We’re pleased to welcome another new contributor to VentnorBlog. Rebecca Drake, tells us that she’s normal 24 year old blending in with the rest of civilisation, however, by night turns into a horror author, blogger and cook. In her first piece for VB, Rebecca tells us what she thought of last weekend’s Healing Festival. Ed
Last weekend a new festival took place on the Isle of Wight. Ventnor Botanic Garden played host for the first ‘Healing Festival’.
Growing up with a Mother that practised Tarot reading and Crystal healing on me like some obsessed mad scientist, I thought that due to my experience, I’d have a good idea of what to expect when I arrived.
Pleasantly surprised
I’m not going to lie, I expected to be sat around a camp fire, chanting and meditating to the natural elements, while some crazy long grey haired woman ran around us in a circle hitting a drum! Luckily, this was not the case and I was surprised to find a well laid out and decorated alternative little festival.
There was no camp fire, chanting or crazy grey haired woman running around with a drum, instead there were normal people giving demonstrations and workshops to the arts of healing and meditation.
Varied range of therapies on offer
Strolling into the Botanic Garden, towards the far end of lush grass which looks out over the Ventnor cliff edge, I found half a dozen little tipis and gazebos, all offering free workshops and talks – some of the healing practises more common than others.
The strangest healing practise I witnessed was a type of pressure point massage, where the masseur makes a strange inhaling noise whilst pressing on certain points of the body. The noise was slightly ear piercing and to me eerily disturbing, although I was assured that there was a sane reason for doing it as it helped to transfer energy!
For those nervous about trying something new, there were also better known healing practises taking place, such as Reiki and Reflexology. Newport store DragonFly had a small stall where they were massaging people and selling tarot cards, incense and necklaces.
Loved the activities
The best part of the whole festival for me were the activities taking place in the large field and children’s play area towards the end of the Botanic Garden.
Entering the field, we were welcomed by stalls selling handmade bags, purses, hippy hair accessories and children’s light up toys. The whole area was decorated with bunting, hand painted flowers (which were dotted around on trees and fences) and little fabric mushrooms for the kids to sit down on.
Workshops and meditation
There was a large meditation tent where workshops took place throughout the day, gazebos with free face painting and fancy dress where you could make your own outfits and fairy wings – but unfortunately this was mainly for the children ;-)
Hula hoops and spinning plates were also available for everyone to play with (including the adults) though (as you’ll see from the photos)!
Remembering Gem
Donations were collected for the Hospice in memory Island artist Gem Bell, who sadly passed away earlier this year (you can see an exhibition of Gem’s work at Dimbola at the moment).
Gem’s stone can be seen in the background between the tipi and the gazebo.
All workshops and talks were free, donations were requested in aid of Ventnor Botanical Gardens and a whopping £2,000 was raised for the Botanic Garden and the charities.
It was a great couple of hours out for the kids and some interesting healing practises and workshops for the parents!
Keep an eye out on VB for details of when the Healing Festival returns to Ventnor.
You can read more of Rebecca’s musing on her blog.
