Have you heard? The Conscious Festival is back. And we’re going hybrid for the first time ever. In Paris, we’re having an in-person Festival at LA CASERNE, Europe’s largest sustainable fashion accelerator hub. Today, we’re talking workshops. It’s led by experts sharing sustainable practices and improving your overall sense of health and wellness. And it’ll be a feast for your mind and motivation. Read on to find out, and mark your calendars for 24–26 September…
MOVEMENT AND WELLNESS: GET YOUR MOVE ON, RECONNECT WITH YOUR BODY
11H11 MOVEMENT AND WELLNESS WORKSHOPS
11H11 is a holistic project that runs energetic and wellness sessions in Paris. Their mission is to reconnect the body and mind through ancestral and contemporary holistic practices. At the Conscious Festival this year, they’ll be hosting several workshops. Including yoga, pilates, intuitive dance and breathwork…
IYENGAR YOGA WITH SANDRA FUJI
Iyengar yoga is a form of yoga that places emphasis on the detail, precision and alignment in the performance of yoga postures (asanas), and yoga breathing techniques (pranayama). Setting the focus on the structural alignment of the physical body in space, the organisation of postures in sequences and the use of props help the body remain in the right pose. Come practice with Sandra Fuji. She first learnt about the practice in 2002, and has since trained with professors in the US, China, and France.
SATURDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER, 12–1PM, LEVEL 1
PILATES WITH MATHILDE ROUSSEAU
Slow down, strengthen and stretch… with Slow Pilates, a deep, engaging and conscious practice. Aiming towards agility and flexibility, through a mix of soft pilates and floor barre, you’ll come out of the class with strengthened posture and balance. You’ll also be led through Flow Pilates: an intense and deep form of pilates. Combining resistance, stretching, strength and breathing, you’ll come away feeling zen and strong. This workshop is led by Mathilde Rousseau. Who after spending years in the world of image, found a practice that aligns everything. So get ready to let go of all the self-judgement, and just do…
SATURDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER, 3–4PM, LEVEL 1
INTUITIVE DANCE WITH DARA EXPLORA
Wake and warm your body up with movement inspired by dances from all over the world. Intuitive dance is a form of meditation in movement. And it’s a combination of meditation and bodily expression. Discover the story and meaning of dance movements. And connect to your senses. While unplugging your mind. Join Dara Explora, a half-French, half Laotian dance historian, intuitive dance teacher, and masseuse! She’s inspired by her practices in yoga, meditation, dance history, Ecstatic Dance, Gaga Dance, as well as some ancestral dances. Unplug and just dance.
SATURDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER, 4.30–6PM, LEVEL 1
SHAKTI AND ECSTATIC DANCE WITH MILY BOUTIN
Engage in some energetic Shakti and ecstatic dance, led by Mily Boutin. Tune your body, spirit and soul to the pulse of harmony, with the help of combined energy techniques of Yoga Kundalini and your own creative energy. And dive into the power of being, with creativity and authenticity. You’ll certainly feel energised, nourished, and reconnected between your physical body and your mind, and your soul too. So come move with us.
SUNDAY, 26 SEPTEMBER, 11AM–12.30PM, ROOFTOP
KINESOYGA AND BREATHWORK WITH ALINA KOZELKOVA
Kinesiology is a holistic practice that combines an occidental approach with traditional Chinese medicine. It focuses on body language and cellular memory. And Alina Kozelkova, who is leading this workshop, combines the two to help you balance your energies perfectly and work on potential blockages. For Alina, the practice allows her to experience the magic of creation from within, and her aim is to help others explore their creative potential through her vision and practice.
SUNDAY, 26 SEPTEMBER, 12–1PM, LEVEL 1
YOGA WITH MAËVA BOLDRON, PRESENTED BY CIRCLE SPORTSWEAR
Maëva Boldron is a yoga teacher, dancer and ambassador for zero waste production activewear brand, Circle Sportswear. By the way, Circle Sportswear happens to be one of LA CASERNE’s resident brands. They’ll be at our sustainable marketplace, the Village, during the Conscious Festival. (Find out more about the Village here!) Maëva will lead an hour-long yoga class to kick off our conscious weekend with flow and mindfulness. She practices Ashtanga, Vinyasa and Yinyasa (a mix of Yin and Vinyasa). Altogether, it’s a practice that’s fluid, slow, precise, and full of sunshine. She believes that the most important thing is to constantly remember that your “potential is infinite”. The rest will follow…
SATURDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER, 11AM–12.30PM, ROOFTOP
CREATIVE AND DIY: GET YOUR HANDS MOVING AND GET CRAFTY
COUTURE WORKSHOPS WITH MADE IN SUNDAY
Made in Sunday is running a series of DIY workshops and sewing classes. The goal? To teach you to create, repair, transform and embellish your own clothing. If you’ve always wanted to pick up some DIY skills to up your sustainable fashion game, now’s your chance.
Dream of making your own clothes? Or want to customise your wardrobe to fit your body better? Join them in LA CASERNE’s workroom, as Made in Sunday takes you through basic sewing patterns, and creating basic designs. Or maybe you have pieces that need some tender loving care? Made in Sunday will be leading you through basic repair skills. You’ll learn to repair your clothes with easy stitch fixes. Think sewing a button, fixing a hem, reattaching a strap, darning a sock.
To top it all off, they’ll even be running a jeans repair class. Remember how jeans are infamous for huge amounts of water consumption? And how the perfect fit is basically impossible to find? What then? Well, you’ll need to learn how to repair your jeans and prevent them from going into the landfill. Made in Sunday will teach you how to fix them. With what’s known as “visible mending”. In other words: hand embroidery techniques designed to be seen!
DIY BASIC REPAIR: SATURDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER, 1–2PM, BASEMENT
JEANS REPAIR: SATURDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER, 2.45–3.30PM, COURTYARD STAGE
DIY SEWING PATTERNS (ADVANCED): SATURDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER, 3–6PM, BASEMENT
SUSTAINABLE HAIRDRESSING WITH SIRE DORÉ THE HAIRDRESSER
When we say that sustainability covers all bases, we mean it. It even affects hairdressing! Sire Doré, who posts frequently on the ‘gram about the fabulous haircuts he does, knows all about it. He’ll share about key sustainability themes in relation to hairdressing. What does that look like? That’s less waste. Better and healthier use of materials. More regulated use of energy and water resources. More sustainable equipment choices, and more. And in the spirit of DIY workshops, he’ll also share some hair tips, and do on-the-spot haircuts using sustainable products!
MAKING OBJECTS FROM WASTE WITH LES MATÉRIAUX PARISIENS
Les Matériaux Parisiens is part of the broader Beyond Plastic movement. It aims to facilitate and democratise the local recycling of organic materials, often considered as waste, and thus discarded. Now, they’ve moved into developing and creating objects—and even furniture—from organic waste. Les Matériaux Parisiens will be collecting food waste over the three days of the Conscious Festival. Then, they’ll be recovering, processing and transforming it into objects that they’ll be selling. As for their workshop, they’ll be presenting their machine, the wondrous technology used… And a primer on recycling too. You might even get to handle the machine, and receive some of the objects as gifts at the end. That’s real-time recycling for you!
SATURDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER, 1.30–2.30PM, ROOFTOP
BASIC E-REPAIR WITH BACK MARKET
Back Market is on a mission to restore trust and desire for refurbished devices. They’re an online marketplace for like-new devices with secondhand prices. And fret not: every device has been checked and restored by experts. And to top that off, they’ve also got a transparent grading system. That takes into account the appearance and technical condition of their devices. Their goal? To democratise purchasing reconditioned products, fight against planned obsolescence, and electronic waste. So what will they be teaching you?
Simple: how to recondition and equip yourself with the skill of basic e-repair. Just come with one of your old, unused smartphones (iPhone 8,10, 10S, SE) or laptops (MacBook or MacBook Air up to 2015). Then, the Back Market team will teach you how to change batteries, memory cards and screens. Come learn these skills so we don’t have to keep wasting our electronics and throw them out… when they just need a new lease of life!
SATURDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER, 1.30–2.30PM, LEVEL 1
DEEP DIVES WITH INDUSTRY EXPERTS: LEARN AND GET INSPIRED
REDUCING YOUR DIGITAL FOOTPRINT
Green Pixie, mystically named, is all about understanding your digital footprint. Did you know that every activity you carry out on the Internet leaves behind a data trail? That’s your digital footprint. And the Internet as a whole is responsible for a whopping one billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year. It’s growing more every year. So this workshop will be a deep dive into the climate impacts of our digital lifestyles. Prepare to equip yourself with tools to quantify and understand these effects, and act to cut your carbon footprint—stat.
FRIDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER, 1.15–2PM, BIG ROOM
UNDERSTANDING THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY
La Fresque du Climat is a scientific workshop that focuses on making climate change knowledge accessible to all. While keeping it fun and collaborative. It’s scientific—it builds off the work of the IPCC, which is one of the most internationally recognised institutions in the climate science world. The objective of the game? To understand climate science and the climate crisis situation. Have an opinion. Act quickly and collectively. And accept the changes that need to be made. There are four phases: reflection, creativity, feedback and debrief. And these have been carefully crafted so you’ll walk away with all the knowledge you need on the climate. And having connected with other workshop participants to process together these deep emotions associated with the climate crisis.
SUNDAY, 26 SEPTEMBER, 1.30–3PM, LEVEL 1