Las Vegas yoga festival enters third year at Springs Preserve

Not long after Broadway dancer Kristina Blunt moved from New York to Las Vegas in 2011, she decided that Las Vegas needed a yoga festival.

So she set out to find collaborators to help her launch an event. But she said every potential planning partner she approached had pretty much the same response: "That seems like a lot of work. I don't know if I want to take that on."

Where many newcomers might have given up, Blunt was determined. She said to herself, "Do you really want to do this? Because if you do, you have to start taking steps to make this happen."

Blunt, who works as an instructor with the Yoga Sanctuary, set out to get a business licence, create a website, secure a venue and recruit instructors, vendors and more.

"It's like planning a wedding, with your little list of things to check off," she said.

The first Vegas Gone Yoga! Festival was a one-day event launched in 2013. That year, Blunt tackled it all — from publicity to volunteer and vendor wrangling to registration and social media — hoping the local yoga community would respond and support the festival.

And they did: Nearly 300 showed up to the first event. The second festival in 2014 attracted almost 350 participants. This year, Blunt said she's expecting 400 to 500 to sign up.

The event is set to present 27 classes taught by teachers from 14 local yoga studios including everything from vinyasa flow classes and purifying the chakras, to partner and hip-hop yoga classes and healing sound techniques.

Blunt said, from the beginning, she saw the event as an opportunity to draw the Las Vegas yoga community together. She said many yoga enthusiasts build intentional and unintentional walls by sticking to one neighborhood studio or one style of yoga or even one specific instructor. The festival is an opportunity to see what else is out there.

"It's nice to have a chance to go to see that teacher you've heard so much about but haven't been able to make the trip," she said.

As she planned her first event, she worried collaboration across studio boundaries might be difficult.

"I thought maybe I would have to battle with studios," she said, describing the yoga world as surprisingly competitive. "Yes, it's yoga, but at the same time, it's a business."

But studios around the valley were willing to participate, and sponsors and vendors were quick to come on board.

"There have been challenges and obstacles, but a lot of things have been easy and fallen into place," Blunt said.

This year, the festival is branching out to offer two days of events, scheduled from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 19 and 20 at the Springs Preserve, 333 S. Valley View Blvd. Festival admission is $119 per day or $169 for the full weekend. Classes will primarily target intermediate through advanced practitioners.

Blunt said the Springs Preserve is a great venue because it allows for indoor and outdoor classes with space inside to retreat to if the weather doesn't cooperate. Occasionally, general visitors will see the action and buy a pass to join in.

Springs Preserve representative Dawn Barraclough said via email that hosting Vegas Gone Yoga! has been great for everyone.

"Every year we've had raves from yoga festival attendees as well as our general visitors who've had the opportunity to observe some of the yoga activities, primarily in our main amphitheater," she said.

Barraclough said there's no need to close down general admission when a big event is being held at the Springs Preserve because there's enough room to accommodate large groups while still preserving, and sometimes enriching, the general guest experience.

"We have ample space to strategically find the right location at the preserve for any size group even when we have multiple events going on at the same time," she said. "We are very careful not to impact the guest experience and work hard to make sure everyone who visits enjoys their time at the Springs Preserve."

Visit vegasgoneyoga.com.

— Contact View contributing reporter Ginger Meurer at gmeurer@viewnews.com. Find her on Twitter: @gingermmm.