We've been to a fair few acro festivals by now, and here's some important things we've learnt...
Every single festival we visit is different!
Even from one year to the next the same festival can feel quite different.
So we thought it would be good to share here some interesting things we've learnt about acro festivals in general.
What makes them good or not so good.
What to keep in mind as a participant, and what to expect.
We'll lay it all out for your benefit:
Let's start with what to expect as a participant.
Most festivals will start in the morning or afternoon with registration and an opening circle of some sort, followed by connection games or safety workshops and so on.
So here's tip no.1 - our experience is that we like to get to a festival early, either the day before or ahead of the registration. Especially if travelling to the event, we find it nice to settle in, choose the best bed before others arrive haha, stretch a bit and socialise with the other early arrivers - it feels a lot more enjoyable and less stressed.
After the connection games etc, it will typically run into the first round of workshops.
In one workshop round there might be 3 or 4 different workshops covering different skills and different levels in acro (beginner L-base flow, intermediate washing machine, intro to standing h2h, icarian castaways for example).
At most festivals the workshops will be introduced by the teachers with a little explanation/demonstration telling what will be covered, and what pre-reqs you need to have to join the workshop.
Then you will go off and pick one workshop and begin.
If you're a solo practitioner you'll find other people in the workshop and work with them, if you come with a dedicated partner you can choose to work with your dedicated partner and/or team up with others.
So here's tip no.2 - If you're solo go socialize play acro with a bunch of people and find those you enjoy doing acro with, this way when it comes to the workshops you can potentially have people you already connected with that you might want to do the workshop together with. Otherwise you might end up working with someone you don't enjoy as much.
Then after workshops there's usually a break or time for lunch.
And here's where our next tip no.3 comes in - Bring some extra snacks and drinks and goodies with you. In our experience the food at festivals can be good, can be okay, or can sometimes be a bit lame, so it's great to come prepared with extra snacks. Also, most festivals serve vegetarian or vegan food, so if you need a meat fix you can bring something extra with you as well.
After lunch there will usually be another set of workshop demos and workshop rounds and so on until either just before dinner or after dinner there is normally a slightly different round.
Where usually there is options like jamming, thai massage class, or acro talk (things along those lines).
This is where tip no.4 comes in - Choose wisely, feel in to your body and what you need. We find that the longer the festival the more we need to choose some thai massage or just to rest. But of course it's often a lot of fun to jam and just play more! Around day 4/5 of a festival is usually when a slump/slow down starts to hit as everyone is tired.
Then it's bed time and you get up and do it all over again, and that's roughly how the fests go.
So hopefully that gives you some insights and tips to keep in mind for your next festival.
Next, what makes a festival good or not good?
There are of course many factors that contribute to this, but some of the most key ones in our opinion are:
- The organization and planning: This honestly has a pretty big impact on a festival, we've had festivals that are run and planned really well, the schedule flows, everything is communicated well, there is time for everything and breaks so you can socialize and relax. And we've had festivals that are run pretty badly, last minute communication with participants and teachers (like the day before the festival), no time even for food and just jam packed schedules without much thought to how it will feel as a participant.
- The teachers: This one is of course hugely important because if you have good teachers you'll get good, safe acro classes and will learn lots and feel satisfied. And also the balance of teachers is important if all teachers are great at L-base but not standing then it can leave some people a bit dissapointed, so a good skilled mixture of teachers is important.
- The participants and the vibe: This is a good one to note that the participants have a big impact, how much energy, enthusiasm, socialising and fun they bring has a big impact on the vibe and the feeling of the festival. So that's a note to you if you do go to a festival to bring some of the energy you want to experience.
- The location, environment and food: Location is important in terms of how remote and difficult it is to get to, how expensive a place it is, and how hot or cold it is and what are the facilities and training space like (is there lots of mats or longes or not?). Food is also important that it's good and tasty, but also filling, and catering to different diets. All of these factors impact a bit the general enjoyment and stress surrounding the festival.
There's even more than this of course, but these are some of the main things we have tried to keep in mind when we plan our own festival.
We try to get a really highly skilled and mixed discipline teacher lineup.
We try to organize, communicate and plan well to make the experience as easy and best as possible for the participants.
We aim to create a great vibe and energy through the connection games, activities and things we do during the festival to bring out the best of the participants.
We have chosen a great location for convenience and centralness to restaurants and hotels. We will have 3 times the amount of puzzle mats to the previous year, and we are getting some great food stalls in. Plus some mist fans because it gets hot in bali!
The last thing and what I want to finish with is that festivals are awesome!
It's so much fun, and you will meet so many nice acro people and make great connections and learn new skills.
So if you've never been to one before I highly recommend it, there are tonnes of great ones out there to choose from, and if you haven't already, feel free to check out our AcroSpirit festival:
Hopefully see you at a festival soon,
Caspian
