Montreal’s summer festival season now includes two new yoga festivals. This summer, you can practice, celebrate and share an eclectic mix of yoga.
The 1st annual Yoga Festival Montreal takes place June 8, 9 & 10 at the Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique de Montréal, 4750, av. Henri-Julien in the heart of Plateau Mont-Royal. The organizers promise three days of asana, meditation, music, deep relaxation, philosophy, and good food. For the yoga community, it promises to be an opportunity to come together, to show that yoga can span ideology, tradition, culture and language. Over 30 yoga systems or lineages will be featured, in 50 hours of workshops, classes, performances, discussions and panels. Montreal’s revered teacher Dr. Bali will be there, along with many others. Whatever system or type of yoga you practice, you are likely to find it there… as well as the chance to widen your horizons. Check the website at www.yocomo.org/en/festival,.
On the weekend of July 14-15, the Montreal Yoga Music Festival will take you physically to the West End, to Concordia’s Loyola Campus (7141 Sherbrooke West), there to be transported by hatha yoga, meditation, ecstatic singing, chanting and dancing. There will be a main stage (“Stage of Bliss”) and a yoga tent (“Zen Den”) set up on the Quadrangle of this lovely university space. This celebration of the yoga of sound includes many types of yoga. “There will be kirtan artists from all walks of life who share a passion for world yoga music,” says Lea Longo, the organizer who shares that passion herself. More than a dozen kirtan artists will be there, such as: Lea Longo from Montreal, Namo Shanti from Ste. Hyacinthe, Mandala Kirtan from Sherbrooke, Bhakti Connection from Ottawa, and Ma Kirtan from New York. The Zen Den will feature yoga classes by: Dr. Bali, Shabad Saroop Singh Khalsa, and Marc-Joseph Chalfoun, and Kids Yoga with Jenn Mallin and Isabelle Monette. Celina Brady will lead Kundalini meditations. For the schedule and more information, visit www.montrealyogamusicfestival.com.
