STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
It’s been 20 years since the Sun Valley Wellness Festival—then the Mountain Wellness Festival—launched.
The first festival, held at the old Elkhorn Resort, featured a talk by Laura Evans, a Ketchum woman who had started Expedition Inspiration to raise awareness of breast cancer.
It included water aerobics, held in the outdoor pool as snow fell.
And one of the new-fangled products being sold was a gizmo designed to keep track of how many steps its wearer took.
The festival now attracts 3,500 people. And this year’s festival features speakers from around the world—among them, sleep crusader Arianna Huffington and Wayne Pacelle, who advocates on behalf of mountain gorillas and egg-laying hens.
Dr. Vandana Shiva is an Indian physicist who has saved more than 3,000 rice varieties, and Bob Cooley is an expert on biomechanical flexibility who contends we can erase physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological trauma in our bodies with stretching methods.
The festival will also feature several local health experts, including Dr. Maria Maricich, a Ketchum chiropractor who will talk about “Brain Health,” and Dr. Tom Archie, a functional medicine and acupuncture doctor who will discuss “The Tao in Family Medicine-Polarity.”
Cheryl Thomas, who owns Chapter One Bookstore, noted that the festival has come a long way to host three keynote speakers.
Friesen Gallery owner Andria Friesen, who also has been a longtime supporter of the festival, agreed.
“Twenty years is certainly a milestone, and the lineup of speakers reflects that. I just hope people aren’t too tired to catch Wayne Pacelle by Sunday night. Wayne is a rock star who’s making such a difference in the animal world—he should not be missed,” she said.
The festival gets underway today—Friday, May 26—with workshops, followed by Arianna Huffington’s talk on “Ending the Stress and Burnout Epidemic by Changing the Way We Work and Live” at 6:30 p.m. in the Sun Valley Pavilion.
Lectures, additional workshops and movement classes will follow over the next three days.
A free Experience Hall will offer health products, such as hammocks and healing sounds, and services, such as healing touch and traditional Thai massage. It is open from noon to 6 p.m. Friday, May 26, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, May 27 and 28, and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, May 29, at the Sun Valley Inn.