Free State Project's PorcFest Will Be Scattered Across New Hampshire This Year

By ZACH LAIRD, InDepth NH

After 25 years of working to create a concentrated community of like-minded libertarians in the state, the Free State Project’s summer staple event, PorcFest, is returning in the form of 10 mini festivals across New Hampshire versus a central gathering, according to Executive Director Eric Brakey.

“Porcfest XXIII: Spontaneous Order” is the 23rd festival hosted by the Free State Project and will run from June 21-28 with 10 mini festivals scattered throughout the state for people to choose from. PorcFest is short for Porcupine Freedom Festival.

Per its website, the Free State Project began in 2001 with the goal of a “mass migration to concentrate libertarians in one small state,” to create a more concentrated community. The concept was supported by a vote of the first 1,000 participants. Since then, the organization states that thousands have made the move to New Hampshire.

Brakey said the Free State Project and the people who migrated to the state as part of it have “tipped the scales on something that was already here in New Hampshire.”

He said New Hampshire has always been the “Live Free or Die” state, which has always had a strong libertarian ethic, adding he thinks the concentration of more like-minded people who believe in that spirit helped ensure that New Hampshire is the way it is today, versus every other state in England, “which has been captured by a much more progressive, big-government ideology.”

When asked if there were certain policies or legislative victories he viewed as evidence of the Free State Project’s impact in New Hampshire, he said: “I think that the fact that there’s still no income tax in New Hampshire, despite many who have tried; the fact that all remnants of the income tax have been abolished, including the Interest and Dividends Tax; the fact that New Hampshire is leading in school choice with the Education Freedom Account Model, and making the education system cater to parents and families rather than to unions and bureaucracies.”

Brakey added that these are all policies where “you could look at Free Staters who are legislators and activists who are leading these efforts, or Free Staters who are legislators and activists who played support roles in these efforts,” and that “you look at all of these significant policy accomplishments in recent years, and you’ll probably find Free Staters who were in the center of it.”

He cited the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance — which says it is a non-partisan coalition working to increase individual freedom in New Hampshire. He said there are about 100 state legislators who identify with the Free State Project’s principals or moved here to participate in it. He said the project’s current definition of a Free Stater is: anyone who specifically moved here for the project or native Granite Staters who agree with the project’s vision, and said that in general Free Staters have a significant influence on the State House.

Not everyone is thrilled with the successes the Free Staters and Libertarian/Republicans have had in the Leegislature.

Louise Spencer, co-founder of the Kent Street Coalition (an all-volunteer grassroots action organization) explained it’s the agenda behind the Free State Project that she feels has impacted the state negatively. She said she feels it’s the way the movement has taken over the Republican party, and “has been pushing through this agenda that doesn’t reflect Granite State values, and that’s causing harm to individuals, to our communities, and to our state as a whole.”

Spencer continued that it’s not about individuals simply wanting to move here and choosing to live how they want, but rather “they’re wanting to remake the state into this Free State image, which is quite dystopian. It involves dismantling public schools, it involves dismantling state government, and remaking the state into something few of us want, or would recognize.”

“Unfortunately, right now, they (Free Staters) seem to have had an iron grip on the State House, and unfortunately, I think the Governor (Kelly Ayotte) has felt that she needs to go along with what they have been pushing through. I think it’s time for Granite Staters to wake up and realize the harm that’s being done; rising property taxes are a direct result of their policies, which downshift costs to communities, and which underfunds our public schools while giving away private voucher money — taxpayer money — to individuals.

“They’re threatening our public health system by undermining our ability to have children vaccinated, and these are all policies that they pushed through as bills at the State House… There’s an actual, overarching agenda, and it has become not just the Free State agenda — but because the Republican majority at the State House has gotten onboard — it’s the GOP Free State agenda,” she said.

Brakey responded to concerns from critics that the project is trying to fundamentally reshape the state’s government and institutions: “New Hampshire is the ‘Live Free or Die’ state, New Hampshire is the state where the American Revolution took place. The vision that the Free State movement represents is the vision that New Hampshire has always stood for, and our mission is to not change or transform New Hampshire, but to help restore that spirit and to keep New Hampshire free.”

He added, “As the Executive Director of the Free State Project, I — as so many other Free Staters are as well — am eager and open for dialogue and conversations with our neighbors, but there are political forces within this state that do not want dialogue, they do not want understanding, they want to create caricatures of us (and) use us as boogeymen to try and drive voter turnouts for their side… I am certainly eager for opportunities to talk with our New Hampshire neighbors.”

Brakey has also worked on a five-stage recruiting program (where people learn about the project, connect with other Free Staters, visit different areas around the state, and gather information before newcomers move to New Hampshire). He said the Free State Project does not help financially with any aspect of new participants moving to New Hampshire for the project.

Brakey explained they don’t really need to gather on a single campground for PorcFest anymore because “we actually have that all around New Hampshire. We have club houses, we have people who own and operate farms, we have all kinds of businesses.”

It was held previously at Roger's Campground in Lancaster.

“The idea this year was to invite all of those people who have built these things to host their own mini-festivals around New Hampshire. Rather than just inviting people to come visit this one campground, let’s invite people to come and take a tour of the entire state of New Hampshire; visit the many regions, see the different Free State communities, see the different kinds of events people are putting on,” he said.

This year’s PorcFest features different events such as:

“People are encouraged to register for a Porcfest ticket, but because we (the Free State Project) are not incurring the cost of putting on the individual events, the tickets and registration are free, but individual events may have their own ticket prices for admission, so people should be aware of that,” Brakey said.

He continued that the festival has grown so popular that it outgrew the organization’s ability to remain at the Lancaster location, and noted that in previous years about a thousand people attended PorcFest, though this year he said they only expect several hundred attendees. The Free State Project will not be putting on any official programming, and all events will be driven by Free State participants and clubhouses across the state.

This article first appeared on InDepthNH.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.