christiane

Yesterday saw Milan’s turn, after Madrid, in hosting a Yoga Free Day by Oysho. A whopping 1500 people attended the event, apparently. Which for Italy, that’s LOADS! I mean last year, at the 108 Sun Salutations, there were a measly 250 people, if that! Oh no but wait – there’s more to it….last year there was no goodie bag given away for free (t-shirt & mat) or any celebrity endorsement. Don’t get me wrong, i’m super happy of the turn out, it’s awesome, and it was great seeing so many ppl walking around with yoga mats, but i can’t help that the freebie was a huge incentive, i do wonder, had there not been a goodie bag, would 1500 ppl still showed up? The marketing and advertising (this event was written about online in Elle, Vogue, La Repubblica) as well as the use of social media for this event, surely greatly helped…but when i think about New York and London and the amount of people that go to these kind of free events for the pure joy of it and love of yoga (no tees or mats or bags given away), i feel that Italy still has a long way to go.
Here’s some pix from yesterday’s event and below, a pic of the event in NYC – can u spot the difference? 😉

Free Yoga in NYC’s Time Square: