If you go
› What: Divine Fire Yoga Festival› When: Friday-Sunday, Sept. 30-Oct. 2› Where: Reflection Riding Arboretum & Nature Center, 400 Garden Road› Admission: $75 one-day pass, $165 three-day camping, $245 weekend camping› Information: www.divinefire.org
Participants
* Yogini and yogis: Sara Mingus, Jenn Busch, Kaylee Frano, Heather Dendy, Hillary Libby, Kelsey Vasileff, Lori Love, Elle Boss, Ray Yogimitra and Wesley Walker* Musicians: Amy Barnes & Friends, Lobo Marino, Organized Kaos, Lori Love and Wesley Walker* Bellydance: Tribe Zanzibar, Lacy Jo, Jules Downum, Michelle Wagoner and Kintala Bellydance Studio* Movement arts: Chattanooga Fire Cabaret, Lucy Kelley, Michelle Wagoner and Elle Boss* Tai Chi: John Johnson and Catherine Chester* Meditation: Travis Eiseman and Aron Aldrich
Schedule
For a full schedule of the festival, go to www.divinefire.org.
Read more
For more information on the shooting death of Matt Keller, www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2016/sep/21/investigaticontinues-death-former-local-athle/387715/
From the beginning, the Divine Fire Yoga Festival at Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center was always going to be a celebration of life. That took on a deeper meaning for those involved on Sept. 16 when co-creator Matt Keller was shot and killed in Marion County. The incident is under investigation.
Dustin Blewett, owner of Blewett Tree Service, has been helping organize the event with Keller for several years and says the festival will go on as planned. The two did mixed martial arts training together before Keller was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison for drugs five years ago.
"We had been talking about doing a music festival of some kind for a while before he went to prison," Blewett says.
The two stayed in touch while Keller was in prison, Blewett says, and just talking about and planning an event seemed to help Keller focus on the future.
"He discovered yoga while in the penitentiary, and we'd talk about doing this," Blewett says. "This was his hope and dream. I made a commitment to him and just because he's dead all of the stuff is in place and I'm going to follow through on my commitment."
When the festival takes place Sept. 30 through Oct. 2, it will now include a celebration of Keller's life, in addition to the many yoga and movement arts classes, workshops, seminars and live music scheduled throughout the weekend. Festival co-creator Ashley D. Boss, Keller's girlfriend who was with him when he was shot to death, says the plan is to dedicate the entire event to Keller.
"We've shifted and refocused and we plan to honor him throughout the festival," she says. "During the classes that he was going to teach, we will have a moment of silent meditation and then play his favorite music from the Grateful Dead, Phish and Widespread Panic and have a dance party. He would have loved that."
In connection with the incident that ended in Keller's death, Boss is now facing charges of public intoxication, trespassing, resisting arrest and reckless endangerment.
Keller, 33, was a high school wrestling star at Bradley Central High School and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Since getting out of prison less than a year ago, he had become a yoga instructor, a wrestling teacher and also worked for Blewett, providing tree-cutting estimates for customers.
"He did a lot of things for a lot of people," Blewett says.
Last week, during an interview with the Times Free Press, three days before his death, Keller said yoga and meditation helped him find peace and beauty in everything.
"Runners and athletes talk about being in the zone, and we don't often teach that the feeling, or zone, is attainable in other ways. You can reach it through flow arts and yoga," he said. "This is a celebration of being human and the outdoors. It's about bringing the community together and having fun in a beautiful safe environment."
The festival will feature almost a dozen yoga instructors, plus belly dancers, tai chi, meditation, live music and workshops for practitioners and teachers of the movement arts. Lucidity: Float Center of Chattanooga will be there to discuss the benefits of sensory deprivation, and Murari's Kirtan Valley, a farm in Mulberry, Tenn., will provide vegan dishes throughout the festival.
The weekend also represents a relatively new push by Reflection Riding to attract more people to the 315-acre site at the foot of Lookout Mountain. Attendees will have the option of camping on-site for the weekend or commuting.
Reflection Riding Executive Director Larry Zehnder says the site has allowed some camping for groups like Boy Scouts in the past, but nothing like festival as far as he knows. When the facility was created by John Chambliss 60 years ago, it was intended to be a beautiful nature park that would be visited, used and appreciated by everybody, Zehnder says.
"We have a totally new board with a lot of great vision. Everyone that comes into this park comments on what beautiful surroundings are here and we want more people to see them," he says.
"Part of what we are trying to do is make this more of a community facility. We want to emphasize that this is the people's park and botanical garden."
A festival focusing on nature, meditation, reflection and serenity is a perfect use of the space, he adds.
"It's an activity for what was intended for this property in many ways. This is almost a spiritual place."
Keller, Boss and Zehnder all stressed that the enjoyment of Reflection Riding, in addition to the festival activities, is a big part of the event. Guests should bring swimming attire, bicycles, canoes, tubes, kayaks, stand-up paddle boards, hiking shoes and plenty of water.
"Bring your drums too," Keller said.,
Boss says the festival is an opportunity for people familiar with one of the movement arts to check out the others.
"It is also a chance to check out different yoga instructors. Some are very physical and about strength and others are more spiritual."
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.