Yoga Festival Coming to Tulsa in September
By EMILY RAMSEY
Managing Editor
YOGA AND WELLNESS: Attendees at the I AM yoga festival perform yoga moves during last year’s festival at Chandler Park. The festival will return for its third year, to be held Sept. 14-15 at Centennial Park.
Art Everywhere Photography
Yoga’s steady ascent into mainstream fitness in the past decades has proven that it is no fly-by-night trend. And Tulsa is no exception. With yoga studios and free classes found throughout the city, Tulsans are far from at a loss for yoga education and recreation.
The latest example is the September return of the I AM festival, a yearly two-day yoga retreat featuring yoga classes, holistic practices and general well being.
Co-organizer Joe Picorale helped to create the festival in 2011 after he heard from a friend about the international yoga festival Wanderlust. After seeing pictures from the festival, “I thought, ‘we’re gonna do that,’” says Picorale. And in two months time, they did.
The festival’s inaugural event took place in Bixby with 700 attendees. Word has spread, and the event consistently grows in size each year.
The free festival will take place in Centennial Park, at 6th and Peoria, Sept. 14-15. It opens at 10 a.m. on both days. Organizers expect close to 3,000 attendees.
“We wanted to choose a location that would make it easy for people to attend,” says Picorale. “And even though Centennial Park has been here a while, I feel like it’s still a secret. Not many people know about it, but it’s a beautiful setting with a downtown Tulsa backdrop.”
Patrons can expect live music, ongoing yoga classes, vendors, holistic workshops and a general feel-good ambiance.
For those who are hesitant to try yoga, the festival offers other fitness options as well, including Zumba and hula hoop classes. There will be upwards of 70 natural, or holistic, vendors, such as massage therapists, chiropractors and jewelry makers who use recycled materials.
“Yoga is the focal point,” says Picorale, “but the festival reaches beyond yoga to basically encourage health consciousness. We want to share with people the importance of the Earth and how to just sit and be quiet.”
Updated 06-18-2013
READER COMMENTS
