BALISPIRIT FESTIVAL March 5-16 2008 - An Annual Celebration of Yoga, Dance, Music, Love & Gratitude!

PRLog (Press Release) – Feb 09, 2008 – Instead of nursing hangovers and failed resolutions, have a different experience this New Year’s!  For the wise Balinese, March 7th 2008 marks the start of the Balinese Hindu new year, NYEPI, and a time for self contemplation and the chance to nurture the seeds of spiritual renewal.  Here in Ubud, the artistic and cultural center of Bali, we usher in the first Bali Spirit Festival with a wide range of  Indonesian and international yoga teachers, dancers, artiists and world musicians. .

Spanning the period from March 5th to the 16th, the Bali Spirit Festival 2008 comprises of three distinct consecutive experiences, the 3 day Nyepi supplement, the 5 day INHALE Retreats and the 4 day EXHALE Festival celebration.  Fellow festival celebrants have the freedom and opportunity to personalize their experience by either choosing all three experiences, or only the INHALE retreats and EXHALE festival, or to be an active participant and celebrant of the 4 day EXHALE festival.

International music super-star Michael Franti will kick off our official festival with an opening celebration on March 1st 2008 by headlining a fundraising benefit performance for the Bumi Sehat clinic & foundation at Gado-Gado Restuarant in Seminyak.  Bumi Sehat provides vital free pre-natal, delivery, and post-natal care to hundreds of Balinese families every year.

March 6th is an experience on its own…an incredible carnival-like day of gamelan parades with these huge ogres and monsters representative of the malignant forces that have accumulated over the previous year.  Once the island is cleansed of the demons through a ritual burning, the island of Bali goes under a blanket of silence for one day…Nyepi.  3 million people in silence, with the airport shut down, no electricity nor the internet nor cell phones being used, Nyepi is a profound day, when fully embraced and surrendered to.

INHALE RETREATS
INHALE retreats comprise of intensive 5 day yoga retreats in lush retreat centers throughout Ubud, that prelude to the festival.  These unique retreats are facilitated by extraordinary teachers of yoga whose collective aim is to bring about new spiritual possibilities and the chance to awaken a lifetime worth of extraordinary experiences. From Rumi, Freedom and the Dance of Liberation, Acro Yoga, to JivaMukti Yoga…the festival celebrant has ample choices of INHALE retreats to select from in order to find the one that complements them best.  

AcroYoga is one of the hottest new yoga modalities, blending the spiritual wisdom of yoga, the loving kindness of Thai massage, and the dynamic power of acrobatics.  These three ancient lineages form the foundation of a unique new practice that cultivates trust, connection and playfulness.  AcroYoga founder James Nemer and Radiant Flow Janet Stone will be conducting the exhilarating AcroYoga and Radiant Flow Retreat whose aims are to quiet the mind and move towards Abhaya (freedom of fear) and to bring the individual into a state of union with themselves, with each other, and with the divine.

EXHALE FESTIVAL
Ubud embraces us for 4 nights and 4 days of creative exploration and uplifting celebration at the EXHALE Festival.  Daily yoga, dance, music and song workshops, and nightly concerts, kirtans, dance performances, and conscious dance gatherings aim to transform us.  And on the morning of the final festival day, we are blessed and purified by Balinese priests within the inner sanctuary of the Monkey Forest Temple.
The extensive selection of the daily EXHALE workshops will prove to be intriguing and exciting to the festival celebrants.  Some EXHALE workshop highlights include Laughter Yoga with Madan Kataria, Estatic Dance with Ellen Watson and Parashakti,  West African dance with Baba Kauna, Sacred Bellydance with Jacqui Lalita and Nick Woolsey fuels your love of poi.

The mystical Balinese music and dance filled nights of Ubud welcome and await with anticipation for the EXHALE Festival nightly celebrations.  Featuring a line up of performers that keeps getting better, some of the highlights include renowned  hammered dulcimer and percussion virtuoso Jamie Janover, pure voiced songstress Tina Malia, and the young qawwals of sufi ecstatic devotional prayer Fanna-Fi-Allah

The Bali Spirit festival website www.balispiritfestival.com is updated on a daily basis and includes in depth descriptions and all the necessary information for the Nyepi supplement, the INHALE yoga retreats and the EXHALE festival daily workshops and nightly performances.  

Come and be a fellow festival celebrant at the first Bali Spirit Festival 2008.  Turn this New Year into a true celebration of self through yoga, dance, music, love and gratitude.