Travel

Getting Away Matters: Soulful Wanderlust Festival Adventures

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Multiple bands play every night at Wanderlust; above is a mid-dance shot from Fela Cuti’s second set.

This is the second year I have attended Wanderlust, both times at Stratton, Vermont, though they have festivals throughout North America (coming in just a few days to Copper, Colorado; then on to Squaw Valley, California; Whistler, B.C.;Quebec; and in 2014 on to Chile and Hawaii!). I always have such an amazing time; surrounded by yogis, health nuts, dancers, creators, designers and life-lovers, I can’t help but come away feeling refreshed and really ready for a fantastic summer season. Beyond the great attendees, the teachers—whether it be yoga, dance, meditation, music or hiking—are the best in the business, and I always learn something new (body and soul).

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I took a Hoop Vinyasa class with the Hoop Yogini. Yoga mixed with hooping, it was equal parts challenging, fun, silly and a crazy-good core workout.

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We had as much fresh, filtered water as we could drink courtesy of Camelbak. Imagine if all those plastic bottles had been drunk, how much garbage would have been made? ALL festivals should have free, fresh water, no?

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Check out my awesome shorts from Victoria Keen, made in NYC! (That’s me on the right, the designer herself, Victoria, in the gorgeous blue dress—her own design, of course—in the middle, and my friend Cara Joy on the left.)

To read the rest of this post (and see more fun pix), click over to our sister travel site, Eco-Chick Escapes.

Starre Vartan is founder and editor-in-chief of Eco-Chick.com and the author of the Eco-Chick Guide to Life. She's also a freelance science and environment writer who has published in National Geographic, CNN, Scientific American, Mental Floss, Pacific Standard, the NRDC, and many more. She lives on an island in Puget Sound with her partner and black cat. She was a geologist in her first career, and still picks up rocks wherever she goes.