Yo Go To Yoga Jam 2024
The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on September 5, 2024. The annual Floyd Yoga Jam festival began on Thursday, August 29, with an opening ceremony.
Guided by life-passages officiant Katherine Chantal, the opening circle addressed the 2024 theme of ‘Retrospective’ and set the intention of presence and peace for the 4-day festival and beyond.
“As we remember the first Yoga Jam 13 years ago, inspired by the vision of Shirleyann Burgess, we celebrate how this festival has blossomed,” the new festival directors, Katie Turman and Elaine Braley, stated on the festival webpage.
Burgess, Yoga Jam founder and yoga teacher, led circle attendees in warrior yoga poses. Chantal led the group in a closing song.
Festival parking lots and camp sites were filled, children played in the big sandbox, families and friends cooled off in the creek.
There was a brief lockdown on Thursday afternoon and a three-hour one on Friday due to lightning and thunder storms. There were also rainbows.
Stand-out bands raised the energy and brought out dancers to the main stage and to the Boogie Down Pub tent.
Drumming circles, acoustic acts and kirtan chanting at the Chill zone stone rounded out the musical offerings.
There were wellness workshops, sound baths, healing arts, plant foraging walks, Art Village activities… 
…poetry readings, merchandise vendors, food courts and trucks and more.
Yoga classes were offered in four tents throughout the festival. Some bore names like Pose Malone, Sacred Center Belly Dance and Zombie Yoga Simulation.
Juggling Geoff’s puppeteering and juggling drew a banner crowd of cheering children.
“Our goal is to deliver a blissful, perspective-changing, grounding and memorable Floyd Yoga Jam experience,” Turman and Braley shared in the festival program.
As evidenced by all the smiling faces and all the friendly hugs exchanged at the festival’s end, it appears that they pulled it off.
See you next year! – Colleen Redman
