M.A.Y. Fest, Music, Art, Yoga May 3-5th 2024

We invite you to experience M.A.Y. Fest!

A host of ideas culled from many festivals with the idea of presenting some of the finest instructors, and musicians, in a focused event to allow an in-depth experience for you.

Camping, yoga sessions, Reiki Master, sound bath, creek walking with fossil and geode hunting, nightly fires, drum circle, concerts with local and touring musicians, and a communal meal on Saturday night!

T he venue is the Needmore Community Field, home of the Needmore Commune from the 60's. It is two large fields with a wonderful creek through it. It's hard to be on the field without feeling the power this area holds. There has been music on the stage for over 40 years, it is the field where the Ukulele World Congress, the largest ukulele gathering in the USA, is held every year. The Dali Lama has come and blessed the field.

Give us a look, buy a ticket, and come have fun!

Shruti Nadis, music group and host. Born from their love of improvisational music, and with 40+ years playing music together, Shruti Nadis present a sound steeped in following an instructor, creating a musical story for meditation, or playing to the emotions and feel of an audience. The tools used for their performances are: ukulele, shruti box, bells, bowls, ektar, guitar, gong, djembe, wood blocks, gogo bells shakers, cowbells, bongos, cymbals, wood drums, and many hand percussion
instruments. Through the festival, you’ll be able to hear them on the stage
during Friday and Saturday night concerts, and also playing for many of the
yoga, and meditation sessions. Also they will be around the fire each night
making some group music.

Mervyn Alphonse has taught and practiced Hatha, Vinyasa and Kundalini Yoga extensively. He is a certified Reiki Master and utilizes a 34” gong in his Sound Healing practice. He has also sat Zazen for several years and has presented Yoga workshops and healing sessions at the Starwood Festival, Sirius Rising Festival, Serendipity Festival, Sacred Spaces Village at Burning Man, The Sanctuary at Phases of the Moon Festival, and at the Resonance Festival. He currently teaches Hatha, Vinyasa and Kundalini Yoga in Bloomington, Indiana.

Kundalini Yoga.

Kundalini Yoga has been called the yoga of awareness. This workshop will take the participant on an experience of Kundalini Yoga through performing a ‘kriya’- a sequenced series of exercises, meditations, asanas, mantra and pranayamas designed to awaken and radiate the dormant spiritual power that lies within us. Come expecting a stimulating and rewarding yogic experience.

Burning the Box (emotional release & soul play)

This workshop releases the ties that bind, so to speak..We will dissolve through our oft-calcified self-images to unveil the inner being in all its playful and prayer-ful glory, in safe company of others that are revealed to be just that – other versions of one’s Self. This is achieved via synergistic exploration of healing and expressive modalities such as Yoga, pantomime, mirror-work, authentic movement, sound healing, and sound circles.

Breathe. Flow. Vizualize. Animate. Rejoice

Jordan Serpintini, Reiki Master, entertainer.

Creative ARTivist, with an architect eye of creating a more loving world. In times of great shift, she is choosing to focus her loving creative energy on a more luminosity within each person to cross her path. Come jam to her musical medicine with a deep message and a timeless groove that traverses across many genres that will have you moving with gratitude! Jordan’s Reiki Workshop, “The journey from the heart to the heart” brings people together with a sincere sense of purpose and love for self. Jordan will host a Reiki workshop under the tent, time TBA.

A little back story here. While being a vendor at a yoga festival in Kansas, there was a beautiful lake right across from my booth. Every morning my routine was to grab my chair, and my ukulele, and sit and play music while gazing across this lake. The second day of the festival, there was a woman sitting in the same area, with a ukulele. If I remember correctly, we played music together before we even talked to each other! It’s one of those serendipities that is just meant to be. The woman sitting there was Jordan. I have had the joy of playing for her Reiki workshop, as part of a Seven Healers closing act, and still much time with us both having instruments in hand

To hear without listening. Through the day, we’ll have sound practitioners on stage playing their instruments of choice. This is not a concert but sounds to blend with the sound of the area, to flow, to immerse ourselves with gentle vibrations. It will be to hear without listening.

On Friday May 3rd at 4:00, I will host a creek walk. The creek that streams around the fields has many geological goodies in it. Besides geodes in several different colors, it has some fabulous fossils. I've found coiled cephlipods, large braciopods, and lots of horn coral. There is some Placer granite that was pushed there by the glacier. In a couple of sections there are large clay deposits. It's a beautiful creek to spend time with.

Flea Bitten Dawgs, entertainers. The Dawgs came together after a video they recorded as a benefit to the St. Louis community radio station, KDHX88 started to go viral. David and Thom were already involved with a local rock band, and this was a perfect relief from “Rockin’ It Out!” The Dawgs are David Henry Spangler- ukulele, vocal, Lee Kram- percussion, and Thom Pallozola- ukulele, vocal.

Over the past 13 years they have toured through 15 states, and Europe. They have released 3 CD’s, with another in the works, of both covers and original music. The Flea Bitten Dawgs have been dubbed Ukulele Jazz Americana for the sound that emulates from the stage. The stage has been shared with many of the top ukulele artist from around the world as well as top musician in other musical styles. One of their songs was recorded by Supe Granda from the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.

Is this gathering different than most? I think so...

Food as art! Instead of having a bunch of food vendors, we have a Chef! With the Saturday night meal included in your ticket (TBA) we wanted to “sweeten the pot” by offering our only food vendor for the weekend doing a fabulous array of goods for you to purchase on Saturday morning.

Sweet and savory gallets, gluten free financiers, muffins, savory bread pudding, lemon bars, and a few other items will be offered Saturday morning May 13th. As well as coffee and teas.

Lauren Bickel is a Chef and Pastry Chef from Indianapolis. Managing teams and training others in this field has been the focus for the last three years. Looking to one day make their own bakery cafe geared towards social justice issues, Lauren is making small steps to that goal. Getting an education has never seemed possible until now. Connecting with local long established and grass roots community organizations, they are observing and learning about how to help people and fulfill their individual needs.

Reading Sci-Fi novels and series with their partner, drawing on post it notes, waiting for updates on their favorite podcasts, enjoying animated television, advocating for the working class, and adoring her cats are found to enrich Lauren's life.

This page will show artist, entertainers, and workshop/yoga instructors as we add more. The past two years here at M.A.Y. Fest have been amazing, please plan on joining us!

Bridget Gossett is a soulful, singer-songwriter, born in New Orleans and residing in beautiful Western North Carolina since 2003

In February of ’23, she released her first album, “Sell Everything”, on all streaming platforms, and began writing for a second album while touring the Western United States in the summer. Since then, Bridget has released three more singles.

“ Songwriting, for me, is like cartography: giving some nomenclature and signage to these life paths and crossroads we all seem to come across at one point or another. I guess I hope it can help the next person get a little further down the road- or at least have a good playlist for the trip.”

Bridget continues to write and release new music, and covers classic folk/rock/blues favorites, while creating fans of her original works.

Angela Gabriel, Musician, Workshop instructor

Angela’s career has been devoted to music and service. As a professional percussionist, pianist, she has performed with world class orchestral, choral, opera, and chamber music ensembles as well as with funk, rock, world music, and ragtime bands. She's performed with such greats as Kansas, Tony Bennett, Tish Hinojosa, Bobby McFerrin, and Zimbabwean legend Stella Chiweshe.She has facilitated community singing and vocal improvisation for people from 3-103 years old, including people living with Parkinson’s, people living in homelessness, hospice patients, and their caregivers. As a vocal activist, she has held singing space in civil disobedience actions, rallies, sit-ins, and marches with the Poor People’s Campaign and the Women’s March.Her mission in life is to facilitate expressive creative, musical, and vocal experiences and to encourage folks of any age and background to replace judgement with curiosity and open themselves to their unique, creative flow.

Derik Gratz, Knapping demonstration, Archery workshop

Derik will be showing the art of knapping chert into arrowheads. It is a process that is amazing to watch. He’ll knap chert arrowheads in the style of different cultures. To watch him take flakes off of a stone and have it take its shape is art in itself! A treasure trove of info on the subject.

Derik will be teaching archery in the far field. Archery is a type of meditation that can help block the noise of the world while helping to create the ability to focus on a single task. So much art of the Goddess shows her with a bow and quiver of arrows. Be the Goddess.

Stella Bubenzer, Dance instructor: The Dance and Movement Lab.

We’ll let imagery and your senses help to guide our movement and connect with our internal selves and the way we naturally want to move and find pleasure in doing so. We’ll feel free with our joy in moving, dancing that has been in our DNA since there were humans!

Stella is a ballerina/dancer working in the Carmel IN area. She studies in Carmel and New York City. A lifelong passion, she enjoys the regiment of Ballet, as well as using her mastery of movement to improvise over any music.

Shruti Nadis will be playing the music for this workshop!

AUTHENTIC VOICEWORK™: Yoga of the Voice
with Stephanie Heidemann, Teaching Artist | World Music Vocalist
The voice is an extension of your body and breath, and when inhibited, singing can move your essence to flow and be shared with the world. Using the voice as a form of yogic practice can lead to deep and powerful tools for self-knowledge and transformation. While singing connects us with our breath, body and life force, it also connects us with others – a practice that shares the spark of divine presence into community, leading to deeper intimacy with the world. Founded in basic singing technique, meditation, sound healing, expressive arts therapy theory, kundalini, and nada yoga, Authentic Voicework™ guides you through the process of connecting with your own voice as energy in motion. Please bring a yoga mat, your water bottle and an open mind!LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• Get to know your voice – where it is, how you use it and the state of it
• Build awareness of your body as an instrument and vehicle of expression
• Discover how your voice is a barometer
• Learn the anatomy of your voice
• Cultivate a new relationship with your own voice
• Experience music meditation through singing
• Learn how to build a “yoga of the voice” practice

Stephanie Heidemann, LMT, BA, Expressive Arts TherapyStephanie blends her unique background in healing and the arts into her modality of Authentic Voicework™: Yoga of the Voice. Heidemann obtained a B.A. in Expressive Arts Therapy from Indiana University, and Certification in Massage Therapy (and Level III - Reiki Master) from the Association of Research & Enlightenment. She studied classical voice technique with Brenda Boozer (NY Metropolitan Opera) and movement therapy with Fanchon Shur (Growth in Motion). She sang with award-winning a cappella world music group, VIDA(IMG-Artists), The Resonance Project, HuDost, and currently is the lead singer with SomaVibe Experience. Stephanie has done artist residencies at Hundredth Hill, and Hermitage Artist Retreat(award recipient fellow). She has recorded her own arrangements of early Spanish music (Sounds True, inc.) and original music for 20 years. Stephanie resides in Bloomington, IN raising her son, and teaches Nāda yoga at teaches Nāda yoga at a local yoga studio.

Erica Weddle, Yoga instructor

Currently offering personal training, private assisted stretch and yoga classes in my studio downtown Nashville IN. Paddleboard sessions at Yellowwood Lake, Spring through October. 130 human on boards last year!

A native of Brown County IN, developing a love for outdoor recreation at an early age, I am still here! When not working with clients, I can be a found on my paddleboard, backpacking, hiking, flowing through a yoga routine or working out in the Brown County State Park or on the Salt Creek Trail.

My certifications are through the:

National Academy of Sports Medicine

Exalt Yoga

Nourishing Heart Yoga

Salty Buddha Yoga

National Exercise Trainers Association

** Collaborating with other teachers and business owners brings me joy. Community over competition any day!

Lastly, I am the founder of a local women’s networking group.

Mix Mingle & Manifest - Fusing women entrepreneurs. Enlightening and encouraging our future

Stella Lumina and Bethany Joy, Musicians.A set both Friday and Saturday with collaborations!Born in downtown Akron OH, the beautiful harmonies between Bethany and Stella have been singing the whispers to the world that less is more. They bring a soulful dynamic that can’t be mimicked, as soft as hummingbirds at times and as vivacious as flamenco street bands. The hype duo is happy to be collaborating at May Fest this year.Bethany Joy is multi instrumentalist singer-songwriter based in Cleveland, OH. Known for her powerful, emotive vocals and captivating song writing style, her original music spans genres like indie, soul, jazz, blues, and r&b. As well as being a recording artist and performer, Bethany is a music educator, show promoter, open mic host and all around extremely passionate about her local music community.The songstress of Soul, and goddess of rhythm, Stella is a live looping world multi-instrumentalist. She’s a true improv artist of the moment, believing that being played by spirit as an instrument herself is the key to tapping into the greater universal harmony! Her dynamic basslines are cosmic groves are heavily influenced by Latin America rhythms and soulfulness. Blending worlds in a fresh and new way will have you feeling hopeful and inspired.

Indy’s Yoga, workshopIndre (Indy) inherited her interest in Eastern philosophy and metaphysics of any kind from her Lithuanian mother. She has been practicing and teaching yoga as well as meditation classes for more than a decade. Indre completed a vigorous Bikram Yoga training in 2013, which provided an opportunity to teach yoga full time. Indre's passion for various mindfulness techniques led her to complete the 10-day Vipassana meditation course in 2015. She is also certified in Vinyasa and Yin styles and currently studies Kundalini Yoga. Indre believes that regular and sincere yoga practice invokes true human potential.Join Indre for a yoga class dedicated to releasing the blockages from the heart energy center - anahata chakra. This practice will include some fundamental asanas (postures), breath control exercises, and simple concentration techniques that will culminate in Yoga Nidra meditation - yogic sleep. When the heart is open, gratitude, spontaneous joy, and compassion accompany every breath. All levels are welcomed, and no prior yoga experience is needed.

Meet our entertainer, Jodi!Jodi Damon WilliamsJodi Damon (Girl Meets Uke), Musician, Textile Artist and Music Therapist While no stranger to M.A.Y.fest, Jodi will be performing for the first time on the M.A.Yfest stage this year. Her music is a mix of soulful and contemporary tunes that blend upbeat and meaningful songs tailored to her audience. She believes strongly in embracing your authentic self and aims to inspire others to do the same. Her hope is to build community through creativity, meaningful connections, and shared experience.