Welcome to JOYFESTIVAL Industries (JFI)! I’m so glad you’re here.
You may be wondering what exactly IS a JOYFESTIVAL and how having one or attending one can benefit your life. A JOYFESTIVAL, in any of its iterations, can happen in a large space, a public event venue, an office meeting room, but it can also start right in your own living room or be a virtual gathering. That’s where JFI comes in 🙂
The goal is to try to increase one’s own and others’ happiness through simple types of gatherings that can serve to facilitate “upping”one’s joy quotient!
JFI was created as a way to “manufacture more joy in the world” and help people to construct their own happy place, gathering space or house of happiness and joy. When I say we help “manufacture,” I am not referring to physical products, squishy toys or magical widgets. My goal is to help all people manufacture their “happy” from within themselves and live a better life. In our busy lives, we often don’t have much time or space for the real authentic connections with our friends and family. Creatively connecting through either one-on-one encounters or social gathering is an art that we are all capable of and one which can put a smile on our faces and help to brighten the lives of all who participate. Connecting and gathering in meaningful ways is a great way to increase a sense of meaning and joy.
Growing up, I joked that I’d inherited my mother’s “hostess gene.” I loved to orchestrate get-togethers with families and friends that included more than delicious food to eat. As much as I enjoyed facilitating these special fun and conversation filled-gatherings, and later, planning large-scale family programming and events as a librarian and program presenter, I knew these events and gatherings were teaching me something too. One of the lessons I reaped from my early event and party-planning days was that, building, growing and nurturing one’s own joy-quotient is a full-time and lifetime job. Since happiness can be a choice and real joy a daily endeavor, JFI’s focus is to manufacture ideas that help you keep up the daily “work” of having fun, making real meaning and enjoying your life with those you care about.
I can assure you that JOYFESTIVAL Industries is not a fad or gimmick: it’s an honest and grass-roots way to reconnect with friends and loved ones in a way that brings color, light and meaning into their lives while inspiring creativity and laughter. My mission in achieving this is to produce do-it-yourself kits that help you have joy-filled theme parties and happiness inducing soirees (in person or virtual,) that people can use to take ho-hum gatherings and transform them into gatherings that allow people to take an active role in celebrating and bringing joy into their own lives.
So who am I? My name is Amy Muscoplat and I am committed to cultivating happiness and joy in the world in a way that helps others grow and nurture their own joy-quotient. JOYFESTIVAL Industries works in multiple ways to spread more joy in the world through celebrations, gatherings and joyful events! My background is as a children’s librarian, literature expert, storyteller, party and event planner, informal media educator, digital literacy and digital citizenship educator, lifelong bookworm and lover of learning, former Peace Corps volunteer, and creative crafting and programming expert. For fun, I like to do large scale family programming events and organize and manage private soirees and gatherings for various happy-filled causes and organizations. I enjoy spending time with loved ones and others with the goal of helping myself and others craft happiness and joy in our lives!
Speechwriting and speaking is another of our fortes here. We can speak to joy and coach you to speak meaningfully on it as well. We speech write and ghostwrite about joy and can talk your ear off on joy. As an experienced JOYFESTIVAL producer, promoter and speaker, there are many topics we can speak to and promote for a variety of types of gatherings on happiness and positivity. We also teach crafting and writing participatory workshops that help people find a sense of joy and exercise their creativity in positive ways and with upbeat themes, whether these are taught in a local nonprofit or conducted via videoconferencing software.
Why do I have parties? Well, I’m good at it and I like to get people engaged and having fun in an active way. Plus, I like to have gatherings and parties that have a theme of something we can all learn, but in an interesting way that is interactive and allows people to take an active role. I’m not a fan of rote lecture and just having one speaker after another where people sit and listen all day to a series of speeches. I also know that people often crave the very meaningful type of gathering that I like to do: women’s or family friendly events for people in the home or in an event space, having a good time with a greater meaningful message or overarching purpose to the event. It’s inspiring to help others create joy in their own chosen venue: their own home, nonprofit or spiritual community, a public place, or a city park. Helping people create more joy in their own world through creating this joyfestival, this soiree, or this happy space to connect with others, in person or online, in their location of choice, makes my heart sing.
My Mom was an entertainer: constantly hosting gatherings for family and other group meals and parties. Presentation, décor and fabulous food (lots of it,) were the norm. Creating is the fun part. But for many people out there, putting it all together is a lot of work and they may find some of that a bit overwhelming. JOYFESTIVAL Industries takes away much of the guesswork and time consuming part of not knowing where to start with it all. It’s okay if the house doesn’t look perfect or the food is arranged slightly differently than you’d originally thought, or the virtual background on your screen isn’t working flawlessly. The goal is for simple elegance and aiming to stimulate internal meaning for the participants. This could be homemade cakes and mini sandwiches for high tea or Italian take out served on pretty trays, invitations you snail mailed guests beforehand saying why you’re grateful for them in your life. The end result usually transforms you as the host, organizer and planner of your own meaningful gathering as well.
Sometimes I’ve been compelled to have parties because the worst case scenario at that time actually happened and it wasn’t so bad. And thank goodness for that. A party is born. Whether I’ve lost a fiance or a job, had a biopsy or other kind of health scare, I’ve gotten back up, brushed the dust off my knees, called up my friends and my inner making-lemonade-from-lemons sense of self and decided to have a gathering, a shindig, a party, or a soiree. Sometimes that’s meant having friends over for meaningful conversation and a cause to celebrate or to be grateful for “dodging a bullet,” and sometimes it’s meant wearing a fancy party dress to the doctor’s office to await unknown results. Sometimes it’s meant cultivating gatherings specifically to bring more and more light and joy into my world and the internal and external worlds of my loved ones. I’ve hosted or organized and marketed parties to thank the world, God, my friends, supporters at work, in gratitude and as a quest for meaning. Parties have been held to get friends together to bring up a theme of positivity that would help light up our little corner of the world and bring out the hooray for the day.
The JOYFESTIVAL that I create can take many forms. They can be gatherings at a home that include a five hour extravaganza full of music, poetry, comedy, vision boarding, some interesting speech, meditation and other activities led by you, your friends or others. Or they can be subtle and gentle like a quiet dinner with friends or the creation of a mobile pop-up Happiness Room in the public sector. Or they can be a combination of these elements that work for your particular situation, that still allows you and those you include to build a joy greater than that which was there beforehand. There is no right or wrong way to facilitate your own JOYFESTIVAL, but it does need to have the common ingredients of gratitude, joy, positivity, connection and activity for it to work best! Here on this site, the goal is to share the tips, ideas, processes and activities to take the angst out of throwing the “meaningful-party” and all of the sometimes accompanying anxiety and irritation, and try to help facilitate some tips and tricks to sharing your own inner joy with the world around you, whether you’re in the midst of darkness or light, busy lives or lives that need a jumpstart.
Go ahead and join in something good! This is joy for all ages, no holds barred. Are you ready to be JOYFUL?
I’VE BEEN FEATURED
Watch Amy in her guest appearance on Crafter’s TV’s “Craft Along” show, April 2022
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