One Love, One Stage

March 23, 2014

Rushing a bit this morning to writeup a summary of yesterday’s awesomeness… Hoping to get over to the Purnati Arts Centre in time for the press conference on Sound Healing in an hour.

Yesterday began with breakfast at Kafe with Dustin Thomas and his micro crew in discussion about Greeks vs Romans and running through the lists of Greek dieties. I was so impressed with his knowledge of History and Theology and had to down my coffee quickly for an energy oost to try and keep up with his early morning intelligence! Dustin became Dyonisus, and Madison Dube became Artemis whilst I became Juno…for breakfast at least.

I joined a press conference on “Ecstatic Movement” where a panel of experts including Jocelyn Gordon creator of Hoop Yogini and Bahkti Boogie, Capoiera Master Mestre Bira, African Dancer Baba Kauna and Ecstatic Dance dj Loch Souloist all discussed their take on the link between spirit, community and dance.

I then stopped by the Coco stage to hear Danny Paradise and friends singing “The House of Bamboo” which has become a theme song for me out here in the tropics. It was fun to have a boogie with Simon Low and Lynne Franks ( such a joy to see her fresh in from London!).

Then I rushed off to catch Nadine aka Universal Empress’ 1 Love Reggae vibes yoga. Her sweet, smooth Jamaican accent made sivasana amaaazing!

I hopped on a motorbike unfortuantely just as another spontaneous tropical rainstorm broke through the clouds and arrived at ARMA – my next port of call, completely soaking wet. On my way in to attend the musical press conference for the festival I stopped at the only clothing stall which had setup ready for buisness and asked them to show me their cheapest shirt- it was quite pretty, very hippie and not that cheap…after a bit of discussion and a slight lowering of the price the cheapest shirt by Paul Ropp was mine and I was dry enough to attend a press conference and meet some of the artists on this year’s festival roster such as Stu Fergie/Founder of Oka, Tahir Sou Sou & Maher Cissoko, Peia, DJ Fabian (Alsultany), Dustin Thomas (the shiny shooting star of this festival in my humble opinion) and then I snaked my way through the lush gardens at Arma to the mainstage where Daphne Tse was performing with a band of beautiful women (some men too) but it seemed like a real Goddess gathering on stage to me…

After Daphne Tse and co’s uplifting positive vibrations came the Green School youth choir who blew us all away with their belter strong voices and then the schools Marimba band rocked something that I would describe as “soft techno” it was so beautiful I would love for them to record and make their marimba sounds available for download…

Kandeh a group of about 10 Indonesia men in classic elegant Indonesian men’s outfits all hailing from an area called Aceeh provided us with the Indonesian culture flavours of powerful drumbeats and vocals mashed up with a rock n roll edge,

Niyaz came on and swept me away with their global fusion flavours and mystical lead singer in traditional jeweled headdress, belt and long flowing raven locks that she could probably sit on. Her Turkish harmonies and graceful dance movements brought her talented Persian backing band to a new fusion dimension- they were great!

Dusin Thomas then took to the stage and the entire audience were singing along to his songs from the get go- he blew me away for like the zillionth time since he showed up in Bali with his playful stage presence, good vibes, powerful singing voice and zeitgeisty lyrics. I particularily loved his song “Strong like Jah” and feel so grateful that he is going to perform a short set every night of the festival- awesome!!

As Dustin warmed up the crowd with the up tempo regae beatbox vibes he left the stage by introducing DJ Fabian onto the stage and as Fabian took to the decks, the stage got mobbed by the audience and several hula hoopers and a natural high sort of conscious rave kicked off. At this point blogger babe Madison Dube grabbed my hand and pulled me onto the stage to dance the night away- it was so much fun!! So my ch fun indeed tha tI am a bit behind on posting this blog….and scrambling to get it up in time so I can wakeup tomorrow and write a new blog about todayas amazingness…but wow, yes Bali Spirit Fest and everyone here I am truly loving it, you all of this! Namaste