Raw Spirit Festival, Santa Barbara, Review
It was bliss! An energetic and feel good two days. I wish we could have stayed all three days. It rained on the drive from Los Angeles but by the time we arrived – no more rain. The sun played with us all day, in and out of the clouds.
The first session at noon was yoga with Megan Cannon from the Big Island. She has studied with BKS Iyengar as well as Geeta and Prashant. She taught a wonderful basic Iyengar class focusing on warriors, triangles, and twists with alignment.
The opening ceremonies were next with Samantha Sweetwater, Dreaming Bear and their group. The sign on the stage read, “The Grandest Raw Vegan Eco Peace Celebration in Creation.” The music was fantastic and Samantha facilitated some great interaction within the crowd and her specialty, dancing freedom. I met a friend from Brazil – there was definitely an international crowd at the festival. During the ceremony, an incredible ring formed around the sun, looking like a circular rainbow. Quite spectacular.
Time for lunch, a delicious Mediterranean plate that was enough to feed two of us. I wish I remembered the vendor’s name, I’ll come back and plug it in if I can find it. It was very good and I went back later in the day for a yummy fruit salad and more.
More yoga, yea! Next is Elemental Flow Yoga with Ninaya from Santa Barbara. I loved the way she incorporated the fluid body with sufi rolls and warrior poses. Ninaya is a beautiful young women expecting her second child and with her young toddler close by.
A short break and then it is time for Kirtan with Eostar and her group. Eostar is from Eugene, Oregon and lives in the house that my daughter and her boyfriend had looked to join. Small world. The kirtan was magnificant. Eostar has written her own music and incorporates both vedic chanting and English. I could have stayed all night.
We spend some time walking about the vendors and then to the small doctors tent which has become a dance pavilion. Later, we move back to the main stage for singing and dancing and music from Fantuzzi, Singing Bear, and The Luminaries. We wished we were camping so that we could stay all night but we had to head to our hotel for some sleep.
Saturday is a new day. I start with yoga with Nandhi. I forgot to mention that all of the yoga was in the Sacred Exercise tent. A large purple open air tent. So nice to be outside with the cool Santa Barbara breezes. Nandhi starts by taking us outside of the tent to appreciate the sun and the earth. As we do our yoga, we explore our left Mother side and right Father side and give gratitude to both. Nandhi has a beautiful way of incorporating chanting with yoga in a traditional way. Nandhi is from India and promises a beautiful ceremony tonight for the full moon, too bad I can’t stay. I do go by and pick up both cds for some chanting and meditation at home.
Next on the schedule is Drew Rouse with Bikram Yoga. He introduces himself and explains that his style is command driven yoga. He seems aware that some don’t like that style. I wouldn’t want to hear it all the time but did enjoy his class and felt good that I could do most of it.
Time for lunch, another Mediteranean style meal, this time from Lydia’s Lovin Foods. It was good and I also picked up some crackers to take home.
Samantha Sweetwater from the opening ceremonies now provides an hour of dancing freedom taking us through the elements of earth, water, fire, air, and ether. She is a wonderful facilitator.
A break to explore the yoga swing, didgeridoo sound healing and other parts of the festival with Lucy and Zach.
The last yoga class for me is with Ardas Wright. She leads a Kundalini Yoga class. Ardas has taught at Golden Bridge and I do recognize her style. It has been several years but I have taken a couple of classes with Gurmukh at Golden Bridge.
After all the yoga, I am a bit tired and head over to the massage healing tables. I am approached by Sya Warfield of urban oasis. Sya lists several massage specialties including Swedish, deep tissue, thai massage, cranio sacral, and reiki. I say that I want something relaxing and healing for my shoulder and she suggests cranio sacral with reiki. It is quite relaxing and my shoulder does feel good afterwards. I would definitely do it again and have her card in case I get a chance to look her up in San Francisco.
The day is over for us. Lucy and Zach are tired and ready to head home. I would have liked to stay longer but it would have made driving at night difficult and so it was best that we head back to Torrance. With little traffic, we make it home in just over 2 hours.
Hope to go back in 2010!