Traditionally coinciding with the emergence of Spring, The Krishna Eco Farm’s Holi Festival was held slightly later in the year. However, we can’t think of a better way to mark and celebrate the return of vibrant community life than with our Wellbeing Festival of Autumn Colours which we held on the 11th September. We have been organising and hosting a Festival of Colours each year since 2015, with the exception of 2020. Due to its ever increasing popularity, we in fact decided to host two separate events in 2019 (one in Spring and the other in Autumn), with attendees totalling 700 across the two events. Although smaller in terms of its capacity, this year’s event had the additional important goal of increasing post-COVID wellbeing.
With the wellbeing of all in mind, this year’s event was capped at 200 attendees, but all of those who attended did an excellent job at ensuring that the atmosphere was no less joyous. Activities and events included a variety of wonderful musicians who furnished the day with a soundtrack of spiritually elevating music. Meditation, yoga, a drum healing workshop, our two alpacas (Goura and Balarama), arts & crafts, and henna all had their role to play in the day’s celebrations too. A free plant-based lunch was also served to nourish attendees before the much anticipated colour ‘fight’.
One of our volunteers, Simona, happened to arrive on the day of the event and described a “buzzing atmosphere”, one of “happiness”. Being new to the Krishna Eco Farm, she was particularly fascinated by the music and said that it put her in the mood of “exploring”. She recalled contagious laughter and a blissful atmosphere. The colour throwing event itself was described as being preceded by intense anticipation and that before she knew it, her pale blue jumper became a glorious blend of orange and green. She described the playful mood perfectly to someone who has never had the fortune of attending a Holi event: “you try and dodge the colours but are super happy when you are hit”. The colour throwing transitioned smoothly into “flowing dancing.”
Overall, the event was a great success on the level of mind, body, and soul. We were delighted to be able to welcome people back to Krishna Eco Farm and to share in the spirit of celebration in person once again. The throwing of colours was a wonderful and powerful representation of the revival of vibrant life after an enforced period of relative hibernation over the past year. Ashish attested to this contrast by describing how the festival brought a lot of colour, hope, positivity, enthusiasm, and friendship to his life which had otherwise been rather pale in comparison over the previous months of relative isolation.
We owe our sincere thanks to all those who helped make this event possible, including all those who attended and shared their vibrant energy. On a more material level, we are very grateful the Scotland’s Events Recovery Fund (https://www.visitscotland.org/events/funding/recovery-fund) , through whom our Festival of Colours was awarded £1,602, which ensured us to effect appropriate hygiene measures, staffing, artists, and marketing. We believe that the event helped to blow away the COVID cobwebs by providing an opportunity to express the joy we all store in our hearts, amplified by the colour, connection, and community which were central to the event.
