Richmond Yoga and Vegan Festival
Richmond Yoga and Vegan Festival
When my friend Becki of Inspired Fitness told me about Richmond Yoga and Vegan Festival the week before it was on, I was a little unsure if I would go, as it was going to take me 1 hour 15mins to get to and now I'm in Central London I really wanted to keep travelling to a minimum but when I looked at the schedule and the prices I thought - just do it, it'll be a little adventure plus I'll get to do lots of Yoga and discover lots of new vegan products.
Yogific Richmond Yoga and Vegan Festival
Date:July 22nd, 2018
Time:9:00–18.00
Venue:Grey Court School, TW10 7HN London,
Yogific Richmond Yoga and Vegan Festival also encouraged you to help reduce waste at this festival by bringing your own box/plate/cutlery/cups. All of of the food/drink stalls offered a discount if you brought your own. And all of the stalls only used eco-friendly cutlery but it still creates waste.
The Pricing
The online price for Yoga sessions which were all 45mins long was just £3 plus a booking fee but if you bought a class that gave you free entry to the rest of the event otherwise entry was £3. With the sessions at £3 each you couldn't really go wrong! I really wanted to experience a 'Gong bath' but at that time the class had sold out. So I booked:
| RoomC; Class3 @ 11am: Yoga for Balancing Chakras | 3.00 | 0.46 | 1 | 3.46 |
| RoomC; Class6 @ 2pm: Meditation, Chanting and Yoga Nidra | 3.00 | 0.46 | 1 | 3.46 |
Then the next morning my friend told me that because of high demand they added another Gong Bath to the schedule YAY! I thought that was brilliant that they added another one so I bought:
| Class8 @ 4pm: Deep Kundalini Medittaion with Gong Bath | 3.00 | 0.46 |
What can you expect there?
I wanted there to be a little time between the classes so I could investigate the stalls and buy some food etc too and there was a schedule of talks, and outdoor room with a full schedule of activities such as Acro Yoga, Bollywood Dancing, Country Dancing and Mindfulness and Thai Yoga Massage. Their timetablewas jammed packed with things like a movie room playing conscious vegan films like H.O.P.E/Dominions/Land of Hope and Glory and a lil Yogis room for Childrens yoga.
Sunday 22 July came - hooray and I was off on my lil trek to Richmond Yoga and Vegan Festival, in the end the journey wasn't that bad I was there before I knew it. I did have a slight problem with my e-ticket though, my fault I should've screen shot it, my 4G was struggling to open up the confirmation email!!! Arghhhh! It got there in the end and the kind event hosts sorted me out with a little Yoga Session card with a check mark next to the classes I'd booked I just had to show this to a host at the entry to the classes I'd booked.
My first class wasn't for about 30 mins and Becki was already there in a class so I decided to have a quick look around (plan what I was going to come out to eat!) There was a beautiful array of food and wellness stall ranging from a local wellness Spa Bhuti with offerings from their onsite Vegan cafe, to Smoothie Bowls, Copper Drinks Bottles, Pink Himalayan Rock Salt Lamp stalls, Nut Milk maker Stall, The Cheeky Pea - Falafel wraps and salads, Browines, Reflexology, Pottery Garlic graters and all sorts at Richmond Yoga and Vegan Festival it was very, very varied! I pre-paid for a smoothie bowl as I wanted to ensure there were some left for later. I've been to festivals before where some stalls have actually sold out! So I didn't want to be disappointed.
It was soon time for me to go into my first class at Richmond Yoga and Vegan Festival, I found my way through the school corridors and arrived a little apprehensive but soon settled in and were joined by more and more yogis of various levels - looking forward to the whole experience. That's what I was there for. I saw it as a great opportunity to try out yoga I've not tried before in a different environment as I usually practice at home with the aid of Gaia TV and their catalogue of classes and teachers.
Our teacher was with Nikesh Shah - Yoga for Balancing Chakras, we started off quite gentle but then it got suprisingly difficult especially as it was around 30º out side and there wasn't any air flow in the room, so I just treated it as 'hot yoga' practice lol. Nikesh came round throughout the practice offering assistance to pupils which was nice and as the class draw to savasana Nikesh also visited each of us with Tiger Balm for the temples to aid the relaxation in Savasana which was wonderful, he closed the class and we gave him a lovely grateful round of applause. Now I felt really mellow and ready for the rest of the day.
I ventured back out side to the FOOD!!! I met my friend and we decided to walk around to look for our lunch. But I was so hungry I collected that Smoothie Bowl to eat as we looked. I ordered the Purple Goodness from Fruity Fresh it had Acai in it and I opted to pay an extra £1 for the chocolate Granola, it was totally yummy! We stopped upon The Cheeky Pea, they had a bowl of freshly fried falafel to sample so we tried - they were delicious so crispy on the outside. I decided on the Falafel Wrap with everything! And Becki had their BBQ Jackfruit Salad Box. We both sampled and bought their gorgeous homemade Minted Lemonade too to wash down the tasty food. We had brought our own containers so had the drinks put in those as suggested by Yogific as you receive a discount form stall holders for helping to reduce the refuse from the festival. We'd soon scoffed our tasty lunches and were off to look around a bit more. There was also an indoor hall filled with things like, Yoga mats, Yoga wear, Plant Extracts, Crystal Healing, Tarot Card Reading... there was absolutely loads of variety just check out the list.
Looking around the inside hall of exhibitors, I found Coco Caravan who sold raw, vegan, fair trade, organic chocolate made with unrefined sweeteners. They had lots os samples including delicious Date & Caramel Bar and 100% / 80% / 76%, I found the Date & Caramel beautiful but too sweet for my tastebuds but adored the 80% Selva Tabasqueno Chocolate Bar and bought that - £6 was the show price which is pricey for a bar of chocolate but I knew it would last me at least a week maybe longer as I only eat a few squares at a time when I fancy it. I would definitely buy it again though as the flavour was so complex and I could taste the quality, it was definitely better than my usual store bought 85% bar.
Id been looking into Mushroom tea for a while after seeing The Happy Pearand someone else on Instagram talk about the benefits so when we met Enrichdat the festival I was so happy as I had a few questions - which mushroom tea would be best for me? I also wanted to ask about the flavours they gave along with a few other questions. All of these were answered and more, so I bought a pouch of Lions Main Mushroom Extract to put in my coffee to give me 'Focus'. As it enhances brain function by promoting neurite outgrowth activity, reduce inflammation and may protect against cancer.
I found a skin care company that I already follow on Instagram - Nini Organics, so stopped by and had a good little chat with the creators brother and sister - Alex & Nicole about their products and the origins of their creations. each of their products had derived from trying to conquer skin problems or from personal experiences and discoveries. I'm very into my essential oil and oils for the skin, natural minimal ingredient skin care products and I was super impressed by thier ingenious blends especially the Natura Detox Facial Oil, it had an oil even I hadn't heard of yet Blue Tansy Oil from. So I decided to invest in a bottle as it would be good for my teenage son's skin too not just mine, he already uses the blends of oils I create. They were doing a special show price of £21, so that was definitely a motivation to purchase on the day and I was super excited to try that out later that night.... review to follow!
Next was my 2pm practice of: Meditation, Chanting and Yoga Nidra with Asha of Krishna Yoga. The hall was full of eager yogis awaiting their exploration of mediation. I was very excited to try. We settled in and Asha gave us a few calming words explaining what were were going to do, we got into our positions then she played beautiful music and we followed her lead with the yoga Nidra, then we changed positions and began the chanting. I've got to say I really went somewhere else with this, it really moved me and I honestly felt pure joy from inside it was an amazing experience which actually brought tears to my eyes and again when I thanked Asha for the practice the tears of happiness were rolling down my cheeks.
I walked out to find my yoga accomplice Becki, and we just chilled for a short while on the grass eating our chocolate and had a catch up. I'm pleased to say a few people had brought their cute doggies along with them too. So had the chance to pet a few lil cute characters before it was time yo go to our last class which we were going to together - 4pm Deep Kundalini Meditation & Gong Bath with Anna .
Anna was set up at the front with her big gong! Luckily we arrived early and were able to place our mats at the front as we wanted to get the full effect of the gongs and vibrations. Anna gave us some background about herself and what she does, also a bit about Kundalini yoga. We started off with some Kundalini yoga arm movement and then worked body movements opening our hearts, then we moved on to music and chanting and finally the gong bath. Which was like a big crescendo to the day. The gong vibrations took me to another place completely I felt like I had taken a journey, it really was the perfect way to end the festival.
I loved our whole day at Yogific and walked away wanting to go back and do it all the next week! If a Yogific Festival comes to a town near you be sure to grab some tickets asap and get yourself there - I can'r recommend it enough!
TMx
