True Nature hosts inaugural Sacred Fest

True Nature Healing Arts is hosting Carbondale’s first-ever Sacred Fest this weekend, with three days of events including a drum circle, African dance, a puppet show and live music along with yoga, food tastings and workshops.

The festival coincides with True Nature’s grand opening of its new location at Third Street and Colorado Avenue. The downvalley center includes a yoga studio, petit spa, high prana food kitchen and boutique and peace garden. Sacred Fest is billed as a transformational weekend full of activities for adults and children that also includes yoga, kids’ activities, high prana foods, tea tastings, labyrinth and reflexology walks and more.

Tonight begins with a ribbon cutting at True Nature at 5 p.m. followed by a drum circle, African dance, a life-size puppet show and live music. Free appetizer samples from True Nature’s raw-food bar will be featured along with a tent village for kids with face painting.

Saturday’s highlights include an Art of Tea presentation and the Raw Food Grand Tasting along with a concert by Dave Stringer. Stringer is an innovative artist of the new Kirtan movement. Kirtan is an ecstasy-inducing, call-and-response form of mantra chanting that is currently undergoing a worldwide renaissance. Stringer and his band tour tirelessly throughout North America, Australia, Europe and Asia.

All proceeds from Stringer’s concert will go to the Give Back Yoga Foundation, a nonprofit based on the Front Range that helps make yoga available to those who might not otherwise have the opportunity to experience it. Stringer is also holding a workshop called “Mantras and Molecules” on the healing neuroscience behind chanting on Saturday.

True Nature is the vision of owners and teacehrs Eaden and Deva Shantay. For the past three decades, Eaden has explored Western therapies, Native American spirituality, Eastern contemplative traditions and yoga philosophy. Music has always been an important part of Eaden’s life, and he loves to share sacred chant both in yoga classes and as part of True Nature’s annual yoga teacher training, according to a statement. Deva is an intuitive energy guide and yoga therapist. She trained in hatha and other styles of yoga along with integrative yoga therapy. She facilitates the teacher-training program at True Nature, teaches at the studio regularly and conducts intuitive energy sessions for private clients.

“Our vision is supporting individuals and the community in connecting more deeply to the true nature of self —light, love, joy and infinite possibility,” Eaden Shantay said in a statement. “We wanted to bring yoga, meditation, Kirtan, massage, intuitive therapy and other modalities of awakening all into one place.”

True Nature has been part of Carbondale’s healing-arts, music and sustainable-food community since 2007. Sacred Fest will showcase its 2014 expansion at the new location. True Nature’s design incorporates feng shui principles, eco-friendly materials, solar panels, local artisan crafts and architectural antiquities from Kashmir, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Morocco.