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Jakarta Post

Bali Spirit brings good times and inspiration

Throughout the Bali Spirit Festival, the sun and hundreds of strangers from around the globe spread their radiant smiles and became true devotees of the main goal of yoga: to feel good, as the American yoga instructor Cheri Rae summed up in one of her upbeat sessions

Agnes Winarti (The Jakarta Post)
Ubud, Bali
Mon, April 2, 2012

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Bali Spirit brings good times and inspiration

T

hroughout the Bali Spirit Festival, the sun and hundreds of strangers from around the globe spread their radiant smiles and became true devotees of the main goal of yoga: to feel good, as the American yoga instructor Cheri Rae summed up in one of her upbeat sessions.

Zhang Na, a 30-year-old from Tianjin province in China, was proof of that as she relaxed in the afternoon sun on the grassy hill of the Purnati Center for the Arts in Batuan, Gianyar regency

She sat there enjoying the drumbeats of the Hamanah West African dance, which were competing for her attention with the melodious sound of a nearby session of dynamic meditation, led by Indonesian yogi Indrawati Widjanarko.

“I had numerous sessions in the past days. I’m a bit tired. My body aches, but I feel so happy and relaxed,” said Zhang, who was one of 50 yoga enthusiasts from China who attended the festival.

Mona Jahja, a 48-year-old self-proclaimed “yoga-holic” from Jakarta, said she had a great time during the festival.

“I have come to this festival three times, simply for having a good time with my friends while, at the same time, getting inspired by the local and overseas gurus,” she said.

The five-day festival, which ended on Sunday, featured a wide range of workshops and sessions for yoga, meditation and healing, as well as dance and energy movement classes brought by practitioners from all around the globe.

This year, Bali Spirit welcomed around 1,000 participants from the United States, Australia, China, Japan, India, South America, Western and Eastern Europe, and Africa.

All visitors shared one common interest: To feast on as much fusion of yoga, music and dance as they could.

“We doubled last year’s 572 ticket sales for the daytime events on the second day of this festival,” the festival’s co-founder, I Made Gunarta, said.

The festival, now in its fifth year, was co-founded by Made, more popularly known as Kadek Gunarta, his wife, Meghan Pappenheim, and film producer and music director Robert Weber.

The festivities did not stop after the sun set.

 Evening concerts featuring music groups like Delhi 2 Dublin, White Shoes and the Couples Company and Navicula, were popular with crowds who flocked to the Agung Rai Museum of Arts (ARMA) in Ubud at night.

Tickets to the festival varied in price, from US$90 to as much as $750 for a VIP Festival Pass.

The last day of the festival, which is known as Hari Cinta Keluarga (Family Day), was open to all people willing to pay a donation of between Rp 20,000 for children to Rp 150,000 for adults.

Meditation teacher Carlos Pomeda, who has held sessions at Bali Spirit for the past two years, praised the festival’s efforts in raising awareness for good causes, like HIV/AIDS, environmental programs and local charities.

“Not only can the people here benefit from the teachings and practices, but also financially and socially.
There’s benefits for the local communities. That’s what I appreciated from the organizers from the beginning,” Pomeda said.

“Very often, the yoga festivals are run by companies for the sake of business.”

The festival was first held in 2008.

It has since been claimed as a source of inspiration of the birth of similar yoga-based holistic health festivals around the world, including the Namaste Spirit Festival held in Jakarta, the Byron Bay Spirit Festival in Australia and the Hawaii Spirit Festival.

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