The Columbus Yoga Festival will take place at Camp Mary Orton Sept. 21. Credit: Courtesy of Leanne Moore.
Local yogis and other members of the wellness community will come together for the first annual Columbus Yoga Festival Saturday.
Yoga enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels are invited to walk the grounds of Camp Mary Orton and participate in a variety of wellness sessions. The schedule offers 17 different sessions led by local yoga instructors and wellness practitioners for participants to engage with.
Libby Atley, owner of BusyBÿ — a dance, mindfulness and yoga service — and a local instructor who teaches at Yoga on High, Kula Yoga and Wellness, GoYoga, and Bexley Yoga, will be leading a Sekoia session at the festival. Her session, which begins at 5:30 p.m., will be “multisensory,” including the use of ritual oils, pranayama meditation, restorative poses and vinyasa flow, Atley said.
Atley said the festival focuses on local wellness practices and businesses, compared with larger-scale yoga events and establishments. Though many yogis in the Columbus area interact and encourage each other through social media, she said it will be nice to meet and connect face to face.
“I’m excited to be in a space with other yoga instructors in the city and to be able to talk and collaborate and just get to know them on a different level,” she said.
Atley said she is looking forward to taking the role of student and participating in other sessions offered throughout the day.
“I’m really interested in being able to learn a little bit more about Reiki and being able to dip into the knowledge that will be shared, as well as things surrounding meditation,” Atley said.
Annie Inoa, a Columbus local who has been practicing yoga for six years, said she likes the concept of the festival.
“[The] festival is such a great idea for teachers to show what they have for their students and for people to take all sorts of yoga and see which one they like the best,” Inoa said.
Inoa said her favorite style of yoga is acro, a combination of vinyasa flow and acrobatics, though she also enjoys Bikram yoga — a yoga characterized by a series of postures and breathing exercises in a heated room.
In addition to wellness sessions held every half hour, the festival will feature more than 45 market and food vendors from the Columbus area.
The Columbus Yoga Festival is 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday at Camp Mary Orton. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased on the festival’s website.
