The NEPA Yoga Festival has added a day, expanding the annual event to the weekend of June 13-15 at Montage Mountain Waterpark in Scranton.
The festival draws several hundred people, including many customers and teachers from outside of the region.
“It’s basically a culmination of anyone that’s looking to heal, to practice yoga, to meditate,” said founder Chelsea Manganaro. “And also, those who have dedicated their life to the practice of those things.”
Manganaro owns Nearme Yoga, and its adjoining cafe, in Moosic; and Peckville and Kingston yoga locations.
“The event is really put together to invite more people to try out yoga that normally would not in the past, in one setting,” she said.
Manganaro has planned over 150 events, including classes, an expanded schedule of lectures, a holistic expo, music, comedy, healthy food trucks, a community dinner and an option for camping.
A previous NEPA Yoga Festival (NEPA Yoga Festival)
Chelsea Manganaro. (Nearme Yoga)
A previous NEPA Yoga Festival (NEPA Yoga Festival)
Chelsea Manganaro organizes the NEPA Yoga Festival. (Nearme Yoga)
People do yoga during the 2024 NEPA Yoga Festival. Sean McKeag / Staff Photographer
The water park keeps its regular schedule during the festival, and is included in the tickets.
The festival includes a “heart opening yogic poetry experience,” kids’ classes, drumming ceremonies, a “full moon fire ceremony,” a silent disco, chair yoga and a yoga class set to ’80s rock.
Mara Morell, owner of Mrida Seva Yoga & Holistic Wellness Studio in Berwick, will help Manganaro lead an opening meditation and yoga class. Morell will teach workshops covering tinctures, tapping, chakra energy and mantras, among others.
“They are ancient energy practices,” Morell said. “Things that have been around for a long time that are very soothing to the over-anxious state we are in right now. These practices are thousands of years old and we are just starting to realize that we can turn to these simple alternatives and really find what we need, without having to be highly medicated. l don’t know if that’s technically the right term. But we can kind of heal ourselves, by just practicing these simple meditative practices.”
Morell has been involved in the festivals since they began. This is the 10th year. Practicing yoga in a big group, especially the classes held outside, is a special experience, she said.
“It just feels so much more freeing,” she said.
There are single-day and full-weekend tickets, beginning at $50 for the first day. A Saturday-only adult ticket is $111. The full weekend for adults, with camping, is $221. There are other packages, including those with hotel rooms. It is a rain-or-shine event.
For information and tickets, visit nepayogafest.com and social media.