By definition, the term ‘wanderlust’ is from the German words wadem ‘to hike’ and lust ‘desire.’ Since the early 1900s the English speakers of the world have loosely translated this term from ‘love to hike’ to something designating a strong desire to wander or travel the world. Enter a New Yorker with the dream of creating a large-scale event marrying yoga, wellness, food, environmentalism and music and a new form of Wanderlust is born.
Jeff Krasno, CEO and co-owner of Velour Music Group based in New York (along with his wife Schuyler Grant, founder and owner of Kula Yoga Project, Tribeca), and business partner Sean Hoess, COO and co-owner of Velour Music Group got together in a sort of ‘put your peanut butter in my chocolate’ brainstorm that resulted in the upcoming festival, also known as the first event to utilize the Gold Coast stage at Squaw since Jerry Garcia graced it in 1991.
It’s rare to see the first year of a festival unfold right before your eyes, especially one that is as unique as Wanderlust. Krasno says that while it requires one to be constantly multitasking in their brain, it has been an incredibly rewarding experience.
‘Schuyler has owned yoga studios in Manhattan for seven or eight years, held yoga retreats all over the world. I’ve been so close to it, and while running my own company in the music business for the past 10 years, I have seen how her business is growing. I became close to it, and attached to that community of people that I felt were a big part of her scene,’ Krasno says. He thinks that people in the yoga community put things like friends, experiences, body, wellness, environment, art and music above everything else and that there might be something to it.
In July 2008, Krasno, Grant and Hoess sat down and tried to think of a way to create an event that merged the life experiences that Grant and yoga enthusiasts enjoyed with the music that Krasno and Hoess treasured. ‘There were so many different ideas when we started; do we want to make this an all female artist event, do we go in the direction where the music is more about kirtan and chants, how exactly do we bridge these experiences of yoga, music and food?’ explains Krasno. ‘We just didn’t want to feel like we were completely bound by one experience, that it was all about just one thing, whether it be yoga, music or food.’
What was ultimately decided upon was a three-day personalized festival. A place where one can have a ‘super healthy experience in the morning with yoga and great food, then go up the mountain and have your fill of music and by the time you come back down, the village is totally transformed into this crazy place after dark with buskers and burlesque artists.’
Speaking of this beautiful place up on the mountain, how does one from New York decide to travel across the country and land in a place like Squaw? ‘Initially I had this idea to hold the event at a mountain resort, a place that might not see a lot of action in the summer, had a lot of preexisting infrastructure and instead of other festivals where the yoga is in a massive field we could repurpose things already there to create an actual sacred space,’ says Krasno. ‘I toured mountains all over North America for about a month, came to Squaw and it was the most beautiful and incredible place we saw. We went up to the Village and High Camp and from a layout perspective and from a natural beauty perspective it was just so awe-inspiring. That, plus the fact that geographically, the community around Squaw Valley loves nature, loves music and embraces the general progressive ideals that we are trying to accomplish.’
According to Krasno, there was just no other place that could provide a place at the top of a mountain for music. In addition to the awe inspiring surroundings, festival attendees will also be able to take in art installations from Reno and Burning Man, bike clinics and rentals from the local women’s Luna bar-sponsored bike team and the Eco-Village sponsored by Honest Tea and Stonyfield Farms that is known to accompany Dave Matthews Band on tour. ‘One amazing thing is the stuff that just keeps coming out of the woodwork, people just want to be a part of it,’ says Krasno.
In addition to the world class music and yoga lineup, Wanderlust is committed to using as little fossil fuel as possible, providing public transportation, recycling and buying carbon offsets. They are also approaching all local non profits and offering not only group discounts, but giving them an opportunity to raise money. ‘We would like to give all nonprofits a code specific to them, and then anyone that buys tickets to the event and uses that particular code will have 10 percent of their ticket cost go directly to that local nonprofit organization, and that’s something I hope people will take advantage of.’
As with any festival experiencing its inaugural year, things are constantly changing and evolving for Wanderlust. Expect the music and yoga lineups to keep evolving, the website to be constantly updated and come July 1, expect to see Krasno haunting around town trying to get a real feel for how locals are reacting and what they would like to see. The Wanderlust Festival is scheduled to take place July 24 to 26 at Squaw Valley USA. Tickets are available in a variety of packages; to purchase and see the complete lineups visit wanderlustfestival.com.
