Article Contributed on: 8/25/2008 11:32:53 AM
10:57 a.m. Aug. 25 -- I'm sitting underneath a tree at City Park watching people do yoga underneath a large, floating white pavilion. This area of the park tucked behind in the Denver Zoo is the site of the Denver Yoga Health Festival, the first yoga festival to take place during a political convention.
The pavilion was designed by Korean architect
Minsuk Cho to be on display during the DNC, said
Luke Ketterhagen with the Yoga Health Foundation, the organizer of the event.
"He built it with the idea of adding serenity and calmness to the City Park area," said Ketterhagen,adding that Cho was "honored" when the festival wanted to hold the yoga classes beneath the pavilion.
Indeed, the yoga festival is a bit of a change from the hustle and bustle of downtown.Participants said they wished the turnout on Aug. 24 had been better, and it's pretty quiet now, too.However, a VIP reception is planned from 4-6 pm this afternoon, with about 150 delegates expected to attend and a health lecture by
Arianna Huffington, co-founder of the Huffington Post blog and Web site.
Ketterhagen said the festival, which kicks off a national tour of 10 cities as part of Yoga Month 2008, was planned to coincide with the DNC because of the yoga and natural health industry's interest in health care reform.
Yoga is becoming more widely used in health care and as preventative medicine and it is more popular in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world, Ketterhagen said.