Dear Elderflower Sisters,

I’ll not mince words. Our finances are not in the best of health at this time. Luckily, the news is not all dire. Better times are on the horizon.

We had a very small festival in 2025. Just 36 of us met in the woods for our sacred festival. This helped make for an intimate and meaningful festival – however, we do need a larger festival to stay solvent! We pay for a minimum of 60 campers no matter how many women and girls actually attend. This minimum is set by both the Woodlands camp and our caterer.

There are various reasons for our low turnout. Some of our past members decided to pass on attending the festival this year. We also lost several campers in the week or two prior to illness or injuries – it was a bad year for legs and feet! And lastly, per conversation with our caterer, it seems that many festivals are showing smaller attendances due to economic insecurities.

Unfortunately, our income came up short by a little over $8,700 needed to cover Festival expenses. Fortunately, we have adequate resources to cover the loss, and we have enough seed money to pay our early deposits for camping and catering. As we start receiving camper registration fees, we will be able to pay our financial commitments.

It is vital that we improve our attendance to reach at least 60 registrations to make the Festival solvent for 2026. It will take all of us to grow our numbers to be fully sustainable.

The bright news is that although we had a small attendance, many of the women were new to the Festival! And these women are enthusiastic and ready to return with their friends to create a larger and better Elderflower than ever.

2025 was a truly magical Festival, and I would like to say that most, if not all of us, left the Woodlands feeling refreshed and ready for a bigger and better Elderflower 2026.