So, you’re wondering what it’s really like to attend the MINOMA Festival at a glamping site in the Agafay desert in Morocco? Well, you’ve come to the right place! I recently attended the 2024 edition of the 3-day festival and have written this blog post to recount my experience there. I focused this article on my second day at MINOMA Festival, to help you get a feel for what you might expect on a typical day at this mindful nomads festival!
A Morning at MINOMA Festival
It’s Day 2 of MINOMA Festival, and my first morning here at Agafay Valley Camp, where we’re being hosted a one-hour drive from Marrakech. The theme of this day at the festival is “Self-Compassion and Letting Go”. I woke up in my tent that I shared with three other lovely ladies. I had set my alarm to 7:45am, and I threw on some clothes to make it to one of the first morning sessions.
MINOMA Festival is a multi-track event, with the schedule conveniently posted to the online members’ portal so that we could view the info and register for the sessions that we’d like to attend. With so many awesome-sounding activities happening, it can certainly be hard to choose from!
There were 3 different sessions happening at 8am, including breathwork and yoga. I decided to go for HeartHealing Journey with mindset coach and hypnotherapist Melissa Ratti because the name and description intrigued me. It ended up being an interesting meditation – this was a good calming way to clear our minds and start the day. At the end of this session, Melissa got us to each draw an affirmation card – mine had a lovely message about generosity on one side of it, with a stunning illustration of an angel on the other side.
After this, I went back to my tent and showered – our tent had its own makeshift ensuite bathroom! There was a whole situation the week before where the previous venue had gone bankrupt and suddenly couldn’t host us anymore. The MINOMA team thankfully managed to pull off finding another private venue with a similar vibe, and accommodated our large group by putting up extra glamping tents for us! As I went to last year’s MINOMA Festival, I could compare and say that the magic and feel remained the same as before.
Then I had breakfast at this long table made up to seat all the MINOMA attendees. I loved the huge choice of foods that we got to choose from, from pancakes and msemen (Moroccan flatbread) to eggs, yoghurts, cereals, fruits and more!
An Afternoon at MINOMA Festival
After some morning fuel, I went to watch Leela, the Cosmic Game of Self-Knowledge, hosted by Kristina Kutan, a life and business coach. Only 6 people in total could book to play the game and I didn’t make the cut. I hadn’t heard of this game before, but I’m always up for learning new things. Originating from India, it was like a massive game of snakes and ladders but played for spiritual growth and self-discovery.
The next session I went to was self-sabotage and confidence coach Dori Juhasz’s session on Somatic Release, which is a mind-body healing technique to help release stress and trauma. I learned some helpful and insightful theories and practices that I intend to take into my life.
After a busy morning, we then went back to the long table to have a yummy lunch buffet. Again, I loved the selection on offer, such as rice, vegetables, meats and bread. I really had to be mindful not to overindulge myself, haha! These shared meals are also always a nice opportunity to meet and get to know other MINOMA attendees.
After lunch, my next workshop was Money Abundance Activation with Maria Lodetoft, a sound and energy healer. She’s a very interesting multitalented person who led many workshops at this festival, including sound healing with shamanic drums on the first day. I loved learning about money abundance from Maria – she was very honest about her past and how she turned things around for the better, earning 6 figures nowadays. The only downside is that this session overran quite a lot and cut into the next session).
An Evening at MINOMA Festival
Then we had a shortened group-guided integration with journalling with Bucketlist Bri, a full-time travel blogger. There was also the option to do solo integrations instead, but as I’m a writer, then of course I was going to go to this session! Bri gave us good advice on how to journal and a practical exercise to do during this workshop.
Right after the journaling workshop, as a fledgling travel blogger myself, I took the opportunity to have a long 1-1 chat with Bri, who gave me lots of great tips. We were listening to and seeing the ecstatic dance in the background, being led by yoga instructor Marta Golasz. At first, Bri and I were really into our conversation and feeling a bit too tired to join in the dancing, but then we decided to join for about 30 minutes or so. I’m glad we did – this was worth it as it was so much fun!
Our last meal of the day was another tasty buffet for dinner, accompanied by lots of good conversations, with both new people and people I already knew from previous events. Then DJ Levin started playing and a small crowd of people were dancing to his set. I thought it was nice background music, but not really my sort to dance to, so I slinked off back to my room, where I could still hear the music anyway, which provided a nice ambience to the closing day. I spent this time just catching up on a few messages and writing up notes on my laptop for this article!
Overall
It was a very impactful day, and it was, overall, a brilliant event. It’s a truly holistic experience for improving mind, body, spirit, career, business, money — everything! If you’re thinking about buying a ticket to the MINOMA Festival, do it already!
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