Annual VibeWell Yoga Festival to return to Asbury Park

The New Jersey Yoga Collective's annual VibeWell Yoga Festival is returning to Asbury Park on Oct. 27.
Bridget Riepl has been teaching yoga for nine years and says this will be the largest yoga festival New Jersey has ever seen.
"I want this yoga festival to be an opportunity for people to come together no matter where they are in their practice or where they are in their life,” says Riepl, who founded the festival.
Riepl says that the event will feature some world-famous yoga instructors. There will also be meditation, music and presentations from notable “thought leaders.” She says she expects close to 350 yogis to be in attendance this year.
Best friends Justine Henderson and Bridget Barlet will attend the festival. They say that yoga has changed their lives. Henderson says after teacher training, they quit their corporate jobs and opened a yoga business.
"It's made me a calmer person, it made me appreciate who I am,” says Henderson.
Lockey Maisonneuve teaches yoga to many groups, including incarcerated men and patients at a mental health facility. She will be part of a panel discussion at the festival focusing on inclusivity in the practice of yoga.
"Whether or not you can do the pose, honestly, it's irrelevant. What's important in yoga, or what I believe is important in yoga, is how you connect to the pose and what you learn while you're in the pose,” Maisonneuve says.
The festival will return to the Asbury Hotel and activities will take place throughout the hotel and also at Asbury Hall, Asbury Lanes and the Danny Clinch Transparent Gallery.