Written by Ana Davis

Question: What happens when two Byron Yoga Centre teachers decide to spend 7 days in the Nevada desert for the iconic art-happening festival,  Burning Man?

Answer: Burnt-out festival goers get a taste of peace amid the chaos during the pairs’ daily yoga and meditation classes.

Held in August every year, with 48,000 people descending upon the desert, the Burning Man Festival is for good reason described as a ‘temporary community’. As a microcosm within this multi-dimensional and multi-cultural macrocosm, Byron Bay was represented in the ‘Byron Beach Bungalow’ camp, which became Byron Yoga Centre teachers, Bettina and Stephan Kahlert’s temporary home.

Every morning at 9am without fail, Bettina rolled out the mats to teach a daily yoga class to exhausted festival goers. “I taught the Byron ‘Purna’ style of yoga and Stephan offered adjustments,” says Bettina.

There were three other ‘camps’ at the festival also offering yoga classes, one massive tent running 3 daily classes. However, feedback from Bettina’s classes was that they were unique in their small, friendly feeling. “People enjoyed the personalised attention,” says Bettina. “The classes were professionally run – we were always there, always on time.”

Bettina soon discovered she had to adjust the tone and focus of her classes to suit a very different student-base. “This is a festival where people party and take drugs 24/7,” explains Bettina. “I had to make the yoga class suit the people. For example if I had a lot of overnight partiers, I would just do simple, gentle postures and emphasise a more meditative practice with yoga nidra.”

After the yoga class each morning Bettina and Stephan would share tea with their students and then Stephan would go on to teach a daily meditation class. “People really enjoyed the sessions and said how well they went with the yoga classes,” says Stephan. 

People also attested that Stephan’s classes were a ‘must’ for helping with the overload of sensations experienced at such a large-scale event. “We were able to offer people some mental time-out, to slow down, to be present to everything that was going on,” says Stephan.

Bettina and Stephan bought all the yoga mats as a donation to the festival. They left the mats in storage so that someone else can reuse them for next year and continue to “give the gift of yoga”.