The transformative yoga revolution is spreading like an oil slick

LleidaYoga, in its most traditional and intimate conception, is not strictly opposed to celebration and collective gatherings. The Yoga Gallery Fest, a competition that celebrated its fourth edition a few days ago on the island of Llatzeret (in Menorca), will hold its fourth edition in Lleida next week and is already preparing new conquests in Seville and Madrid. Like an oil slick, this new concept, which fuses contemporary art, music, and yoga, is growing toward success.

"Throughout these two thousand years of history, many things have happened that have changed the perspective of yoga and, lately, it has been inappropriately appropriated in an attempt to adapt it to an aerobic activity and, on the other hand, the message has been incorporated without defending it from the Western sieve," Gabriel thinks, so that people have the opportunity to take it in a more relaxed way.

From the idiosyncrasy of the island of Llatzeret (an ancient site where maritime travelers infected by some plague were quarantined) to the cathedral of Lleida (closely linked to Catholic Christianity), the locations chosen by The Yoga Gallery Fest offer new formats that obtain new formats that are exactly the same thing," concludes Pena.

The festival aims to be an act of celebration, which does not necessarily have to be at odds with an idea (also orthodox) of intimate introspection of yoga. "You can't understand yoga if it isn't to celebrate life, and that's what a festival is all about," the director argues, "but at the same time, it connects with yoga's transformative will."

The consolidation of Menorca

With over a thousand registered participants and sold-out tickets, The Yoga Gallery Menorca Fest 2025 took place last week (June 5-7), becoming one of the most unique events in the Mediterranean uniting art, yoga, and music, fostering personal and collective connections. One of the festival's most powerful symbols was the reissue of the "Adopt a Yogi" program, which broke a record this year with over seventy people hosted by Menorcan families and homes, forging real bonds.

Born four years ago on the island of Llatzeret, the festival has grown without losing its essence: a radically inclusive and label-free gathering that understands yoga not as an aesthetic issue, but as a practice to return to the original self and rediscover oneself. A living space where asanas, contemporary art, music, and words coexist. Where it's not about doing a posture better, but about living with greater presence, greater awareness, and more poetry.

In a fast-paced and often individualistic world, the festival offers tools for creating inner refuges—spaces for pause, a sacred time to be with oneself and listen deeply. "The most valuable thing about the festival is the people who come, a mosaic of people from all over Europe looking for a different, real, and meaningful experience," says Gabriel Pena. "We want to offer a space to reconnect with the spirit, and do so through beauty, freedom, and truth."

An ambitious agenda

Yoga transformed into a festival moves to Lleida next week (June 19-21). Over three intense days, the festival will host sessions, workshops, and talks, combined with high-level musical performances and artistic offerings. A total of more than 50 hours of activity.

Important names in the world of yoga, such as Rebeca Recatero, director of the Jivamukti Madrid center, and, especially, the great Indian master Surinder Singh (originally from Rishikesh, the world's birthplace of yoga), will join others such as British Lucy Crock, Eva Oller, Gustavo Plaza, and Maria Sousa from Portugal. The practice will range from moving yoga to the calmest, including therapeutic, introspective, mantra, and dynamic yoga. An extensive menu that will occasionally merge with electronic music, asana practice, and concerts by artists such as Argentine singer-songwriter Lucas Masciano and the duo El Descanso de Ti with their nidra sessions set to music.

The event will also be accompanied by three French artists who, under the Pangea project, have created ten flags inspired by this very festival. They are simple, direct designs, with flat colors and symbolic shapes, easy to grasp, but not always digestible, with some uncomfortable slogans. The flags were designed in conjunction with the design studio Uncoform. Balaguer's set designer, Maria Monseny, has prepared their staging with a piece titled Crucible, inspired by village gardens.

But The Yoga Gallery doesn't want to stop there. Seville and Madrid, with dates still to be confirmed, will be its next exhibitions. "Everywhere there are beautiful spaces that respond to that feeling of a unique and singular place," Pena claims. Because in the end, the place is only the excuse to plant, in all yoga, the living expression of the refuge that people need within the maelstrom of the 21st century.