L'AgorA
Saint-Fortunat, Quebec, 2010–2014. A sanctuary in the forest, built by hand, for people who fit in no box. Treehouses, stages under the spruces, festivals outside the system, mushrooms and permaculture. This is the archive.
Techno-bohemian campgroundPirates, pixies and elves. Electro and acoustic trad. Handcraft and earth. A Peter Pan atmosphere, between the Cherry Island, the little island, the yin, and the Neverland, the big stage, the yang.
What it was
On 104 acres at the end of a road in Chaudière-Appalaches, a former pig barn 300 feet long, a barn, a house, a stream, a mountain. From May 2010 on, a handful of "elves" hauled tons of concrete out by hand, then built sleeping lodges, stages, five treehouses, a two-storey tipi, a yurt, an island, a "Neverland", with electricity and Wi-Fi deep into the forest. They hosted festivals from all over Quebec, ceremonies, self-managed camps, solstices, and a great many people who needed to disconnect from the world in order to find themselves again.
L'AgorA, "formerly Le Donjon, grandeur nature", meant to be a space in nature where "everything is placed at the disposal of the subject, so that they may make of themselves the subject of the work in becoming". A laboratory of being. A village of elves. A micro-society in the making. Four years, some 14,000 hours of work, then the end of the lease, in October 2014.
The history
From the Lune Noire nights in an Old Montreal loft to the last Earthdance of September 2014.
The Donjon
The 400-member private club that came before L'AgorA, from the 5505 to Saint-Fortunat.
The place
The bunker, the barn, the Cherry Island, the treehouses, the Neverland, the lookout tower.
Yin and Yang
The Cherry Island, the little island, and the Neverland, the big stage, face to face.
The mission
The founding texts: collective, self-sufficiency, land trust, laboratory of being.
Timeline
Season by season, from what was posted at the time.
The events
Earthdance, Sundari, Tatanka, Reggae Bash, solstices, ceremonies, self-managed camp.
Photos
More than 200 pictures, from the 2010 worksite to the last summers.
Videos
"Agora, the evolution", the Earthdance 2010 prayer for peace, the island before the creation.
The voices
What the Agorians wrote, in their own words.
After
The land sold, the trees cut, and the dream still looking for a piece of land.
"A visit here is a gift for the child, a discovery and an adventure for the young and the grown, and a return to earth for the hearts of many."
L'AgorA's Facebook page, spring 2013
"It was a place of ecstasies, of incredible accomplishments, of surprising achievements, of magical visits, of incredible sharing with people so deeply in the true."
Christian, co-founder, 2026