Three Days, Five Venues, One Community
- Jun 30
- 4 min read
Three days. Five venues. August 13 through 15 in Langley. Films, panel conversations, shared meals, a Friday potluck on the farm, and the kind of unscheduled hallway conversations that turn into next year's collaborations. That last part isn't an afterthought. It might be the most important part.
Here's what to expect, day by day, and why each day is worth showing up for.
Thursday: Welcome at The Clyde
Thursday opens at The Clyde Theater with the premiere of South Whidbey Prepares — a new film about community-level emergency readiness, and what it looks like when neighbors actually plan together for the things that scare them.
The evening also honors the legacy of Lynn Willeford, whose work helped shape how this region thinks about its own resilience for more than three decades.
Dinner follows at Langley United Methodist Church. The Clyde screens the films. The Methodist Church feeds you. The conversation goes wherever it goes.
Friday Morning: Celebrating Our Home
Friday's morning session at WICA centers on what it means to belong somewhere — to a piece of land, to a house, to a community that knows your name.
Films feature Hearts & Hammers of South Whidbey, the volunteer-built program that has repaired homes for neighbors who couldn't afford the work themselves for decades; Whidbey Homeless Coalition, which has spent years building a model for housing on an island where housing is genuinely hard; Lopez Community Land Trust, which has quietly protected thousands of acres of farmland and forest while keeping working land in working hands; and Ryan's House for Youth, which serves young people pushed out of every other place.
A panel conversation follows. The films are the prompt. The conversation is where the actual work happens — where these organizations talk through how they reach the people other systems miss, and what they need from the rest of us to keep going. The question on the table: how do we meet the needs for stable, affordable, and accessible housing on this island?
Lunch follows at the Healing Circles patio.
Friday Afternoon: Nourishing Our Community
The afternoon session, also at WICA, turns to how Whidbey feeds itself.
Films feature Organic Farm School, where the next generation of small-farm operators learn the work; Whidbey Island Nourishes, the volunteer-driven network that delivers meals to families across the island every week; the Soup's On program at Island Church of Whidbey, which has fed neighbors through quiet, consistent presence for years; and Good Cheer Food Pantry, which has been at this longer than most.
The panel asks the question that's actually live for this work right now: what does the future of farming and access to healthy food look like on Whidbey? The answers don't come from any one organization. They come from the room.
Friday evening moves to the Organic Farm School in Clinton for a community potluck. Bring a dish. Live music. The kind of evening the rest of the festival builds toward.
Saturday Morning: Supporting Our Community
Saturday's morning session at WICA gathers the organizations whose work holds the wellbeing of this island together at every stage of life.
Films feature Mother Mentors, which pairs new mothers with experienced ones in their first years of parenting; Friends of Friends Medical Support Fund, which helps neighbors carry the costs of serious illness; Island Senior Resources, which has spent decades quietly building a model for elder care; Whidbey Veterans Resource Center, which serves veterans on this island and connects them to what they need; Healing Circles Langley, whose model has been studied and replicated in other states; and Partners for Youth Empowerment, which works with young people on the skills the standardized world doesn't teach them.
The Saturday morning panel asks: how do we sustain the health and well-being of all of our community members through each stage of life?
A picnic lunch follows at the Healing Circles patio.
Saturday Afternoon: Preparing for Our Future
The festival closes with a tribute to the legacy of Nancy Nordhoff — whose support and stewardship helped seed organizations whose work continues to nourish this island — followed by an encore screening of South Whidbey Prepares and a presentation from the Whidbey Community Foundation. Together they paint a picture of a community looking honestly at what's ahead and ready to meet it.
The final hour is a closing conversation and a call to action rooted in the regenerative power of community. Not just to attend more next year. To participate in what's being built.
The point of all of it
ThrivingFest isn't a film festival. It's three days of meals, conversations, and films — in that order of importance. The films are the prompt. The room is where the work happens.
For more than a decade, Thriving Communities has filmed common people doing uncommon work for the common good — the neighbors who turn conversations into collaborations, and commitments into movements. ThrivingFest is where those people, and their stories, finally come into the same room.
August 13–15, 2026 · Langley · Free, by donation · Drop in for one session or stay all three days
