Barefoot in Azulik's Dome, Nearly 100 People Opened a Week of Yoga and Music

At 5 p.m. on September 21, a kirtan, a form of mantra meditation music, began inside El Domo at Azulik, kicking off Tulum Yoga Music Fest, a week of yoga and music that ends on Sunday.

Azulik is an oceanfront hotel in Tulum's hotel zone, and El Domo is its dome. Walls of woven wood strips rose on every side and met high overhead, glowing amber in the low light. Nearly 100 people filled the room, the biggest crowd of the festival's opening day, founder and organizer Narayani Golden said. Performers and attendees sat cross-legged and barefoot in a wide circle, facing the center.

The festival opened on the United Nations' International Day of Peace, observed each year on September 21, and one day after World Wellness Weekend, a global initiative that planned 20,000 free wellness experiences in 187 countries from September 18 to 20, according to Today's Traveller. For seven days, it has put the town's teachers, musicians, artists, and healers on a single calendar, and it closes this evening with a free celebration at the Tulum Municipal Palace.

Handpan, harmonium, and a song the medicine music circle loves

Among the circle, musicians played handpan, harmonium, guitar, mridanga, and kartals. The mridanga is a two-headed drum, and kartals are small hand cymbals, both rooted in the kirtan tradition. They sang sacred mantras in call-and-response, and the circle answered back in harmony.

When the last mantra echoed, many lay back on the floor for savasana, yoga's final resting pose. Nicolas Neduchal, a local musician, guided the room into a meditation through the gentle sounds of the handpan, a round steel instrument played with the fingertips. For a moment the dome fell still, bodies flat against the floor.

As the night drew to a close, the circle rose once more, singing and dancing to "Because I Love You So Much," which Iván Baray, a singer-songwriter and sound healer, called one of the most beloved songs in Tulum's medicine music community. Medicine music refers to devotional songs often shared in ceremonial circles.

It was the last song of opening night, sung by the whole room.

Reiki at 10 a.m. and kirtan at 5 on opening day

Golden said a festival like this is "bringing back high season energy" to Tulum.

"Wellness all day long at every venue," she said. "People in their element."

She led a reiki sound experience with musician Andros at 10 a.m. that Monday and described both that session and the evening kirtan at Azulik as powerful moments of the community coming together.

More than 40 teachers on the Tulum Yoga Music Fest lineup

Organizers call Tulum "a world hub for yoga," a reputation built over years of retreats and ceremonies, as The Tulum Times reported in its report on spiritual tourism in Tulum. Conference Week, which ran through Friday, offered classes, workshops, kirtans, and sound baths, according to the festival's website. Events were spread across venues and partners from hotels to wellness centers, including Holistika, Kan, Azulik, and Ahau.

Azulik fits the spirit of the week. Roth Architecture, which designed the hotel, says it was raised off the ground to avoid disturbing the ecosystem below and built from materials native to the region, with views of the sea and the surrounding jungle.

The lineup lists more than 40 teachers and artists. Among them is Jayson Barniske, founder of Ashtanga Yoga Tulum, who has been teaching yoga for 20 years and is a student of Tim Miller, the first American certified by K. Pattabhi Jois to teach Ashtanga yoga. Baray, known as Shivan Dharma, is also on the program, along with meditation guide Emanuele Righes, who helped bring local facilitators together for the event. The festival's press release also names yoga teachers Jay Hari, Yosef Zur, and José Troche, as well as musicians Red Monk and Skye Walker.

Crypto talks and fire performances at Oasis Tulum on Saturday

The week built to Festival Day on Saturday, September 26, at Oasis Tulum in the La Veleta neighborhood. The program ran from day into night with yoga, live music, DJs, healing arts, workshops, and a conscious market, according to the website. It also featured fire performances and talks by members of Tulum's crypto community on solarpunk ideas, renewable energy, and the role of technology in a more sustainable future. Among the speakers was Tere Castagnino, co-founder of Like Management Group and an organizer of Tulum Crypto Fest.

Tickets cost 200 pesos (about $11) in advance and 300 pesos (about $17) at the door, with a sliding scale for those who needed it, according to the festival's website. Golden said the ticket covered the main festival and that roughly 30 classes, workshops, and healing sessions during the week were free.

Before Saturday, Golden pictured a simple scene for the people who would come.

"They will see and feel yoga, music, arts and community," she said, "happy and coming together."

Sunrise at Nopalitos Lagoon and Conecta Tulum at the Municipal Palace

Integration Day on Sunday began at sunrise with yoga and sound healing at Neek, on Nopalitos Lagoon.

The festival closes this evening with Conecta Tulum, a free celebration of World Tourism Day on the esplanade of the Tulum Municipal Palace, held with the municipality of Tulum and its tourism department. The program begins at 5 p.m. with a food market, followed by a guided meditation at 7 p.m., a cacao ceremony, a concert, and sound healing.

The festival organized the closing with Tulum Despierta and Vikingos Fit Club, in collaboration with World Wellness Weekend. Details are posted at yogamusicfest.mx and on Instagram at @yogamusicfest.mx.

Have you sung at a kirtan or joined a sound healing circle in Tulum, and would you go back? Join the conversation and share your perspective with us on Instagram and Facebook at @thetulumtimes .