Wanderlust Festival participants practice yoga in Kahuku on Thursday, Feb. 28. (Courtesy photo)
BY GARY CHUN / gchun@staradvertiser.com
Come for the music, stay for the yoga.
That’s what Sean Hoess, co-founder of the Wanderlust Festival, hopes locals will do when they come to the Turtle Bay Resort today and Saturday for music provided by headliners Michael Franti and ALO, along with featured guests John Cruz and iconoclastic singer-songwriter Kaki King.
WANDERLUST O’AHUWhere: Turtle Bay Resort, 57-091 Kamehameha Highway When: Now through Sunday Cost: $108 daily rate (includes yoga, music and food); for music only, $25 today and $17.50 Saturday |
First staged in 2009 in Squaw Valley ski resort in California, the combination yoga retreat/music festival has expanded and now
includes festivals at Colorado’s Copper Mountain resort, British Columbia’s Whistler Blackcomb resort and Stratton Mountain Resort in Vermont.
Joining this year, along with a new, far-flung destination in Chile, is the Turtle Bay Resort, host of the first Wanderlust O’ahu, which started Thursday and will run through Sunday.
“For us on the mainland, we’ve always envisioned Hawaii as this mystical, tropical place to go to, with this image of paradise in your head,” Hoess said.
“Our core customers are yogis, or longtime practitioners, and our festivals are meant to have fun with the local communities. With this festival in particular, it’s coupled with the attractiveness of Hawaii. The resort is part of this natural and beautiful setting on the North Shore.”
The emphasis on the local culture will include features on Oahu seafood and, of course, incorporating surfing in the form of classes.
One such visiting yogi who will also be performing is Franti, frontman for the roots/social activist band Spearhead.
He and bandmate Jay Bowman will do a set tonight, with headliner ALO (Animal Liberation Orchestra, featuring Jack Johnson bandmate Zach Gill) playing Saturday.
This will be Franti’s first concert in Hawaii since he and the band last appeared at Johnson’s first Kokua Festival at the Blaisdell Arena back in January 2004.
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
Today
Kuilima Point stage:
» 7 p.m. – John Cruz
» 8 p.m. – Soul Fire
» 8:30 p.m. – Michael Franti & Jay Bowman
Surfer, the Bar:
» 10 p.m. – DJ Drez
Saturday
Kuilima Point stage:
» 7 p.m. – Kaki King
» 8 p.m. – Soul Fire
» 8:30 p.m. – ALO
Surfer, the Bar:
» 10 p.m. – DJ Drez
Kuilima Ballroom:
» 10 p.m. – A “chakra shakedown” with Shaman’s Dream