These weeks I travel around Czechia, my home country. I focus on spending my time with my family and chatting with friends old and new.
When my brother started mentioning this spiritual event, at the beginning I did not give him much attention. Eventually he became a volunteer assistant manager, and when he started informing me and the rest of the family in the group chat about the progress, I decided to also buy a ticket and come to see him.
Only for a few hours, as I told myself.
What happened over the next days helped me to realize that I might be connected to people visiting this type of event more than I believed, and with each new interaction I prolonged my stay by another night.
But I was a little bit lost at the beginning. All workshops had lots of foreign words for me, so I hesitantly visited only a few. And even when I understood the names of the events, sometimes they were misleading. For example, what was titled “Cosmic Speed Dating” ended up being more like “an astrologer from the UK with an amateur translator hosting a slow relationship workshop,” but that did not discourage me. I walked around the festival instead. Some of the best conversations I had with people happened in the dining area, standing in line for an iced matcha latte, or by joining random people sharing the shade under a tree.
Where I went for sure every day was Acroyoga, each morning with different teacher groups from various corners of the country. I learned a lot of new positions: throne, a full shoulder stand, and one of the intermediate ones, a standing camel. This is what I have been training for over many months.
I spent some time around the Men’s Tent. They had excellent early-morning workouts that engaged all parts of your body. But also a workshop about the inner child in every man told me something new. Our society wants us, the men, to behave as machines, always with great posture, strong will, and never showing a weakness. But men have an inner child inside, and they can and want to play, laugh, or cry sometimes. The workshop results stayed with me for a while.
If every morning I spent using my muscles, every evening I went to the sacred fire, using my mind. Something was always happening there. I met my friends there, engaged in random mantras, prayers, chants (of Hindu and Buddhist origins), watched fire dancers, or sang to music people produced with percussion or guitars. You could stay for ten minutes or an hour, and both felt like the right amount of time.
The workshop I did not expect to love was the original recommendation of my brother – Open Mic Naruby (Inside Out) from Adam Trnka. The host, musician, and performer in one person started the evening with, “Is there anyone here who’s afraid to speak in front of others?” You can imagine what followed next. I found myself on the stage twice, haha. At first, I joined the humorous conversation of tiny forest elves from the minds of two other participants from the audience. I have got a little bit terrified, by the fact that I had already brushed my teeth and was wearing tooth retainers, so nobody would understand what I was about to say.
But it did not matter. People were laughing and enjoying the combined performance of both professionals and amateurs. What came out of it was magical, and I am sure nobody will forget it.
Would I return? I am not sure. The presale prices for next year climbed far too high for people to afford it. For that price, I would expect at least morning oatmeal included, haha. Maybe the festival heals your soul, but your wallet might get sick.
On the other hand, maybe the ticket and slightly expensive food are worth it if you are able to meet people closer to your way of life.