From Azulik's dome to the Municipal Palace, Tulum Yoga Music Fest ends year one

Jay Hari and the other organizers of the first Tulum Yoga Music Fest did not know whether anyone would come. Festival Day ran from an 8 a.m. class until 1:11 the next morning.

They came. About 100 people filled El Domo at Azulik for the opening-night kirtan on Monday, September 21.

The week that followed ended Sunday evening on the esplanade of the Tulum Municipal Palace, at a free World Tourism Day gathering the municipal tourism office helped put together. A festival built by local teachers in the middle of the low season took place on government grounds, and its organizers say the same office is already working with them on a second edition.

Ana María Romo, 36, is from Mexico and has lived in Tulum for about 11 years.

"To be part of this community, it's like a big family," she said.

'We felt the need to create something for the community'

Jay Hari, who goes by his spiritual name, teaches Ashtanga yoga at Oasis and is one of the festival's organizers. The idea grew out of World Wellness Weekend, which ran September 18 to 20. When the organizers looked into it, they found that local teachers were not being connected with people seeking yoga and wellness in Tulum.

So they built a festival of their own.

"We felt the need to create something for community," he said.

Ona Munay, who was born in India, led two sessions during the week: Libaira Sonic on Tuesday and Resonates: Voice Liberation Circle on Wednesday.

"My favorite thing about the kirtan was that it brought together people from different walks of life with the same intention, to utilize singing as a means to reconnect to devotion," Munay said.

She said the festival also pulled the community together during Tulum's low season and made the events easier for local people to reach.

Seventeen hours at Oasis, from Bikram to a midnight gong

Festival Day at Oasis Tulum started Saturday with a Bikram class in the La Veleta neighborhood. By the afternoon, the soft tones of handpans carried across the site. After the handpan workshop, participants lined up for a temazcal, a traditional Mesoamerican steam ceremony. Ceremony guides cleansed each person with smoke at the entrance before they stepped into the low, domed lodge for a collective meditation.

A fire show began at 9:30 p.m., followed by two hours of ecstatic dance. The gong session started at midnight and ran for an hour. Festival Day officially closed at 1:11 a.m. Sunday, said founder and organizer Narayani Golden.

Tickets cost 200 pesos in advance and 300 pesos at the door, with a sliding scale for those who needed it. Roughly 30 classes, workshops, and healing sessions during the week were free, as The Tulum Times reported when the festival opened.

The tourism office started sharing their posts

Tulum's tourism office took notice. Jay Hari said he and Iván Baray, a singer-songwriter and sound healer, met with the office a few times. According to Jay Hari, the office has shared the festival's posts and has been working with organizers to promote this year's edition and plan next year's.

"They're supporting what we're doing," he said.

Three days before the closing, the municipal tourism department, headed by general director Haydee Hernández Pastrana, invited residents and visitors to the festival weekend, La Jornada Maya reported.

Tulum Yoga Music Fest closed on the palace esplanade

Conecta Tulum, the free World Tourism Day gathering, ran from 5 to 11 p.m. Sunday on the esplanade of the Municipal Palace, La Jornada Maya reported. It opened with a food market, followed by a guided meditation, a cacao ceremony and sound healing led by Tulum Yoga Music Fest, organized with Tulum Despierta and Vikingos Fit Club. Restaurant owners, chefs and other local tourism businesses set up alongside them, the newspaper reported.

Munay, Baray and Emanuele Righes, a meditation teacher and hypnotherapist who helped organize the festival, were among the musicians who sang and played on the palace stage.

World Tourism Day is a United Nations observance held every September 27. Hernández Pastrana said the activities are meant to recover and strengthen Tulum's identity as a destination tied to wellness, and to create spaces for collaboration among businesses, authorities and the community, according to La Jornada Maya. In a social media post, she congratulated the waiters, concierges, chefs, tour guides, and tour operators who welcome visitors, and said that Tulum's tourism experiences create space for local talent.

The night kept moving after the palace. Organizers said it continued at Shakti Temple with an ecstatic, contact-dance jam, followed by a sound journey with tea led by Selva and friends.

Wheatgrass for eight families

Organizers plan to keep hosting events and festivals, Righes said. He said Tulum has struggled with a drop in tourism, sargassum and a reputation as a party town, and that people have come here for years to find themselves anyway.

"This land has a very special and pure energy," he said. It invites people to go within and find peace, he said, and "that's the energy behind this whole festival."

Their next project is smaller than a festival. A permaculture plot, and wheatgrass shots for eight local families who want to improve their health.

Did you make it to Festival Day at Oasis or to the closing at the Municipal Palace, and what stayed with you? Join the conversation and share your perspective with us on Instagram and Facebook at @thetulumtimes.

Cover: Participants hold downward dog during a progressive vinyasa class led by Itzel Olvera on Festival Day of Tulum Yoga Music Fest at Oasis Tulum in La Veleta on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (Photo by Iván Baray)