1st North Cyprus Yoga Festival
at The Olive Tree Hotel Çatalköy
15th to 19th May 2015
By Margaret Sheard….
We have news of a first in the TRNC which is a Yoga Festival to be held from 15th to 19th May at the Olive Tree Hotel in Çatalköy, a lovely venue overlooking the village with a beautiful mountain backdrop.
The Festival has been organised by Işil Taşçi, a Turkish Cypriot, and Ayşe Oztoprak who is from Istanbul and has lived in the TRNC for 4 years. The ladies met in India in 2014 and later again met in the Karpaz in North Cyprus where they came together and decided to run a TRNC Yoga Festival as a joint venture and have been working on this for the last 6 months. Yoga is very popular with many people enjoying this relaxing and reviving type of pursuit.
During this festival great teachers of Yoga will demonstrate, explain and show you how to live a really happy, peaceful and healthy life, using the knowledge of Yoga. Teachers will be coming from different parts of the world. As well as the teachers from North Cyprus, there will be 5 from Turkey, 1 from Slovenia, 3 from South Cyprus and 2 from India – the land of Yoga. They will be thinking about your health and happiness and there will be a huge range of attractive events, a great seminar about natural treatment therapy called Ayurveda (Ancient Indian natural treatment process), they will share with you knowledge of massage and great breath-work, what is the position of stars and planets in your horoscope, how they are influencing your life, how to improve your life and remove the problems or ill effects of planets and stars from your life. All will be explained by great astrologers.
We took the opportunity of visiting a class (Hello 1st North Cyprus Yoga Festival event) on Saturday 11th April at 
The Olive Tree Hotel and met Işil and Ayşe as well as other teachers who were taking part in the session. It was a beautiful warm day and we watched as Işil and about 25 students, including some children, went through a yoga routine on a large grassy area under the trees in a quiet part of the hotel grounds. Even just watching the students going through the various yoga routines, it was very relaxing and I was very tempted to join in.
At this time we also met up with Michael de Granville and Viola Edward who will be taking part in the Festival with their Touching Hearts Massage and Breath-work therapy.
Following the yoga session I spoke with Ayşe who gave me some information about the whole concept of the Festival which, as well as the many yoga sessions, will include seminars, concerts, there will also be a campfire and wine tasting near the Five Finger Mountain and lots of music from Yiltan Taşçi playing his guitar to Cypriot folk songs.
There are packages for 4 nights, 3 nights, 2 nights and 1 night as well as joining the Festival for a day and details can be viewed by clicking here and also the full programme for the event by clicking here.
For further information please contact Işil Taşçi or Ayşe Oztoprak on 0533 882 3672.
We wish this 1st North Cyprus Yoga Festival every success and hope this will be the first of many more in the future, bringing people together.
See more pictures in the slideshow below.
Hello. I noticed the yoga festival in Cyprus whilst I was on holiday this year. I’m a qualified yoga teacher from London. I trained with Simon Low of the Yoga Academy and I am accredited by the British Wheel of Yoga. I am trained and insured in vinyasa flow, Hatha, Yin, and restorative yoga. I’m happy to offer to teach at your next festival or event.
Thank you Kat for your comment and we have passed your offer of help to the Yoga organisers.