A couple of weekends ago, my friends and I ran away to the circus for Soul Circus 4.0 a yoga festival located in Elmore Gloucestershire.
Last year I volunteered with 2 friends and had an amazing time. This year due to a few hectic weekends after coming back from Bali, plus getting back into my normal work routine and the idea of putting up a tent, packing and for camping by myself, was a bit too much on top of volunteering by myself. My 2 friends from Manchester had also decided not to volunteer so after a volunteer briefing Thursday evening, I had a very sickly feeling in myself that I was not going to enjoy this festival while volunteering as an individual and made the decision to also buy a ticket. I apologised to my volunteer leader who was understanding and bought a ticket to support this wonderful festival. This took a lot of pressure off me and allowed me to enjoy the weekend with my friends which what this weekend was primarily about.
On Friday due to my anxiety about sorting out this weekend, I took some time to myself at home which was well needed before heading over to the festival where I did a live DJ Vinyasa class before my friends arrived. The weather was rainy and windy so we took shelter in a ‘body positivity’ tent doing a little mix dance class and a Disco Yoga class in the hot Tipi. Both classes were extremely fun and the weather didn’t dull our spirits. we stayed Friday evening to dance and let loose to the band and dj before heading back to my house to sleep (better option than trying to pitch a tent in the rain)
Saturday we got fully stuck into the festival overall doing 5 classes including Beyonce yoga, gong bath sound healing, jivamukti, mandela yoga and another dance class. There is a great mixture of different classes at Soul Circus, not just dedicated to Asana, but also to other aspects of yoga such as meditation, pranayama, mantra chanting and sound healing. There is less opportunity to practice these important aspects of yoga in a group so being able to do it at a festival is a great way to reset, experience and feel good. The sun came out shining so in between classes we were able to enjoy hanging out at the festival,looking at the market stalls and sitting on the grass taking in the views of what does actually feel like a circus at times.
There is a massive choice of different classes throughout the weekend as well as talks and workshops. I am always surprised how quickly the time goes while at Soul Circus as I guess you get full immersed into doing a class for an hour. This year there was also many more food options with more independent food stalls as well as the Festivals solar kitchen. The food stalls had an amazing choice of vegan and vegetarian foods on offer such as shawarmas, falaffel, gourmet burgers and vegan soft serve ice cream. Friday and Saturday evenings, it was easy to get drinks from the bar. Both nights the festival chose very good bands which were great fun to dance to as well as 2 DJs to keep the party going.
This year I really enjoyed Soul Circus, it is a great festival full of fun, happiness, kindness and friendly people. For anyone who loves yoga I highly recommend coming whether for the weekend or just for the day. It is also a really good festival that someone could go to solo as there are lots of classes to get stuck into, you will easily meet a friendly face to share your love of yoga with.
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