Free State Project - PorcFest 2006 Travel Info

Travel Information

Roger's Campground, Lancaster, NH.     Map

Driving North on Interstate 93:
Take the Rte 3 exit in Franconia and turn right onto Rte 2 just before entering Lancaster. Rogers Campground will be on your right 2 miles down the road just over the hill.

From Burlington Vt:
Follow Interstate 89 South to Montpelier, take the Rte 2 Exit East. Follow route 2 through Lancaster, Rogers Campground will be 2 miles from town on the right hand side, just over the hill.

Getting to New Hampshire

• Plane
  • Manchester Airport
    • Served by: Air Canada, Comair, Continental, Delta, Northwest, Southwest, United, and US Air
    • Driving time to Lancaster: 2.5 to 3 hours. Directions
  • Burlington International Airport
    • Served by: JetBlue, Continental, Delta, Northwest, United, and US Air
    • Driving time to Lancaster: 2.5 to 3 hoursr. Directions

• Bus: Greyhound goes to Littleton, NH, which is a short 30 minutes from Lancaster.

• Carpooling: Please contact PorcFestRides@freestateproject.org if you're looking to share a ride.

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Free State Project - PorcFest 2006 Schedule

PorcFest 2006 Schedule

The schedules below are for use as a planning guideline. Details for many events will continue to be updated until the festival begins. Appearance of the names of friendly organizations, their leaders, or their members on this page does not constitute endorsement by the Free State Project. Check this page for updates! For schedule questions, please contact Kate Rick.

June 23-25 ("Official" Weekend)

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FSP 1st Annual 'Porcupine Freedom Festival'

For Immediate Release
June 17, 2004

SUBJECT: Free State Project 1st Annual "Porcupine Freedom Festival"

Contact: Amanda Phillips, National Spokesperson
Email: aphillips@freestateproject.org
Phone: 617-763-1996
Website: www.freestateproject.org

Lancaster, New Hampshire – More than 300 participants are expected to arrive in Lancaster, New Hampshire, for the Free State Project's first-annual Porcupine Freedom Festival. The festival will run from Thursday, the 24th of June through Sunday the 27th, with most events scheduled for Saturday the 26th. The weekend's activities at Roger's Campground will include a hike up Mount Liberty, food and fun, the sale of FSP souvenirs, speeches from FSP leaders and libertarian notables, and presentations on issues such as gun rights, home-schooling, taxes, and industrial hemp. The festival is named in honor of the group's mascot, the porcupine. Their website explains, "Porcupines are certainly cute and non-aggressive, but you don't want to step on them!"

Tim Condon, FSP Director of Participant Services, said, "Until now, the Free State Project has been a virtual organization, with participants scattered across the country and connected only by the Internet. For most of them, the Porcupine Freedom Festival will be the first opportunity to meet their comrades in person, and in New Hampshire."

FSP founder and Yale political science lecturer Dr. Jason Sorens commented, "This will be seen as a major milestone in the history of the Free State Project-the time when an abstract plan became a concrete reality, as hundreds of libertarian activists visited their future home together, with a real hope of making a difference."

FSP President Amanda Phillips commented, "Just by crossing the state line into New Hampshire, we are achieving a greater degree of liberty than we had in the states we leave behind. Some are joining us for the weekend, and some for the rest of our lives; the Porcupine Freedom Festival is a chance to discover what our society of libertarians might look like."

The Free State Project (FSP) is a plan for 20,000 or more liberty-minded people to move to New Hampshire, where they may work within the political system to reduce the size and scope of government. Participants pledge to work peacefully toward a society in which the maximum role of government is the protection of life, liberty, and property. The non-partisan, non-profit FSP organization chose the "Live Free or Die" state as its destination, and several dozen of its more than 5,800 participants have already moved.

PDF version of this press release

Porc Fest 2005 draws 450 Libertarians

Porc Fest 2005 draws 450 Libertarians

LANCASTER -- Libertarians and other freedom-loving political activists came from New Hampshire cities and towns last week as well as from states across the nation to network, exchange information, and energize themselves to continue to try to mobilize 20,000 Americans to move to the Granite State.

"It's possible that this is the biggest Libertarian gathering in 2005 in the world," said attorney Timothy Condon of Tampa, Fla., who said that he had traveled seven times to the Granite State and eventually plans to move here. Not only does the "Live Free or Die" state have the lowest per capita tax burden outside of Alaska, Mr. Condon noted, but its citizens also believe in maintaining a small government that "doesn't treat you like a baby" as long as you are not harming anyone else.

The term "porcupine" to describe Free Staters was chosen because of the mammal's "leave-me-alone" defensive attitude and its quills' "don't-mess-with-me" message.

Darian Worden and Helen Nayfield, both New Jersey residents who are undergraduate students at Rutgers University, said on Sunday morning that Porc Fest 2005 was their first exposure to the Free State Project. Mr. Worden started a Libertarian Club at the state university. Mr. Worden, who said he is majoring in history and political science, said he was a committed Libertarian, while his traveling companion said she was an economics and computer science major who agrees with much of the Libertarian philosophy but still has not joined up. New Jersey, she said, already has too many laws and more are being proposed all the time. "Now they're trying to prohibit smoking while driving," she said, indicating that these kinds of restrictions to adults' personal freedom have made moving to New Hampshire look very appealing.

Kevin Ryan of Burlington, Vt., said that he had talked with people from Virginia to California and felt more enthusiastic and optimistic than he had in a long time. Although Mr. Ryan said he is a registered Republican and not a Libertarian, he said that he had been impressed by the number of tables, loaded with leaflets and merchandise, that had been set up on Saturday. "It was almost preaching to the choir," he said, noting that it was easy as a Republican to feel somewhat isolated in the liberal city of Burlington. Nonetheless, Mr. Ryan said, he does not plan to leave hearth, home and friends and move to New Hampshire. He said he did not think it was a good idea for Free-Staters to try to take over an existing community, but, if like-minded people want to live together, then they should start their own "liberal utopia."

He said that, in actuality, some Libertarians are purists, who do not support enacting bike laws, requiring dog permits or prohibiting nudity in public, while others just believe that it is essential to "let neighbors do what they want" and not to use laws to force citizens to adopt certain moral values, such as marriage or gun ownership.

A number of people attending Porc Fest pointed to a recent U. S. Supreme Court decision opening up the use of eminent domain so municipalities could promote economic development as an egregious example of the state overstepping its bounds. One man said that he understood that a permit had to be secured before hikers could climb certain mountain trails in the Adirondacks. "Would a judge really enforce an arrest for walking in the woods, do you think?" he asked.

Others focused on the Second Amendment and the ways in which it now appears that the government is trying to keep guns out of people's hands. Lectures included instruction on the Second Amendment, and shooting instruction for beginners was offered on Sunday at a venue in Manchester. Several attendees carried sidearms conspicuously on their belts. A Second Amendment Gear Swap at which people could sell and trade firearms and related equipment, such as holsters, guns cases, and slings, was held on Thursday evening.

A number of attendees make their living by using the Internet or developing software or being webmasters, all portable jobs, they pointed out, that were easy to move from one end of the country to another. One software engineer pointed out that word about the Free State Project had been spread via the Internet, so that it is not surprising that this cutting-edge segment of the workforce makes up much of those committed to moving to the Granite State.

More media articles about the FSP

These media articles are maintained on a non-commercial basis by The Free State Project, a non-profit organization, for historical, educational, scholarship, and research purposes. (For information regarding "Fair Use", see US Code Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 107).

Phillips Resigns

FSP President Amanda Phillips resigns; Varrin Swearingen to be new President

Amanda		Varrin

March 7, 2006

Dear FSP Board of Directors,

Please accept my resignation as President and Director, effective immediately. Working closely with the Free State Project, and especially with our remarkable participants, has been a great joy for me. However, the time has come for me to focus more on law school and to spend more time with my daughter. I'm happy to leave the future of the project in your capable hands.

I am happy to continue to work on publicity and media relations, and remain your faithful spokesperson. I remain committed to the Free State Project, and I joined the First 1000 today.

Best,
Amanda

March 11, 2006

Dear Amanda,

Thank you for your service to the Free State Project and to the future of individual freedom. In your twenty-five month tenure as President of the FSP, approximately 1,800 new participants signed on, and the FSP was featured in Reader's Digest, New England ABC's Chronicle program, Liberty magazine, American Handgunner, and Reason magazine, to name just a few. The Porcupine Freedom Festival has grown to the largest libertarian event in the world, an achievement we mean to defend this year!

While it will be impossible to replace you with someone who has all your unique attributes, we will do our best to continue your legacy with a chief executive of whom we can all be proud. We appreciate your willingness to stay on as media representative and wish you the best in your studies at Harvard Law School.

Yours sincerely,

Jason Sorens, Chair
For the FSP Board of Directors

March 13, 2006

The board has accepted Amanda's resignation with gratitude for her sincere efforts towards freedom in the last several years. We are also pleased to have achieved consensus on a new president, Varrin Swearingen, who will be officially voted in at our next board meeting on 3/19. Varrin, who has worked tirelessly above and beyond the call of duty in several FSP roles including VP of Operations, last year's Porc Fest Czar, and in numerous other ways, has the respect and admiration of the Board and volunteers. We look forward to working with him, to reaching our signup goals for the First 1000 Pledge and the FSP Statement of Intent, and to ultimately achieving liberty in our lifetime in the Granite State. Varrin, a current resident of New Hampshire, is willing to accept this role, and the Board appreciates his commitment.

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