Yoga Kala - an international festival of yoga 2012/13

The EuropeanYogaNetwork hopes to host a community arts festival project in the not too distant future.

Many groups and individuals from different sections of the yoga community have already expressed their enthusiasm for the project.

We are prepared to put some effort in terms of getting funding through various bodies eg. Arts Council / Active Futures (Lottery) etc. as well as leverage some benefit from our existing links within the Yoga community and the third sector generally.

We have been trading since 1999 so we have quite a good contact base.

The crucial thing for us is to "set the right tone", we do not want to own the festival and prefer to work collaboratively with as many people and groups as it takes in order to make it a success.

For example, it has been suggested that the event set up links with the Birmingham City of Culture bid in 2013.

This would seem to fit well as we would like to present it, (not as a slick, commercial media event) but instead, within a very broad, "arts and culture" framework.

The festival could include a few ecological and fair trade stalls, alongside free Yoga classes and other dana in the not too distant future.

It is envisaged that the whole event will run on an entirely not-for-profit basis and will welcome participants and contributors from the entire yoga spectrum.

Yoga is, of course much more than an "art", "therapy" or "exercise regime" and so, for this festival we would like to concentrate on the highly diverse, artistic and cultural aspects of Yoga.

We would like to include music, dance and other relevant arts and a few carefully chosen stalls - with some restrictions on the types of products being offered - particular emphasis will be put on ETHICAL CHOICES, ECOLOGY, FAIR TRADE and generally, AHIMSA ("harmlessness").

We also hope that local schools and community groups will be given an opportunity to participate alongside contributors from around the world.

We do want to create overall a sense of "CREATIVITY", "DIVERSITY" and "TRADITION" within the festival.

We will keep all OSYC members up to date by sending out more information about the build up to the event in the meantime.