Byron Spirit Festival
It’s my third year attending Byron Spirit Festival, but honestly, this time I almost thought I wouldn’t make it. It’s less than a two hour drive from Brisbane to Byron, but it might as well have been across the Indian Ocean for all of the water that needed to be crossed to get there. The biggest flood event in northern NSW in decades – certainly the worst one I’ve seen in my time – kicked off conveniently on the day many of us were due to happily road trip to Zen Land.
So, I waited. Thursday: maybe tomorrow. Friday: probably tomorrow. Saturday: surely tomorrow! The highway reopened late Saturday afternoon, but with the traffic crawling at 7km per hour I decided to wait it out. So, Sunday morning, after three hours sleep due to excitement-fuelled insomnia, I hopped in my van and cruised down the highway.
Ironically, for something that I describe to the uninitiated as a ‘yoga festival’, I didn’t do any traditional asana classes this year. I jumped straight out of my van - and my comfort zone - and into a ‘Sacred Union’ (aka tantra) class with Josie Keys from LA. Now, if you’re going to a tantra class as a couple it makes sense, right? But as about half of the attendees were single, we had to pair up. It felt like an awkward school dance as Josie split us into ‘boys’ and ‘girls’, and the ladies had to walk across the room and each pick a man to connect with for the next two hours. ‘Pick someone you’re attracted to’ she said… No pressure. There were more women than men in the room, and I hesitated, so I ended up pairing up with an equally nervous lady. Neither of us really knew what we were in for.
In the next two hours we talked, stared into each others’ eyes, wrapped our legs around each other, lay in each others’ lap, and gave each other head massages. It was all too much for my lady friend, who apologised and bailed on me just before we started om’ing into each of our partner’s chakras. Probably for the best. It was an amazing class though, and something I definitely want to look into further. I learnt a thing or two as well, including the deer exercise. Trust me, google it.
High on connection and sensual energy, I skipped across to another venue at the festival for iRest Yoga Nidra meditation. Now, I have a confession to make – I do own one of those yoga-uniform items. To be precise, it’s a singlet with ‘I’m just here for the savasana’ written boldly across it. I’m wearing it right now. And it’s true – that lying down meditation at the end of a yoga class… well, sometimes that’s the one thing that gets me to a class. So, a whole class of that? Yes please! Apparently other people feel the same, because by the time I arrived there was barely room for me to squeeze in. But squeeze I did. One thing I forgot to account for was the tiny three hours sleep I had gotten the night before. About four minutes into the class, I was fast asleep. About four minutes before the end of class, I woke up. I did drift in and out throughout, and I loved what I heard. Also, clearly I was relaxed! I made another mental note to find more of Dr Lauren Tober’s classes, and to be less sleep deprived next time.
It was noticeably quieter, attendance-wise, at this year’s festival, due to the floods and a huge number of people stranded away from the festival site, but the uplifting energy was abundant. It remains one of the friendliest festivals I’ve been to, as people open themselves to being vulnerable around strangers and trying new things.
Sometimes I feel like describing these events to people who weren’t there cheapens them – it’s difficult not to sound like a loony talking about a room full of people writhing and crying in unison. That was the Breath of Bliss Master Class with Christabel Zamor, if you’re interested. But the healing, the walls that come down, the ensuing connection and glimmer in the eyes of the people around me is real, and it’s beautiful.
Spirit festivals are one of my favourite genres of festival – everything from the food court to the altars at the entrance to the people who attend combines to create an energy that is hard to beat. If you’ve ever been curious about yoga, meditation, shamanic healing, tantra, dance or conscious music, it’s a great sample plate to taste from, too.
My time at Byron Spirit Festival this year was brief, but illuminating. I made some decisions about my future and what I want to create for myself, and giving myself that space to get out of my comfort zone and expand was brilliant. I’ll tell you more about my plans next time, and fingers crossed there are more of these festivals on the horizon for us to share. As always, I’d love to hear your experiences too. Let’s share!
