This weekend my friend and I visited the OMyoga show in Manchester for the first time. The yoga show has been running for more than a decade and takes place twice a year, once in Manchester at Event city and once in London at Alexandre Place and is now considered the biggest yoga gathering in Europe.
Despite the event being called the yoga show it isn’t just about yoga, in fact your ticket gains you entry into three areas, The Yoga Show, the Vegan Life Live event and the Mind, Body, Soul experience area.
The Yoga Show
In the yoga show arena there was a number of work shop areas around the outside where you can access free yoga and meditation classes.
We tried –
- a fast paced yoga session,
- the Downwards dog and Disco with Laura Whitehead,
- and mindfulness and breath with Sonja Appel.
All three of these sessions were wonderful and i took different things away from each one, however i would have to say that my favourite was probably the Downwards Dog and Disco yoga as it was more my level and so could keep up with the positions and the pace but still felt like it was a good work out and very different to the silent classes or the ones that play tranquil music that I’m used to.
In the center of the area are stalls lined up in the selling everything from yoga mats to active wear as well as body products and jewelry. I found some lovely items and treated myself to some bath salts from stable house that smell absolutely divine. As we left one class we stumbled upon Invitalis, a stall selling massage chairs that you could try out, so we had a little relax and a neck massage before crossing over and grabbing a juice from the juice bar.
As well as the usual yoga sessions there was also the opportunity to try the silks and the pole, it was lots of fun but harder than it looks and reminded me just how weak my upper body is!
As we didn’t take the kids with us this time we didn’t spend too long looking at the kids area but it certainly looked child friendly with classes designed just for them and under 16’s get in free when accompanied by an adult so it’s a great family day out.
Mind body and soul
In the mind body and soul area we watched It’s funny you should say that.. with Clairvoyant Elanor Grace, which was a demonstration of how palm reading and mediumship, works with a number of people getting the opportunity to use the crystal ball and receive mini readings up on stage. Unfortunately neither myself nor my friend were picked but we still enjoyed watching others get their messages.
We then split off and I watched 5 essentials to accelerate your business by Michele Yeomans and my friend opted for Meditation – How to get into a routine to help your daily feelings of calm with Sarak Pickles. Once again this area has a number of stalls but these ones were more focused on prayer, mediums, including the well know David Traynor, as well as beauticians offering massages or reflexology sessions and I even spotted a wine tasting stall too. With so much diversity from one workshop to the next there definitely is something for everyone.
The Vegan Life Live
We headed over to the Vegan area for lunch and were spoilt with choice as there was a great selection of food stalls available. We opted for noodles with mushrooms and weren’t disappointed and then had a look at the vegan stalls. I was amazed to find that so many products are made to be specifically vegan friendly, or rather, that they aren’t normally suitable for vegans. For example their was vegan perfume, clothing and beauty products which I would of assumed were vegan anyway but apparently not all of them are so some companies are producing specific products that are 100% vegan friendly.
Overall
Overall we had a wonderful day, learnt a lot, and enjoyed so many new experiences and I would definitely return next year. My only criticism is there aren’t enough placed to grab a cold drink from and a couple of water stalls would be ideal, especially for those joining in with the yoga sessions.
The yoga show in London isn’t until 19th October so there is still time to go this year if you think it sounds like your thing and i would highly recommend it, just make sure you wear comfortable shoes and active cloting so you can join in with some of the sessions too.
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(yoga show tickets were provided in exchange for a review, all opinions are my own).