Since 1977
The early days of Earthwork Farm were spent forming a strong network of caring and hard-working people dedicated to service work—a few families lived and raised their kids on the farm, practicing organic farming and intentional living.
Arts, regenerative agriculture and community building
Through formal and informal gatherings, retreats, events, workshops, residencies, field trips, and festivals, thousands of people have found their way to the farm and connected with the land’s strong spirit of shared humanity.
As we navigate a perilous and turbulent time of societal upheaval and digital immersion, community gatherings on Earthwork Farm hold sacredness.
Our history is an unlocked depth of meaningful experiences—where decades of tradition emerge into moments of learning and connection.
What we offer
From music festivals and family weekends, to educational field trips and camps—these events are woven into the tapestry of the farm alongside the day-to-day tending of gardens and animals.
More than a working farm
As we lean into the future, we are preparing the Earthwork Farm School where local kids will learn valuable skills from professional artists and educators.
Retreats for personal development are core to the farm. From wellness sessions to writing retreats, we cater to groups and individual settings. Have a look at our Artist Residency program.
Youth Camps are centered around empowerment and ecological education. They are hosted by prominent teaching artists and co-designed with the superintendent of Lake City Area schools, Dr. Tim Hejnal, and his innovative approach to public education.
Skill Swaps provide folks a learning opportunity to create, produce, and fix things with their own two hands. Usually these are day-long events—by the community and for the community—where experts offer short and intensive workshops around skills connected to the homestead and farm.
Where entertainment and inspiration connect
World class musicians have taken to the three stages—custom built in the Earthwork sawmill—from singer songwriters to rock ‘n’ roll bands to hip hop groups to jazz legends.
Growing, learning, and building
From early performances from upstart phenoms like Vulfpeck and Billy Strings, to late career performances from legends like Billy Davis, John Sinclair, and Karl Berger, Earthwork Farm has hosted the Michigan musical community and inspired it with a sense of collaboration, camaraderie and cooperation that have been the hallmarks of our vibrant, life-giving scene for the last 40+ years.
It’s not the least bit corporate, and artists love it.
Emerging from the chrysalis
After Earthwork Harvest Gathering was brought to completion in 2024, the Bernard Family went through a year of succession planning, charting out a vision for the future of the farm: less as a festival site and more as a center for community building and education.
Decades of building a multigenerational and multicultural community has led to this point of evolution. A place for folks to grow, learn, and build what we see is needed in these times moving forward.
Growing up on the Farm
“My childhood memories on the farm are filled with animals, gardens, and happy humans. My family was embedded in the local community, hosting field trips with local schools and teaching classes on the farm. We traded veggies and produce for fish and venison with local hunters and anglers, and hosting friends from all over the country, from New York City to Los Angeles.
It was a cultural experience with lots of music being made, and sometimes a band would come and put on a show in the barn. Those barn dances glowed gold with joy.
When I came of age and released my first album, I started the Earthwork Harvest Gathering. It began as a potluck concert with about 100 people gathered around a makeshift stage on a trailer that was parked behind the barn.
22 years later, it grew into one of Michigan’s most treasured cultural events hosting 4000 people, around 100 musical acts, 50 workshops, panel discussions, a farmer’s market, a community kitchen, a host of locally sourced food trucks, and annual traditions like our interfaith water blessing ceremony and a waltz hour social dance that became part of the fabric of community.
Our family needed to take a break from hosting a large festival and focus on a long-term succession plan, and along with it some new models for building community and gathering people on the farm that could be both mission driven and financially sustainable.
It is rare to find a place that holds connection for thousands of people across the state through the generations, even more exceptional for that place to be a multiracial and multicultural space in northern Michigan. In such a situation, it is unique and valuable to have deep roots that support the weight of the fruit that is to be shared.
As our community faces boom and bust industries that tend toward extraction of human labor and natural resources, it is important for us to find better ways to facilitate economic growth and prosperity—while also stewarding the healing of our social tapestry and our ecological systems.
What we have set out to do at Earthwork Farm is just that, and after 45 years of fostering community building and ecological awareness in a way that uplifts our local economy, we are poised to take this work to the next level and to build programs and events around our thriving working farm to overcome the obstacles and perils of the time that we live in while fostering connection and creativity amongst a multicultural and multigenerational community.”
-Seth Bernard