EcoHubs Community Mycelium
Tickets
Jungle with glowing mycelium threads
A camp at The Gathering México 23–27 Oct 2026 Yaxunah · Yaxcabá · Yucatán

Community Mycelium

Five days in the Mayan jungle. We don’t talk about regenerative community — we found one, together. And then we see the network it belongs to.

Get your ticket · MXN 4,500 Watch the video invitation
  • Bio Regionalism
  • Regenerative Finance
  • Regenerative Organisations
  • Regenerative Villages
The invitation

It isn’t you. It’s the way we live.

Most of us can describe what’s broken — the loneliness, the work that serves no one you know, the decisions made somewhere far away, the land treated as inventory. Far fewer of us have ever lived the alternative, even for a week.

All over the world, people are trying: living together, on land, on purpose. An estimated 80–90% of intentional communities fail — rarely because the people were wrong, but because nobody agreed in advance how to share a kitchen, make a decision, or what to do when there’s a fight.

That is fixable. Structure can be learned. So let’s learn it in the jungle.

What kind of experience is this?

You’re not coming to watch. You’re coming to build a temporary village.

In spirit it sits closer to the participatory side of a festival than the stage side — but smaller, guided, and focused on how intentional community actually works. Thin fiction, real practice: for five days the camp is the community.

NOT
An audience
BUT
Founding members

You choose the vision, the land and the name. Nothing is decided for you.

NOT
Lectures about community
BUT
Living one, day by day

Each day builds on the one before — like a real founding, compressed into five.

NOT
An island
BUT
One village among sixteen camps

Every day a delegate from our village joins the festival’s own council — the Consejo.

For anyone drawn to community and unsure how it actually works — people who want to live differently, people already in a shared project that’s harder than expected, and people who simply want to know whether the alternative is real. No land, no capital, no plan needed. Just five days.

The journey · 7 experiences across 5 days

From what we’re tired of — to a village that could last.

Under every forest runs a network you cannot see, carrying food and messages between trees that look like they stand alone. Each day grows one more thread of it. Missing a day means arriving in a world you didn’t help build — so come for all five.

Before you arrive

Join our WhatsApp group and answer 5–10 short questions. Your answers shape the three visions we’ll choose between on Day 2.

Every morning

Shared breakfast, then check-in pods: “How are you today?” — one or two minutes each. Opening circle.

Every midday

Roughly 13:00–16:00 stays light: shade, cenote, other camps’ sessions. Real gaps, on purpose.

01 Fri 23 Oct · Evening, at the fire · Open to everyone

The Wound and the Alternative

Naming what we are tired of — and seeing that it is structural, not personal.

As it gets dark, we sit around the fire. Everyone gets three cards and writes down up to three things they’re tired of. A talking stick goes round. Then we look at the cards together — and discover how much we share.

  • Our wounds sorted into eight boxes: Belonging, Earth, Economy, Work, Power, Education, Nature, Change
  • Stefan shares his own story — and his own wound
  • The reframe: these are design flaws of the system, not personal flaws
  • What regeneration means — and why “sustainable” isn’t enough
The idea

Changing the system from outside is hard — many institutions try. But we can build a new one, quietly, inside the old.

You leave with

Relief — and a shared language for what’s broken.

Our village so far Wounds named
02 Sat 24 Oct · Morning, fresh minds · Camp members

From Vision to Land

Purpose, mission and vision — and the criteria that make a piece of land work or fail.

Today the camp becomes a community — not as a lifestyle choice, but as a structural design change. Three visions lie on the ground. You walk over and stand behind the one you believe in.

  • Purpose, mission, vision: three words people mix up, three different jobs
  • WHY–HOW–WHAT: the social glue every later decision rests on
  • We choose a vision — maybe one village forms, maybe two or three
  • Each village picks from three plots of land, each with a hard but solvable problem
  • We give ourselves a name
Inside the session · The three visions +
Raíz — Root

“People can meet their own needs from the land without asking permission.”

40 ha remote · income from the land · catch: isolation, hardship
Puente — Bridge

“You don’t have to leave society to live in real community.”

8 ha near a city · members keep outside jobs · catch: dependency
Vuelta — Return

“Broken land can come back — and people are how it happens.”

25 ha eroded land · restoration income · catch: a decade of patience

Land criteria we weigh: water, legal path, price, access, slope, soil, flood & fire risk, zoning, neighbours, biodiversity, financing, ownership security, cultural fit…

You leave with

Knowing why a land search starts with a vision — not with the prettiest waterfall.

Our village so far Wounds named VisionLandA name
03 Sun 25 Oct · Late afternoon, on the jungle floor · Camp members

Imagine the Life There

Laying our village on the jungle floor — from water and zones to houses and shared infrastructure.

After a short guided meditation we walk outside. With sticks we draw our borders in the soil, with stones and wooden blocks we place our houses. What isn’t there — a slope, a stream, a forest — we imagine together.

  • Humans and nature as one living system
  • Grounding a design in local climate, culture, history and ecology
  • Zoning the land, catching water, then placing homes, kitchens, energy and compost
  • Privacy versus connection: how close should the houses be?
Inside the session · Building in phases +
Phase 0 Observe for 6–12 months: sun, rain, wind, what already lives there.
Phase 1 Zoning — from Zone 0 (home) through gardens and orchards to Zone 5, untouched wilderness.
Phase 2 Shape the land for water: swales, ponds, pioneer plants to heal the soil.
Phase 3 Houses, local materials, shared infrastructure, solar, composting toilets, greywater.
Phase 4 Social life — agreements and governance. That’s tomorrow.
You leave with

A permaculture-informed way to read any piece of land: water first, houses later.

Our village so far Wounds namedVisionLandA name Village layout
04 Mon 26 Oct · Morning & afternoon, in the shade · Camp members

Deciding Together · Roles & Contribution · Repair and Leave

The part almost every community skips — and the reason most of them break.

Now we live there. A new member wants to join. A greenhouse needs financing. Someone hasn’t cleaned the kitchen — for the fifth time. Who decides, and how? We write it down while everyone is still calm.

  • Six decision methods: poll, common ground, ranked choice, consensus, consent, approval
  • Four real cases, four kinds of decider: everyone, a committee, one person — or maybe nobody
  • Making invisible work visible: childcare, elderly care, cooking, turning the compost
  • Writing proposals that actually hold
  • A conflict ladder — and why exit must be defined before it’s needed
Inside the session · Rules that hold +

Every sentence in a good agreement is one of three kinds — or it’s clutter:

Enforceable Can someone check it yes/no?
Interpretive Does it pick a side when two things conflict?
Expressive Would deleting it change who we are, or who we attract?

“Block exit. Block voice. You don’t get loyalty.”

After Albert Hirschman, Exit, Voice and Loyalty (1970)

You leave with

A decision and conflict toolkit you can bring to any group — a family, a team, a co-housing project.

Our village so far Wounds namedVisionLandA nameVillage layout A written charter
05 Tue 27 Oct · Morning, into a public close at midday

What Grew Between Us

The culture nobody designed — and how a network of regenerative communities could work.

Culture is the one thing nobody designed and everybody made. We harvest what actually emerged — the jokes, the habits, the roles nobody assigned. Then we lift our eyes: a thousand villages, independent and connected, growing alongside the current system.

  • The harvest: four questions on the Wall
  • The unwritten org chart, drawn next to the charter
  • The Consejo reveal: we’ve been one village among many all week — cooperating, with no centre
  • Midday: the camp opens to the festival — read the Wall, walk the village, hear the charter
The harvest questions
  • What would a stranger notice about us?
  • What word have we started using?
  • Who do you go to for what?
  • What would feel wrong to do here?
You leave with

Confidence that this is real and reachable, something written you helped make — and a group that doesn’t end when the festival does.

Our village Wounds namedVisionLandA nameVillage layoutA written charter A culture · A network
What you carry home

You’ll stop seeing community as something you hope for — and start seeing it as something you can design.

Everything we use comes from RCOS — an open, free standard for communities that last, written by the EcoHubs community and tested on real land.

01 · Understanding

Why communities fail — and how to design for lasting

Structure is the invisible network that keeps a community alive, like mycelium under a forest.

02 · Tools

A practical toolkit

Vision method, land criteria, zoning, a decision matrix, proposal writing, a conflict ladder and an exit clause.

03 · Perspective

It’s structural, not personal

A new way of looking at your own fatigue — and at what regeneration can mean beyond soil.

04 · Something written

The charter you co-wrote

Purpose, land criteria, decision rules, conflict pathways — a template you can adapt for your own project.

05 · People

A founding group

People who built something with you — and the wider EcoHubs community: 20 active members across 13 countries.

06 · What continues

90 days, online

The village doesn’t dissolve. It moves online for a 90-day cohort, with three calls in the calendar before you fly home.

Your host
Stefan Lessle

Stefan Lessle

Community structure architect · Founder of EcoHubs

German-born software engineer and systems thinker, based in coastal Ecuador. Since 2021 Stefan has lived largely off-grid in an ancestral village community — alongside years of systematic research into why most intentional communities fail, and what makes the ones that thrive different.

He founded EcoHubs in 2026 and authored RCOS, the Regenerative Community Operating System — an open standard that makes the invisible structures of community life explicit: governance, membership, conflict, economics. It’s co-developed and governed by the community, and already piloted with an established community in Ecuador.

“I’m not a trained mediator. I’m a systems designer. If something big comes up, we slow down — and ask for help.”

Full profile ↗ ecohubs.community @ecohubs_community ↗
The place

Yaxunah — a Maya village in the heart of the Yucatán.

Flat limestone lowland covered in dry tropical forest. There are almost no rivers here — the water runs underground and surfaces in cenotes, like the one right on the festival site. The ancient city of Yaxuná sits beside the village, and Chichén Itzá is close by.

Looking down into a cenote — turquoise water beneath a wooden platform
Shaded gravel path through the jungle garden
Garden path lined with agaves and stones
Deep blue cenote under a limestone overhang
Dense green forest canopy

Cenotes

There’s one right on the site — a small entry fee applies. Perfect for the midday heat.

Living Maya culture

Local producers and cooks feed the festival; Maya is still spoken in the village.

The Gathering México ↗

16 camps, 70+ experiences — permaculture, mangroves, art, inner work, regenerative tech.

Everything you need to say yes

Life in the camp

Sleep

Camping space is included. Bring your own tent, or rent one from the festival at extra cost. Glamping and rooms in nearby villages can be booked separately.

Bathrooms & showers

Shared toilets and showers are provided on site by the festival. Drinking water throughout your stay.

Power & connection

Electricity on site is limited. Don’t count on fast internet or strong signal in the jungle — bring a power bank and download what you need before you come.

Food

Continental breakfast every morning. A community kitchen to cook your own. Lunch and dinner are not included — local producers and cooks sell food at the kermés. Special diets: tell us in advance.

A normal day

Breakfast and check-in → morning session → long, light midday (cenote, other camps, rest) → late-afternoon session → evening circle and fire.

Comfort & effort

Hot and humid — around 32°C, end of the rainy season, mosquitoes. Physically light: sitting in circles, standing, walking on the land.

Bring

Tent (or rent one) & mat · power bank · headlamp · refillable bottle · swimwear · rain layer · light long sleeves · biodegradable repellent & sunscreen · pesos in cash · your medication.

Culture of the event

Family-friendly and free of alcohol and drugs. Facilitated in English, with Spanish support.

Group size

Around 10-20 people — big enough to form more than one village, small enough to know everyone’s name.

Travel & tickets

Full experience · Recommended
MXN 4,500 5 days · 4 nights

Roughly US$240 / €210 at current rates

  • All Community Mycelium sessions
  • Public activities of every camp
  • Camping spot in our camp, showers & toilets
  • Daily continental breakfast & drinking water
  • Community kitchen
  • Online sessions before the event
Get your ticket on Luma

Shorter passes exist (MXN 3,800 / 2,800 / 1,800) — but the arc only works if you’re there for all five days. Under 12: half price. Under 2: free.

Dates
Fri 23 – Tue 27 October 2026
Location
Yaxunah, 97924, municipality of Yaxcabá, Yucatán, Mexico· Open map ↗
Airports
Mérida (MID), about 2.5 h by road. Cancún (CUN), about 3 h. The site is 30 min from Chichén Itzá.
Getting there
The festival runs shuttles to the site at extra cost — parking at the nearest village is limited. ADO buses reach Valladolid and Pisté (Chichén Itzá) from Mérida and Cancún. We help coordinate shared rides in the WhatsApp group.
Arrive / leave
Arrive by the afternoon of Fri 23 — Day 1 starts at the fire that evening. Leave from mid-afternoon on Tue 27, after the public close.
Visa
Travellers from the EU, UK, US, Canada and many other countries don’t need a visa for a tourist stay. Check your nationality with the Mexican consulate.
Extra costs
Shuttle, tent rental or glamping (if you need it), lunches and dinners, cenote entry, travel to Yucatán.
Payment & cancellation
Tickets are sold by The Gathering on Luma; their terms apply. Unsure? Message us before you book.

Health & safety

On site

Medical services and security are provided by the festival organisers throughout the event.

Nearest hospital

Valladolid, about an hour by road. Mérida for specialised care. Urgent cases are coordinated with the festival’s medical team.

Tell us in advance

Allergies, medication, dietary needs, anything we should know. Privately — by WhatsApp or email.

In the circle

Anyone can call a pause, no explanation needed. You’re never asked to share anything personal you don’t want to.

Stefan Lessle
A real person, before you decide

Questions about travel, food, health or the programme? Ask me.

WhatsApp · Stefan Text me on WhatsApp Email hello@ecohubs.community

Festival team: mexico@the-gathering.earth

Come to the Yucatán for five days and build a small living village with people who are asking:

What could community feel like if we built it intentionally?

Hold your place in the village

Choose the 5-day ticket and Community Mycelium as your camp · 23–27 Oct 2026