10 Things (Besides Yoga!) That I Loved Doing At LIB
Cover Photo by Michael Roush
By Autumn Feldmeier
The yoga at Lightning in a Bottle this year was amazing. There was Mark Whitwell, who in his 'Love and Intimacy' talk was brave enough to suggest no alcohol,drugs or sex to a festival crowd. I especially loved the deep exhale class led by Cristi Christensen with live music by Marques Wyatt. And then there was MC Yogi with his Spiritual Grafitti Yoga Experience, who always delivers a great show!
But, LIB has way more to offer than the physical practice of yoga. I found these 10 other amazing things to do at LIB:
1. The aphrodisiacs class in botanical study. A playful, enlightening look at how nature wants us to enjoy our bodies more!
2. The Do Over Salon and Barber shop. To combat the festie-grungy feel, they offered proper styling by the awesome LA Sirens while being entertained by the campy Fou Fou Ha SF clown troupe.
3. Late night walks. There are fun activities like Mega Skee Ball with New Belgium.
4. Hot fire spinners at the Fire Flow Zone. The evenings got surprisingly cold, so this is how we kept ourselves warm as we watched these amazing shows.
5. Samskara: Android Jones digital arts project. The 2 hour line was made interesting by the great people in it! In it, he explores a journey beyond the mind and imagination. This was an absolutely spiritual experience of a new type which provided us with an opportunity to just be.
6. Favela Bar was a fun place to shake it! SF favorites, Rachel Torro and TAMO held it down and then there were great dance-able sets from Marcos and Neptune.
7. As much as I love to dance, I also love a good performance and Amori's Casino and Burlesque had sexy late-night line up including Hot Sauce Holiday and the Illustrious Miss Emma Nation hosting Trapeze Takeover.
8. Inspired by the burlesque, I spent my Sunday afternoon with my girl-crush Zoe Jakes (of Beats Antique) and her 'Tribal Fusion Bellydance: Forage into Serpentine Movement' workshop. Despite being one of the hottest afternoons and a gorgeous, sunny day, Zoe packed the house (tent, actually) with lots of sexy women (and men!!). All wanting to learn from the master. She also did this kick-ass 'House of Tarot' ritualistic performance that blew my mind! Again, girl-crush.
9. Luckily, my hips and serpent-energy were energizing enough for me to dance my way through an epic Bonobo set. Bonobo brought a lot of raw emotion and visuals to his set.
10. Like any good festival, LIB provoked thought. My best example of this was in talking to my friend Eamon Armstrong who did a talk on 'Deconstructing Toxic Masculinity'. While I, personally, missed this talk, his feedback on the talk really gave me hope. He said, "I think that people are hungry for openness around delicate topics like these, particularly in environments of personal experimentation like festivals. Because I offered the workshop at the onset of the festival, I was stopped multiple times throughout the weekend with people sharing how the presentation touched them and inspired their festival experience. My favorite bit of feedback was from a man from Texas who was really put off by my the title of the talk and just came to support his friends. The man said, 'I didn't agree with everything you said, but some of your ideas sure made me think.' That really meant a lot to me." I love that deep, complex talks like this are common at LIB.
LIB is a great festival for yogis and yoginis, especially those who want more than just asana at a festival. This festival season, get out there-try something new, because,after all, it's ALL just yoga.
To learn more about Lightning in a Bottle visit: lightninginabottle.org.
