YOGA♥ Magazine is a free print and digital magazine celebrating yoga, art, music, wellness and lifestyle.

SPOTLIGHT

What makes this year’s festival unique?
HEATHER: After years of seeing people network with one another organically and go on to do amazing things together, we are putting some intentions behind growing that network. As such, we’re actively exploring what purpose-driven collaboration looks like, in what is being shown to us as a new way of doing things. We will have more spaciousness in the schedule and more intentional time all together to spark these relationships, as well as fun activities that support people creating with one another to collaborate both at the festival and beyond.You will find our presenter roster here! 

Share with us what you LOVE about your festival location?
HEATHER: Our venue, the Hilton Sedona Resort at Bell Rock, is located in an area of Sedona that has very grounded and healing energy. With everything being walkable from the venue, we expect it to be very relaxed. There are many trails easily accessed near our venue, so folks can take time between classes to really find themselves on the land. There couldn’t be a better place for us to celebrate all together now and really connect with this sacred land.

 In that vein, SYF is unique in that it takes place in one of Earth’s well-known power points. Sedona has an energy of transformation and amplification. When we practice together in large numbers in this environment — with shared intention and an attitude of gratitude and love — it resonates and ripples out to the world at large.

The theme of our issue this year is JOY, how do yoga festivals inspire JOY? 
LISETTE: There’s a lightness of being that happens when we share in yoga and chant and celebration. It’s not just about coming together in community — though it’s that too — it’s the inspiration of possibility. When we come together in the shared goal of recognizing our interconnectedness, we break the barriers we set for ourselves. We’re able to step into our true, authentic, shared humanity and remind ourselves what is actually possible. 

The joy comes from that reminder — the tapping back into what’s really important, and creating the connections we need to shift out of stagnancy and hopelessness and into our divine power once we leave the event.