The Sanctuary Experience
Since 2016 we have been bringing yoga, meditation, sound journeys, women´s circles and consciousness work to festivals. Since 2018 we started to curate full festival stages with our conscious program. In 2019 we created and curated a full stage and conscious area ourselves. Working overtime, skype calls with the festival organizers, vintage and decoration hunting in Pushkar and Rishikesh (India), hours and hours of planning, crafting and creating the vision.
it came to life: THE SONEIRO SANCTUARY.
In this blog you can see some behind the scene pictures and stories. To see the Soneiro Sanctuary in its full aesthetic and energetic blossom and to read about the Program you can click here.
We invite you now, to feel through the words and images what we have created. Enjoy :)
From India to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
This was the biggest festival endeavour we had, as of yet, undertaken. We spent over 8 months working on concepts, creating the program, many hours of pre-production, building and co-ordinating our team. We can remember even on our journey through India, in January and February, having skype conference calls on the beach, searching for wifi, and searching for Indian treasures to bring to our stage. The feeling of seeing it to become alive was just so empowering and enriching. It was the first time we took a whole stage into our collectives hands, and now we are filled with such gratitude in the afterglow of such an experience.
WE LOVE CRAFTING AND BRINGING IDEAS TO LIVE
People who know our work know, that we create worlds and spheres to step into. Immersive experiences, that tickle the senses, inspire and open your mind in a conscious way. For this we spend a lot of time visualizing how we want it to be and then making this vision come true. Like these eye catchers. Many hands worked on them for several days. The eyes are catching bad energies. They hung right at the stage so we were protected during the whole time. The Soneiro Backdrop was painted on Linnen - this was a meditative practice which took several hours and in the end nobody believed us, that it was handpainted and not printed :)
A conscious project is only as strong as it´s team togetherness is
The Sanctuary stage was located far from the main festival area, far from the busy stages - a quiet, safe, peaceful space close to nature. Camping and creating in the same area made our connection stronger. It felt like a family from the very beginning. We were present, focused and supportive and everything was in flow. We worked hard for 5 days, we felt tired, but still everyone left with a fulfilled-joyful heart when we said goodbye to this festival experience.
Build deep connections close to nature
Here you see us connecting to the nature behind our stage. We collected different herbs to bring them to our stage and hang them over our Altar. We wanted to cherish this lush nature and connect deeply to the place we were allowed to share our work.
Happy team vibes during our team ritual that we did on Saturday. If you are hosting ceremonies, meditations and circles, it´s important that you practice these things for yourself and cultivate the same awareness and within your own circles and teams.
Voices of the Team
Temple Haze (Main producer of the Soneiro Sanctuary):
”It was such a special feeling, to be able to come to our stage at night feeling pride, looking at what we built. We couldn’t have done it without our amazing team, and I am just so grateful to be surrounded by such talented and positive people.
I spent days in pre-production, drafting plans, making designs, concepting, working on vacation, and feeling the passion of creating our own stage.”
Miriam (hat das Praktikum diesen Sommer mit uns gemacht und war auf 3 Festivals während der Soneiro Tour)
”Ich war von der Planung über die Umsetzung bis zum Abbau und in die Nachbereitung involviert. Das Erschaffen eines achtsamen und feinsinnigen Ortes hat mich im Kontext von Kunst, Musik und Ästhetik sehr inspiriert. Besonders berührt hat mich die Verbindung und Offenheit, die mit und durch die Menschen die unsere Workshops besucht haben, entstanden ist. In Kombination mit der tollen Community die wir während dieser Zeit waren, wurde unsere Stage zu einer friedlichen und familiären Oase.”
photo: Alexander Jedermann
Alisa (Curator and art director of the Soneiro Sanctuary)
“Wow what an experience. For me it was just incredible to see our visions come to live. From the sketches of the soundinstallation that we draw in winter days in the Cocreation Loft, which was then built in Carolines room in Neukölln and suddenly filled our stage with the storm of the golden Gong; to the Eyecatchers we cocreated in my place and suddenly hung at our stage to make it look like a Mantarray and also protected our stage from any negative energy. And they did. What an amazing team we were: 16 people and a baby. A huge program and only good vibes, caring for one an other…energy created and held….”
Gerdus (Performer, team sound technician)
"It is always an amazing experience holding space with the rest of the souls from Soneiro Collective. Our experience this year at About You Pangea Festival was particularly noteworthy as we had the biggest crew we have ever had at a festival and it was amazing to collectively create a safe space for inner expression and exploration, not only for others, but also for ourselves. When I see the quality of the people this work pulls into my life, I know I am on the right path."
Caroline (Sound installation builder, performer)
“I am always filled with such gratitude to be able to co-create such powerful yet gentle, safe spaces that allow and inspire people to open up and explore themselves and their creativity.
The Soneiro Sanctuary this year was really special. We had such a diverse group of people in the team, who each brought their unique medicine to the Sanctuary. We really felt like a community of like minded individuals working hard together for a common cause.
A special moment for me was during the women’s circle when each woman got to share how she is feeling and most shared how they were thankful for this space to exist in the festival, it again reminded me why we do what we do.”
Mitu (he was for the first time with us as a Soneiro team member, together with the other men of the team he held the Men´s Circle on Sunday)
“Holding space during the men's gathering to me was grounding and uplifting at the same time. I am thankful for the trust that the brothers gave me and I am grateful for connecting with these brave men. The Soneiro sanctuary team created a magical environment to keep the energy flowing. And indeed it was flowing .”
Special Thank’s to…
We would like to give thanks to the About You Pangea Festival production team. A Big thanks to Paul, who was our liaison for all things regarding our stage and production. Paul was our connection and partner form the festival production team during the whole production process, very thankful for all the work he put in.
Thanks to our experienced Soneiro Core Team and all it´s new members. Thanks to the invited guest artists and cocreators: Temple, Alisa, Caroline, Gerdus, Miriam, Cecilia, Mitu, Aaron and Madeleine, Ana, Karo, Lily and Anuk and Nils. Thanks to Helen and Hannah for their beautiful help with decoration and set design!
Thanks to Isabel Plos, Alex and Nicola for bringing the spirit from Chile and capturing these special moments with the lense. Thanks to all the amazing people joining our sessions and filling the space with their presence.