELIANCE FESTIVAL
Take control of your future. Master new things.
TICKETS STILL AVAILABLE
ONLINE TICKETS: $60.00
AT THE GATE: $75.00
Join us for presentations, demonstrations, vendor exhibits, community, and fun activities!
The Self-Reliance Festival at Special Operations Equipment gives you a close-up view of both tactical and practical skills.
Spend a weekend with speakers like Jack Spirko, The Survival Podcast; Nicole Sauce, Living Free in Tennessee; John Willis, Special Operations Equipment; and Dr. Ken Berry, The Proper Human Diet.
Guided by Billy Bond, we’ll process a pig and learn how to raise chickens that feed themselves and create mulch for you!
The many thoroughly practical demonstrations include emergency medical training, blade sharpening, aquaponics, homestead veterinary tools and techniques, marketing you side gig, 3D printing, cryptocurrence, defense dogs, and permaculture design.
PANELS & PRESENTATIONS
Underground Networking 2.0
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
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!
Build Your Empire While Theirs Crumbles
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.
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.
Proper Human Diet
Dr. Ken Berry
Eat right, and your health will improve. Keep it up and you’ll be fit and frisky.
The Importance of Community
Bear Independent
People and why you need them
Security
Division of labor
Intelligence gathering/correlation/distribution
Quality of life
Confessions of a Homesteader Wannabe
Josh and Thomas Carpenter
From city clickers to homesteaders. Our failures, what we’ve learned so far that people who weren’t raised on a homestead should know and what our plans are to move forward.
Financial Self-Reliance
Gabby Reed
Learn digital marketing for your new business in the age of censorship. Discover easy and accessible ways to set up a website and marketing funnel so you can transition potential customers from social media to an ecosystem you have more control over.
When to Call the Vet? Annual Care and Prevention for your Animals
Dr. Nakeita Fowler, DVM
Annual overview of caring for your animals. When normal ain’t normal… and when to call the vet or seek emergency care. Demonstration for restraint and other backpocket skills.
Be Prepared, Not Panicked
Panel Discussion
Billy Bond, Nicole Sauce, Jack Spirko, John Willis
When you hear “Bad times are coming!” – smile. With your own common sense and advice from these four experts, you’ll be prepared to thrive in good times and bad.
Tactical Training for Homestead Defense
Joey Glover and Dana McClendon
Mindset, tactics, skill, and gear appropriate to the defense of one’s homestead
Cryptocurrency and Entrepreneurship
John Bush
TBD
WORKSHOP: Process a Pig
Billy Bond
This 4 to 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.
DEMONSTRATIONS
Medical Treatment Center
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 critical medical gear and get hands-on training.
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
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.
Water Is Wealth
Matt Hundley Watch and learn techniques for building water catchment tanks that are affordable and simple. Plus, by the end of this demonstration, you’ll understand the basics of finding and using water on any piece of land.
Knitting Corner
Lani Johnson
Pick up needles for the first time and take home a project.
Experienced? Bring your work in progress.
Demonstration: Navajo knitting. If you can, bring 50g or so of any DK, fine, or fingering weight yarn and US 7, 8, or 9 needles. Cast on 45 stitches, knit a row, and we’re ready to go.
Electromagnetic Shielding
Robert Spagnuolo
Dig into the benefits of protection from EMFs and EMPs shields.
3D Printing
Drac Thalassa
3D printing knowledge and skills
Protection K9s
Joel Ryals
In many situations, just having a gun is not enough. Adding a Protection Dog to your defense makes you, your family, and your home safer. Joel will be demonstrating his dog’s capability at the end of this presentation.
Blacksmithing
Dakota Lobato
Demonstration continues through much of the weekend.
Wilderness vs Home Emergency Medical
Jake Drumm
Learn what to do when an accident or illness occurs in the wilderness. Vital training for the homestead, wilderness, and beyond. May include austere care of wounds and wound closure techniques.
Distilling for Fuel
Jason Rautbort
See how making a mash and extracting in a small still creates high-proof ethanol that can run small engines.
Beekeeping
Ken Johnson
Demonstration by a skilled bee whisperer. He calls them “the girls” and lavishes attention on their hives and seasons. Learn basic techniques, necessary equipment, and the year according to a bee.
Chainsaw Safety
Chris Watkins
Cutting techniques, chainsaw safety, personal protective equipment, basic maintenance, and some very handy knots
Greenhouse Best Practices
Jeramy Bailey
How to build a greenhouse and produce your own plants for the garden or market. Tips, tricks, and learned experiences to having a successful greenhouse.
Marksmanship: 6 Steps to Firing the Shot
Kenneth Pirtle
Learn sight alignment, sight picture, focus, respiratory pause, squeeze the trigger, and follow through.
Live fire exercise with single-shot pellet rifles.
BECOME A SPONSOR
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. Three kinds of sponsorships are available: 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.
Please email Nicole Sauce, Nicole@LivingFreeinTennessee.com or Mama Sauce, Lani@Nysara.com for more information.
General Sponsor
$3,000
- 4 tickets
- 5-minute introduction from the podium
- all benefits of the $1,000 level
$1,000
- 2 tickets
- 12’x12′ 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 Sponsor
$400
- 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 Sponsor
$100
- Puts your company name and logo, along with other ads, in a latrine.
THANK YOU!
SPONSORS
Holler Roast Coffee
Holler Roast Coffee provides much of the event management for Self-Reliance Festival and runs a couple of giant urns of complimentary brew.
Special Operations Equipment
SOE hosts Self-Reliance Festival in and around their factory.
The Liberty Lab
We design and develop highly professional websites, apps, and online tools for conservative, libertarian, limited government, and free-market organizations and communities.
Bearings, Belts and Chain, Inc.
More than just a vendor, we are a resource. Providing the highest level of customer service in the ball bearing and power transmission fields for more than 20 years.
Volunteer Vegetation Management
Tree trimming, removal, stump grinding
A cut above the rest!
