00:00Hello, I'm Strawberry Shortcake and I'm reporting live from the Laxy Glen,
00:04where I'll be taking you along to meet some of the hosts of this event
00:06and talk a little bit about what's happening here today.
00:09So, here we are with the founders of Anime, Ben and Amin.
00:13So, Ben, do you want to tell me a little bit about what's gone into this event
00:16and why you've got involved with it?
00:19A lot of prep.
00:19Well, we had our good friend Ed Bunce over here
00:22kind of get us introduced to this event
00:24and gave us the opportunity to collaborate with him on this event.
00:27And, yeah, and pretty much from the off, we've just been hard at it,
00:32putting in the hours about nine, nine, ten weeks of prep.
00:36And, yeah, every night pretty much doing something little by little
00:40to get this to what it is now.
00:41And it's all paid off, hasn't it? Fabulous event.
00:44We'll soon see.
00:46So, why do you think it's important then that, you know,
00:49we're doing events like this on the Isle of Man
00:51and that, you know, creating a little bit of a community for people?
00:54Well, I think it's important for everybody to have some sense of community
00:59and, you know, what better than to get a bunch of people to, you know,
01:02have a dance and meet people that they might not meet before
01:05and, you know, just experience different types of music
01:08and different, like, the wellness side of things
01:11and maybe things that they might be outside of their comfort zone.
01:14So, yeah, it's very important.
01:16And, you know, we should be seeing a lot more of it on the island.
01:19Well, hopefully there's more to come, eh?
01:20Let's go!
01:20Oh, and here we are with the lovely Ed,
01:24the owner of the business at Laxey Glen.
01:26So, why, you know, have you decided to do an event like this
01:30or be involved in this event?
01:32Well, from the moment that I took on the lease here seven years ago,
01:38the first thing I saw was a festival site.
01:41So, really, it's always been a dream to start a festival here
01:44and this is the first sort of go at doing that.
01:50So, it's a sort of pilot to see how it's going to work and build a team
01:53so that hopefully we can make this a yearly thing or a twice-yearly thing
01:57and grow it so it organically grows into something much bigger, hopefully.
02:02So, we've got something to look forward to in the future then?
02:05Absolutely.
02:05I reckon the summer might hold some surprises
02:08and we're thinking something hopefully a little bit larger
02:12that's more inclusive with a lot more local people, local things, culture.
02:19So, really to really push anything that's Manx and the Manx culture
02:23and there's a lot of space here.
02:25I mean, we're just using a little tiny bit of what's available.
02:30But the site was made, you know, back in the day with the Victorians
02:34and it was designed for people to come and walk around and enjoy
02:39and party and have a good time.
02:43And so, it's actually quite a great site for this
02:46because there's loads of different levels and paths that interconnect
02:48and loads of places where we can put different things on.
02:51So, here we are with the lovely Mikey and the lovely Leanne.
02:55So, do you want to tell me a little bit about what you've been doing here today?
02:58Today?
02:59Well, today we've been getting everyone prepared.
03:03This morning we did morning momentum at half eight,
03:07ran up to the Laxey Wheel, come back again
03:09and then we went straight into the ice bath in Alchemy.
03:12That's Ian Kirk.
03:14And then into the sauna to warm up with Riversea Sauna,
03:17which is my business.
03:19And then, yeah, then we moved on to the wellness circuit,
03:23which was mainly Leanne.
03:25Leanne's good work.
03:26Yeah.
03:27So, Leanne, do you want to tell me a little bit about what you've been doing?
03:30Yeah.
03:31So, I had this vision of having, like, a pocket of wellness under this TV.
03:37So, we moved with an opening ceremony where we utilize, like,
03:42the cosmic energy of the half moon and Halloween, which is Samhain,
03:46when that membrane is the thinnest between dimensional realities.
03:49So, we wanted to, like, tap into that and harness that magic
03:53and bring it into the opening ceremony as well.
03:56So, we had this, like, really witchy ritual.
03:59We got super witchy, guys.
04:01The witchy, the better.
04:02Why not?
04:02Exactly.
04:03So, we got super witchy and we had, like, a release and a receive ritual
04:08where we jotted down what it is that we wanted to release and receive.
04:11And that was, like, our main focus for, yeah, the movement in the TV.
04:16So, it was super fun.
04:17So, we moved from the opening ceremony, a little bit of ecstatic dance,
04:20and then we moved into yoga and then sound healing.
04:24So, we moved it in, like, this beautiful fluid motion where, yeah,
04:28it was pretty seamless and everyone got the benefits of movement, breath,
04:33good energy, and connecting to the mycelium network of the forest as well.
04:37So, it was super grounding, ready for dance time, which is now.
04:42So, guys, what do you think is it about this event that makes it unique?
04:47Well, look at the surroundings, for one.
04:49We've got a beautiful glen with beautiful trees.
04:52And this time of year, the leaves are turning orange.
04:55And, yeah, we've got two stages.
04:57We've got the big teepee over there that you can't see right now,
05:00but it's beautiful.
05:01And then we've got the pavilion stage, which is indoors,
05:04where the live bands are playing.
05:05DJs are down on the teepee.
05:07So, yeah, we've got some, yeah, it's magical, really.
05:10Oh, super magic.
05:11Yeah.
05:11Super magic, yeah.
05:12And also, yeah, just like what Mikey said,
05:15look at the scenes around here.
05:17You know, it's a proper forest.
05:19It's not like that plantation vibe,
05:20where everything's like linear and hands planted.
05:23It's like, yeah, just stunning.
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