Almost 30 years since a tight-knit band of crazed alumni began the tradition of Evergreen Graduation Festivals, first at Mud Bay, and later in the legendary Meadow in the middle of Evergreen's forested campus, we come forward with a new twist on something that many feel was already adequately twisted to begin with: The first Virtual Meadow.

On Saturday, June 14th (after Evergreen's Super Saturday), we will bring together those legendary psychonauts, Heliotroupe, with up-and-comers and all-around swell fellows, High Ceiling, for a night of festive frivolity. To top it all off, we're going to throw in the mind-bending moves of the Troupe O-Wa belly dancers, beautiful processional decorations, throbbing multimedia mindscapes, and much too much more.

We'll have a beer garden for the over-21 crowd, staffed by volunteers from Media Island, the nonprofit whose social justice mission will benefit from every drop of frothy suds you swill.

In further solidarity, you will have opportunities to toss those evil Federal Reserve notes that are sullying your pockets into the Mushroom Richard Commemorative Inferno of Love, the proceeds of which will go to farm relief efforts from last winter's terrible floods.

The all-ages event begins at 7pm on Saturday, June 14th, in the Eagles Ballroom, 805 E. 4th, in downtown Olympia. And it's only $5. Better yet, it's completely FREE for 2008 Evergreen graduates!

Why free for them? Well, partly because they're cute as buttons and awfully fun to have around, but they're broke. Mostly though, because some of us alumni want to honor Evergreen's graduates and, in some little way, give our thanks to that amazing center of learning and weirdness. We can't begin to express how much we owe to Evergreen, how important it is to who we are today and to the quality of community we live in now, and how proud we are to be Greeners!