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Festival Yoga, Music & Magic in the Mountains Frances Gairns Krishna Das at Wanderlust Festival Whistler YYoga Northshore Elements’ Nico Luce By winter Whistler is one of the top ski resorts in North America. By summer, it’s a wilderness adventure playground for mountain bikers, runners, climbers, with just enough spas, restaurants and shops to keep the less active partners very happy. The permanent population is 10,000, but with its proximity to Vancouver, this number can increase tenfold for special events or 15 cm plus powder days. There are just four small yoga studios in Whistler. The oldest, NeoAlpine Yoga (now part of the YYoga group) was founded about 13 years ago by Patrick Creelman and Stephen Thomas. Initially Whistler seems an unlikely venue for a Wanderlust Festival, but with the large and enthusiastic yoga community of Vancouver just two hours down the road, it becomes an obvious choice for the first Wanderlust Festival outside the US. Wanderlust was created by husband and wife Jeff Krasno and Schuyler Grant, and Jeff ’s business partner Sean Hoess. It aims to bring together yoga teachers, musical acts and DJs, speakers, chefs and winemakers, in settings of natural beauty. left Chris Chavez below Eoin Finn’s workshop is a big bliss party There are already Wanderlust Festivals in Vermont, Colorado and California. As well as Wanderlust in the City events in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. The Greater Vancouver area has a population of about 2 million people, is home to ubiquitous yoga brand lululemon, at least 100 yoga studios and an estimated 20,000 regular yoga practitioners. Combine that with all the fitness centres offering yoga classes and freelance teachers, and you’ve got a sizeable market of aspiring yogis close by. Teachers at the Whistler event (23 – 26 August <strong>2012</strong>) were mostly North American - headliners like Krishna Das, Baron Baptiste, Sean Corne and local yoga teachers, like Whistlerite and former Hong Kong-teacher Julia McCabe. While yoga asana classes are the definitely the mainstay of the Festival, there’s also lots of fun and alternative classes like hoola hoop, paddle board and slack line balancing, mountain walks, live music, DJ music, lectures, debates, meditation, food and wine! For such a wide offering, I was surprised to find the ticketing options quite limited - one, three or four-day passes only. Great for single festival goers, but not so for a mother-of-two. It’s priced at US$160 a day which includes up to three classes or activities, and US$475 for all four days, which is about half the price of an average Yoga Journal three-day conference pass. And compared with Asia Yoga Conference, it’s a little bit less than their early bird price. I started off at 8 am to the dulcet tones of Nico Luce. An Argentinian who teaches at YYoga Northshore Elements in Vancouver with wife Chloe. It was a mellow class, with music and inspiring readings interspersed in the asana sequence. Nico’s assistants were very attentive and generous to the needs of the class. Immediately after, I attended Chris Chavez’ intermediate/advanced class. A striking contrast to Nico’s gentle approach, but just as rewarding. There was a live cellist on hand to accompany the intense practice. We did a fun assisted handstand exercise which focussed on pushing down through our arms to lift up to handstand from Prasarita, rather than hopping up. A good reminder how much strength that transition requires. And the third class I took was with surfer/yogi Eoin Finn. A very well known and loved British Columbia teacher. His class started with lots of free form movement around the hall. He took us off our mats (shock, horror) connecting with nature, imitating animals and water, before segueing into a more traditional vinyasa practice. I thoroughly enjoyed all three classes and would recommend all three teachers. That connection to nature and the best of all things yogic continued into the evening for me at an outdoor Krishna Das concert. Sitting with Philippe on real grass under a clear night sky, filled with more stars than you could count, our children running around freely and happily, a community of like-minded people chanting and swaying to the beautiful music – a magical moment which I hope to hold in my heart long after I return to the city. photo by Ali Kaukas Frances is editor of <strong>Namaskar</strong>. 35