It was readily apparent that the 4-day yoga festival held in Ocean Beach that began on Friday, Jan. 27th, was a rousing success. Some 800 people took part – and it continues today, Jan. 30th – as festival-goers had dozens of options in how to participate – from participating in traditional classes overlooking the ocean, wine-tasting-based yoga sessions, yoga with your dog, a “namastoked” sunset surf session.
More info on today, Jan. 30, see the website of the San Diego Yoga Festival.
One of the key coordinators was our own Melanie Williams, board member of the OB Town Counsil and owner of TriPower Yoga in Ocean Beach. She told the San Diego Union-Tribune that planning the festival and then pulling it together was “a labor of love.” Williams said:
“We felt like we needed to usher in new life to San Diego yoga, and we felt like nine months is how long it takes to make new life.”
The festival is “the full rainbow spectrum of everything yoga can be. Every time you’re moving mindfully, that’s yoga.”
And yoga instructor Shawna Schenk was the other key organizer. Schenk and Williams wanted the festival to introduce yoga to people – not as a traditional practice of breathing and stretching – but as seeing that yoga can be almost anything, and that it welcomes everyone.
Here is more of the SD U-T report:
On Saturday, more than 20 vendors had set up tents in the grassy park next to the Ocean Beach pier, offering jewelry, yoga pants, crystals, “chakra tune-ups,” spiritual readings, organic juice and healthy snacks. People, many of whom brought their dogs, watched yoga demonstrations that seemed to defy gravity and listened to soothing music played on a Bali handpan.
Festival-goers young and old attended yoga classes, workshops and meditations in the park, on the beach, at nearby businesses, and at Sunset Cliffs, hosted in partnership with 70 San Diego businesses.
Schenk and Williams said they hope to put on the festival again next year.
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