County Yogafest

Inaugural County yoga festival at Crystal Palace

Megan Marie Gates plays quartz crystal bowls during a sound bath meditation session at the Crystal Palace.

Kathryn Flynn’s soothing and gentle voice guided nearly 100 yoga practitioners through dozens of movements and positions during a yoga session at the bright and airy Crystal Palace on Saturday morning at the inaugural Prince Edward County Yoga Festival. Although the participants spanned a range of ages and body types, they moved in near unison, with variations dictated by their own body’s ability. Flynn encouraged everyone remain mindful of their breathing and body position, staying fully with the present moment. The atmosphere within the Crystal Palace was one of peace and serenity, augmented by the sound of birdsong from outside.

The yoga festival was organized by Christine Rozak, and included five activity sessions in the Crystal Palace, a number of presentations in the adjacent Bluebird Room, and an outdoor vendors market. The festival extended into the evening with a “Tragically Hip” inspired yoga session, and then to Sunday morning with yoga on the beach. “I wanted to create an event that brought people together in the County to share in yoga, and I chose the Crystal Palace because I thought it would be a really special offering in a really special place,” said Rozak. “The County has such a beautiful welcoming and natural environment.” Rozak paid special attention in choosing the teachers who would lead the sessions, with two of them—Megan Marie Gates and Carrie Taylor—being well-loved local instructors. The others were people with whom Rozak has worked and who also had a connection to the County. “They are inspiring and they are grounding, and they are among the best teachers who teach at the larger festivals,” she said. “This is a good opportunity for locals from the County to get to practise with them.” Rozak said that yoga has blossomed in the County over the past few years. There are a number of private yoga studios, as well as community yoga classes available at low cost in places such as the Athol Town Hall and the Wellington Legion. Other companies such as the Drake Hotel, the June Motel and several wineries offer yoga classes. There is even yoga with alpacas. Yoga is accessible to everyone said Rozak “All you need is a mat, a quiet space and an open mind.”

Lauren Owens holds a pose during a Mindful Movements yoga session. She won tickets to the festival in an Instagram contest.

One of the participants at the festival was Kim Kolatschek. She has been practising yoga for about six years and started as a means of recovering from an injury. Yoga has now become a part of her daily life. “I’ve learned to develop a practise of peacefulness, it’s brought me more calmness and a lot more introspection,” she said. “It’s helped my sleep and my general well-being. My flexibility is better and my physique is different.” Kolatschek is from Toronto, and she came to the festival because she follows some of the teachers on social media. “I came to learn more about yoga and more about meditation.”

Carrie Taylor was one of the speakers at the festival. She offers yoga classes in Cherry Valley and at the Baxter Arts Centre in Bloomfield. “I encourage all of my students to go inside and listen to their bodies and do what is right for them,” she said. “Yoga is all about an exploration of yourself, and I am just there to guide.” She has seen an increase in yoga participation, and particularly so among seniors. “I get people that are in their 70s that have never done yoga and they are coming to me,” she said. “I find that yoga is a way to become aware of what is going on within you, and then you start to make small changes in your life.”

The events at the festival included a number of talks on topics such as meditation, the healing power of plants as medicine, and how to incorporate the principles of yoga in day to day life. There were several different actual yoga sessions, and the daytime events closed with a sound bath meditation led by Megan Marie Gates. She uses sounds produced by crystal bowls, chimes, melodic drum and her own voice to help participants enter a state of meditation. “Sound baths are practises of deep listening to soothing instrumentation that you wouldn’t normally hear in your day-to-day,” she said. “With deep listening our brainwaves start to slow down into deeper states, so we can reach states of relaxation just by listening, and that is a big part of the medicine of sound.”

The festival had a second purpose, which was to provide support back to the community. Fees from the outdoor vendor market were to be donated to County foodbanks, and there was a special booth for Alternatives for Women. The latter organization was selling raffle tickets to help with the fundraising for a shelter and emergency housing for women and their children in crisis situations. Gates is acutely aware that many of the participants at the festival come from a position of privilege. “We all have the means to afford a ticket to be here. We are able-bodied, we are able to practise yoga,” she said. “When there are areas of privilege like that, it is so necessary we are giving back to the community, because that is really the karma portion of yoga.” That sentiment is echoed by Flynn. “Yoga is a way of realizing humanity’s oneness, our indivisibility and our collective experience,” she said. “It helps us realize that compassion and empathy for all beings.”