Ahimsa Yoga and Music Festival Returns Oct. 1

CAMBRIDGE — The Ahimsa Yoga and Music Festival is set to make its return on Oct. 1, offering a welcoming environment and good vibes for local community members.

The festival will be held at Lakota Farms in Cambridge. It is the first edition of the festival since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and the first under new ownership.

Kristen Zorda, Grace Bishop, and Sonia Shultis became co-owners and co-producers of the festival in 2019, but it was unable to be held in each of the last two years. Zorda said the team is “excited” to host this year.

“We’re off to a great start with our first official year of planning things together,” said Zorda, the owner of Yoga Mandali in downtown Saratoga Springs. “We’re really excited to be able to offer this to the community again.”

Zorda said the goal of the festival is to help people connect.

“We want to bring people together through yoga, and the music, and the sound and the feeling,” said Zorda. “We want to just provide a space for everybody to get together and feel good.”

That space will be at Lakota Farms, with Zorda saying the site is “a really good fit.”

“Our property lends itself to such an unbelievable location for something like this,” said Lakota Farms co-owner Kimberly Finney. “Me and my team love what we do, we’re super excited about the yoga festival. We’re ecstatic they chose our farm this year to do it at.”

The farm is over 200 years old, and consists of 36 acres, Finney said. 

“We have outdoor facilities available, indoor facilities available. It’s a gorgeous setting, very quiet and serene,” said Finney. “The main facility is just under 11,000 square feet. They’re going to have classes throughout the building itself.”

The festival will offer many types of yoga, with Zorda mentioning “all levels” of vinyasa yoga, as well as yin, aerial, and bhakti yoga. However, she also said, “Yoga is one part of it, but another huge draw for us is the music.”

“Many of the presenters will have classic Indian instruments that they’re playing and chanting to. It’s called kirtan,” said Zorda. The musical performances will be highlighted by Wah!, a kirtan singer.

The music will be separate from the yoga, Zorda said.

“There are people that will come and they don’t care about the music part at all, they just want to the yoga,” said Zorda. “And then there’s people that don’t care at all about the yoga, and they want the music.”

The festival will also feature a silent disco with a DJ, and host a vendor village with 30-40 vendors offering food, crafts, and more. Zorda also made note of a bonfire ceremony, and a “zen den,” which she described as “a place where you hang out and just chill.”

The festival, which had lasted three days in previous years, will be held solely on Oct. 1 this year. Zorda said the group is “easing back into it with a one-day festival,” with plans of returning to the three-day format in 2023.

“Our goal is just to bring people together in good energy,” said Zorda. “We want to bring people together so that they feel good, and that collective vibe ripples out. People can feel rejuvenated, they can fill their well back up.”

To purchase tickets, visit ahimsayogafestival.com.