Turner Park’s Yoga Rocks the Park to Embrace Festival Format and Add New “Delight Factors and Surprises”

Yoga Rocks the Park, one of Midtown Crossing’s most popular summer traditions, is expanding into even more of an experience – a weekly yoga and music festival launching Sunday, May 8.

 “It’s really about appreciating our Yoga Rocks the Park (YRTP) attendees and providing them with a full-scale, weekly festival in Omaha that aligns with our vision of community,” saysLora McCarville, local yoga instructor and Yoga Rocks the Park organizer.

 Entering its sixth year in beautiful seven-acre Turner Park, YRTP is free and open to yoga enthusiasts of all levels. After its May 8 open, the 2016 season continues every Sunday through June 26.

• Registration begins at 3:30 p.m.
• Qi-Gong begins at 3:45. Qi (pronounced ‘chee’)-Gong is an ancient Chinese health care system that integrates physical postures, breathing techniques and focused intention. “Most of us recognize Qi-Gong or Tai Chi from pictures or videos of people moving very slowly in open spaces,” McCarville says. “This is a very exciting addition to our event.”
• Yoga + music begins at 4:00 p.m. The Yoga session will last an hour. Music will continue until 5:30 p.m. “Our local and national yoga teachers are so full of heart and passion for building community,” McCarville says. “We are bringing back a couple highly-requested musicians and inviting in others who align with our YRP-Omaha mission.”
• Community artists/performers from 5:00 – 5:30 p.m. “We are bringing acro-yoga and partner yoga one week, slam poetry another, a healing circle, hooping, Dr. Science and more.”

Camp Yoga Rocks, a nationally-recognized program for children ages 4-10, is back this year, along with a YRTP partnership with Bike for Sight, an event that works to cure unnecessary blindness.

“Last year, as a park, we donated enough to heal 111 people and on top of that, a vendor pledged to match our park participation. The global impact of that is unfathomable!” 

McCarville’s enthusiasm for the 2016 festival-format is contagious.

“I’m so excited about the delight factors and surprises we have lined up every week,” she says. “It feels more like I’m planning a family reunion with the most open-hearted friends by my side.”