On the perimeter fence that surrounds the vacant field across from Sebastopol’s downtown plaza, signs have been posted advertising the Sebastopol Bloom Festival, a new three-day event slated to begin Friday.

Public art that once stood in the field over the summer has been removed and crews on Tuesday were mowing grass ahead of the final few days of preparations for an event billed as a first of its kind in the city. Promoted as a celebration of farm-to-table food, mindful movement, conscious music and community, the festival is set to be staged across three sites, including the empty field off Depot Street, Ives Park and the Sebastopol Community Cultural Center, all within less than half a mile of each other.

Tickets have been on sale since July, starting at $150 and ranging now up to $280 for three days.

The festival founder is Jonathan Pinkston, owner and co-founder of Soft Medicine Sanctuary in Sebastopol, a health-oriented tea lounge and eclectic event hub opened in the Basso Building on Main Street in 2022.

The event is his latest bid to expand his footprint and vision of a community built around wellness and sustainability. Over the past three years, he’s publicly pitched buying the Basso Building and another prominent Main Street property, the former Miller Oil site by the post office.

His stated aims, outlined in meetings with public officials and local business owners, are to create more gathering spaces, seeking to fill a void he sees in downtown.

But outside of the coming festival, those lofty goals have yet to materialize as projects, leaving some of the same officials and business representatives to describe what they see as a confounding gap between what Pinkston has pitched with what he is able to deliver.

The Sebastopol Bloom Festival, his largest project to date, is starting to show similar cracks.

Promoted as an exercise in community building, the festival is an outgrowth of Pinkston’s Main Street business, which will serve as the “wellness hub” during the three-day event, offering workshops, bodywork treatment and ayurvedic food and drink.

“I’m stoked to bring this to the community,” Pinkston told the Planning Commission in late September.

But Pinkston’s nonprofit, Living Earth Land Conservation, which is set to take in the proceeds from the festival, has had its tax-exempt status revoked since May 2024, according to federal records — something top city officials only became aware of earlier this month after being informed by The Press Democrat.

The nonprofit was not listed as an applicant on permit documents for the event, according to Interim City Manager Mary Gourley. The revoked status means the nonprofit is legally barred from fundraising until its paperwork is fixed.

“We had a filing issue,” Pinkston told The Press Democrat. “They did revoke it. It’s being reinstated currently. It’s a slow process. Our lawyer said that once it’s reinstated, any activities in the interim period get activated.”

That nonprofit is central to Pinkston’s larger plan to establish a public park on the same Depot Street field where the festival is set to host its center stage and more than 60 vendors. Pinkston has pitched the park idea in public meetings and correspondence with city and business officials over the past year. He’s put forward both his nonprofit and the festival as fundraising engines for the park.

“We’re using a fiduciary sponsor, Living Earth Land Conservation,” Pinkston told the Planning Commission in September. That way, he explained, any future use of the festival’s profits would not be “a tax liability, if that makes sense.”

But Pinkston doesn’t have a legal claim to the 1.5-acre property, which is owned by Piazza Hospitality. The Healdsburg-based developer has had city approval to build a luxury hotel on the site since 2017. Piazza’s principals were gobsmacked to learn within the past three months that Pinkston was pitching a park there. Piazza officials said they had told him they had no intention of selling the land.

“We have a draft agreement for use of our lot for the festival,” said Daniele Petrone, senior project manager with Piazza Hospitality. “There’s no agreement beyond that, and certainly no agreement that gives him the option to buy.”

In Sebastopol, the back and forth over the festival, floated this summer and approved in September, as well as Pinkston’s grander ideas for downtown’s future, have fueled questions about how and whether the city ought to embrace a businessman who set up shop during the pandemic and has since taken up a larger presence on the public stage, promoting his vision of health and wellness in a famously health-conscious city hungering for new revenue streams.

“Our city is working hard to attract and retain quality businesses. Approving an unvetted, poorly planned event risks damaging that effort and the image of our town,” Loretta and Chip Castleberry, owners of Coach’s Corner Fitness Center, wrote to the Planning Commission.

Pinkston has pushed back, assuring that the festival will be a success.

“We want more people to know Sebastopol exists. We’re not just trying to throw a festival and make money and have fun,” Pinkston told the Planning Commission. “We need high-rolling people that see this as a place where they want to anchor.”

Man behind the festival

Confident. Strategic. Selfless. That’s how Pinkston’s supporters sum up his public persona and the value they say he brings to the community.

“Jonathan is on a mission,” said Debra Giusti, publicity coordinator and an adviser for the festival. “He’s doing it very altruistically and putting a lot on the line.”

Pinkston’s Soft Medicine Sanctuary is a popular place among west Sonoma County residents seeking an alternative spot to socialize and unwind.

“Yes, it’s a tea house and cafe and yoga studio, but really Soft Medicine is a root vibration of what Sebastopol has always been,” Pinkston told The Press Democrat in 2023. “It functions as a beacon for people to anchor into that vibration.”

While his Sebastopol location was the first, Pinkston, 38, has since opened sister cafes and lounge spaces in Arcata, San Francisco and Nevada County.

Raised in east Santa Rosa, Pinkston moved to Occidental 20 years ago, but has floated between Sonoma County, Humboldt County and Hawaii over the past decade.

As a musician he’s put out five albums, ranging from electronic dance to solo, acoustic ukulele. He’s also worked as a licensed acupuncturist, ayurvedic practitioner and property manager. Years ago, he began a tea stand at the Occidental Farmers’ Market, which eventually turned into the brick-and-mortar cafe in Sebastopol.

He founded his nonprofit, Living Earth Land Conservation, in December 2021. Its stated mission is to acquire, hold, develop and manage land for “the collective benefit of the earth and local communities that surround our landholdings,” according to the nonprofit’s bylaws.

It has no publicly indexed website, and tax records show no assets and no liabilities. The nonprofit has three board members but no staff. In an IRS document Pinkston shared with The Press Democrat, the nonprofit claimed $20,000 in donations in 2024 and paid $3,000 in rent.

“This is an unpaid labor of love for me,” Pinkston said in a text message.

The waves he is making in west county come as he has also made public his interest running for Sebastopol City Council, though as an Occidental resident, he’d have to move into the city to do so.

“I’ve been planning to run for one of the 2026 seats … to seed some youthful exuberance into town politics and help overcome some of the budget and demographic issues we have coming online as Boomers get older and cost of living goes up for Millennials and Gen Z,” Pinkston said. “It pays nearly nothing, but I see the value in service as a native Sonoma County resident and business owner here.”

He views the festival as a public extension of his boosterism. As of Tuesday, 1,200 of 2,000 tickets have been sold, Giusti said.

“Having grown up here, I am dedicated to making sure the town maintains and increases its status in the community as a vibrant space for like-minded people to work and congregate,” Pinkston wrote in an Aug. 28 email to the city.

Planning stumbles

Still, the rollout of the festival has been especially rocky, even for an inaugural event.

Pinkston and his team missed multiple city deadlines, finalizing their to-do list just under the wire.

“We don’t have crazy resources,” Pinkston said, adding that “the unfortunate thing is we’ve been accused of trying to evade the city. Someone even made an email about this being a ‘Sebastopol Fyre Fest,’” referring to the 2017 failed luxury music festival on an island in the Bahamas.

Gourley, the interim city manager, said that after initially missing a “pre-event” meeting with the police, fire, public works and planning departments in early October, Pinkston met with city officials on Monday. He assured them that several key documents required by planning commissioners in the Sept. 23 permit — including proof of his state license to sell alcohol, vendor lists and proof of notification to neighbors — would be turned in no later than Wednesday, Gourley said.

Pinkston told The Press Democrat that festival organizers would begin grading the field Wednesday and building the stage Thursday.

Nonprofit’s role in question

That Pinkston has positioned his little-known nonprofit to collect proceeds from the festival in part to fundraise for a future downtown park — on land he does not control — has sowed some initial doubts among land conservation organizations.

After Living Earth Land Conservation received its tax-exempt status in 2021, IRS documents show it failed to file tax returns three years in a row, through 2024, resulting in an automatic revocation of its federal tax-exempt status.

Documents from the California State Franchise Tax Board also indicate the nonprofit is not tax exempt in the state. The tax board, in response to an inquiry from The Press Democrat, said the state has “no record” of any tax filings from the nonprofit.

Pinkston attributed the change in federal status to an error in the nonprofit’s mailing address, which has been his Occidental home, according to past filings, and is now his Sebastopol business, Pinkston said. He also said he wasn’t aware the nonprofit was obligated to file tax returns even if it did not receive any revenue or donations. Pinkston also said he didn’t realize that incorporating in December 2021 would mean the nonprofit would have to file a tax return for that same year.

Under IRS rules, nonprofits without tax-exempt status can still operate, but must do so as corporations, meaning they are required to pay tax on any net earnings. They cannot solicit donations or act in a fundraising capacity.

Pinkston, in an interview, addressed those legal limits and the implications for his nonprofit in connection with the festival and its proceeds, saying he would seek to partner with another nonprofit in the area dedicated to land conservation. He mentioned LandPaths, the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, Sonoma Land Trust, the Sonoma County Community Foundation and Sonoma County Ag & Open Space.

Eric Singer, development manager with LandPaths, Dave Henson, the executive director of OAEC and Tricia Savelli, administrative assistant with the Community Foundation, all denied having any working relationship with Pinkston or Living Earth Land Conservation; some had not heard about Sebastopol Bloom Festival until being contacted by The Press Democrat.

Neal Ramus, director of community engagement and education with Sonoma Land Trust, acknowledged he’d spoken with Pinkston by phone, but said that “SLT is unable to be considered a partner in this project at this time — which I told him. While we are supportive, in concept, about parks and open spaces near people, there is a lot more for us to learn about the project before we can sign on as a partner/supporter/advisor.”

Pamela Swan, grants coordinator with Sonoma County Ag & Open Space, said she talked with Pinkston about the project but said it would not be eligible at this time for funding from the agency, which uses taxpayer money to create parks and conserve working lands.

The Land Trust Alliance, a national coalition that certifies U.S. land trusts, shows no listing for Pinkston’s Living Earth Land Conservation.

Pinkston said his efforts to create park space are genuine.

“We are simply trying to work with the city and land owners and public to accomplish running an amazing event, putting proceeds toward a good cause of the beautification of this downtown space and encourage ongoing use that benefits everyone in town.”

Park puzzle

On multiple occasions, during public meetings, in emails to business owners, while talking to his supporters and in interviews, Pinkston has said proceeds from the Bloom Festival would go to “the design and support of downtown green spaces,” as stated on the festival’s website.

Pinkston has specifically tied the festival to the park proposal on the Piazza Hospitality property, vacant for the past decade. A July flyer for the event featured a rendering of a park and beckoned supporters to “help connect Main Street, the Square and the Barlow shopping district.”

That image, pushed out on social media over summer, confused many Sebastopol residents, business owners and even city staff.

“While the city welcomes events that support the beautification of Sebastopol, … the flyer states that proceeds from the festival will go toward the expansion of the downtown square,” Gourley told Pinkston in an Aug. 18 email.

As a result, the city had fielded “inquiries and complaints from residents who understandably could believe that the city has already approved an expanded downtown square and/or downtown park without any public process,” Gourley added.

Pinkston and Giusti were also telling business owners and supporters an agreement was in place with Piazza for a lease of the land after the festival — something they repeated in interviews.

Myriah Volk, executive director of the Sebastopol Area Chamber of Commerce, relayed to city officials last month an email from Giusti saying Pinkston had secured control of the “Piazza Hospitality land for the next two years.”

The land would be used “to create community and cultural events,” Giusti told The Press Democrat.

Daniele Petrone, the senior Piazza official, said no such deal exists beyond use of the land for the festival.

“The temporary agreement for use of our land is the start and stop of our relationship with Jonathan,” Petrone said in an Oct. 14 email. “We’re not working with him on throwing the festival, there is no agreement beyond the festival, there is no option for him to buy our land (we’re not interested in selling), and we very much intend to build the hotel.”

Pinkston told The Press Democrat two weeks ago that “we’re just trying to figure it out as we go.

“I’m pro-development if it’s done the right way,” he said. “When we met with Piazza, we learned their building technology is the best of any. If you are going to build a hotel here, they would be the best.”

For now, he said, he’s focused on bringing the festival to the city.

“My main intention? We want more people to know Sebastopol exists.”

Amie Windsor is the Community Journalism Team Lead with The Press Democrat. She can be reached at [email protected] or 707-521-5218.