TBT: Sukava Bodhe: Chicago Area Yoga Festival

The first weekend in September this year was Sukhava Bodhe's kick off for the hopefully annual festival. Hosted about 1.5 hours from the city on a beautiful old farm, yogi's camped out, flowed, mediated, breathed, slacklined, and had access to amazing vendors and performers.

I was unable to take any asana classes due to a finger injury, but that didn't really seem to matter because the schedule was so full of other options. Besides classes offering various yoga styles the festival hosted mala bead making workshops, thai massage (self and partner), slack lining, bee keeping, paddle board yoga, pranayama, meditation, nutritional classes, kirtan, and more.

What was so great about this festival is that you could drop into any class, there was no pre-registration for the classes so you could plan as you went. The festival also offered tons of discounts and sales right before the event to make it more affordable. For the complete cheapos of the  world like myself they offered volunteer opportunities in exchange for free admission.

I met some great yogi's, found some new, local products I want to try, and got to take classes with senior teachers.

The two days that I attended we were hit with very severe storms the first night and a strong down pour the second afternoon. The festival still went on and worked around the weather.

One of the class venues after the storm, the silks were so pretty.

This pond was so cute, people were always out on boards or swimming since when it wasn't raining it was warm and sunny!

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

Tons of acro classes to take and people acroing all over the place. An acro-camp is held at this same site over summer (how fun)!

Slacklining and slackline yoga- I tried this and it was soooo difficult!! I would love to try again, the focus, balance, and relaxation required is intense.

Fresh honey from the Bee Keeping class, we were able to just break off a piece and eat it. I have never had such good honey- it makes me want to keep bees. 

I will post information next summer regarding SB 2014- Yogis of all levels, even people who just like to camp and play in the pond would enjoy the festival! Bonfires and drum circles!!