Envision Festival in Costa Rica
Full-immersion experience in the jungle of Costa Rica
Two things made Envision festival really interesting for Charlie: different types of Yoga and a surf beach within walking distance. She wanted to experience this week of full immersion in the jungle!
Yoga and movement workshops
Yoga was the main reason Charlie wanted to attend Envision festival. She saw a great opportunity to try different styles of Yoga and she was not mistaken. From Acro Yoga to Kundalini and Tantra to Yin Yoga, there was no style of Yoga not present at Envision. What Charlie hadn’t considered was the temperature at midday. She attended one Kundalini class at that time and it was too hot to enjoy any of the teachings. After that experience, she only attended classes in the mornings or evenings when the temperatures were acceptable.
There were other movement classes at Envision such as Brazilian Zouk or Qi-Gong as well as several forms of breathwork classes and Ecstatic dance.
It is important to know that you should bring a Yoga mat.
Surfing at Envision festival
The festival location is very close to Hermosa Beach in Uvita and as such it is the perfect occasion to go surfing. It is a beach break that works best at high tide. You can bring your own surfboard to the festival grounds or hire one there for USD 30 per hour. They offer surf lessons too. From the surf shack at Envision, it is about 3 minutes to the beach. It is not part of the festival, but you will see lots of street vendors lining the path to the beach. Whilst you don’t need any cash at the festival, you might want to bring some to buy some souvenirs or fresh fruit on the beach.
Especially at sunset, a large number of festival attendees goes to the beach to enjoy fire artists, some live music and of course the sunset.
Music at Envision festival
Envision is not your typical music festival, it is about so much more. That does not mean that music can’t be the reason for you to attend. The music that is on offer is very varied and everybody will find something for their taste. There are stages for smaller gatherings and acoustic sessions, medium-sizes stages for all kinds of musical expression and three big stages where you can rave all night.
Charlie spent most of her time in front of the Village Stage and she mostly enjoyed the acoustic sessions by singer-songwriter DrewLaPlante. When she needed a rest, she went to the stage by High Vibe Records as they usually had some softer tunes on and they had sofas!
Later in the night, she would always check out Luna Stage as they sometimes had some nice reggae or experimental electronic music to dance to.
Talks at Envision festival
During the day, most of the stages had talks and panel discussions about different topics from sustainability and climate change, to business ideas, herbal medicine as well as adult topics, some of the latter where female-only.
The place that Charlie mostly enjoyed was the sacred fire where they offered talks and ceremonies by indigenous cultures. There were elders of the Bri Bri and Boruca nations present as well as Ngöbe and Ome Tlanezi in Mexico. They talked for example about gender roles in their cultures, connections with water, plant medicine and their cosmovision. Charlie also attended a cacao ceremony with the Bri Bri and a Chicha ceremony with the Boruca.
Art at Envision festival
Throughout the week, Charlie noticed more and more art works and murals popping up in different corners of the festival grounds. There were live painting events and an art gallery.
Food at Envision festival
There are several food stalls on the festival grounds. From Pizza to Thai Noodles, you can get everything your palate desires. How much it’ll cost is a different story. If you are like Charlie staying at Envision for the entire week, you better bring a good stash of snacks. Of course, those should be individually wrapped so to not attract any ants to your tent.
Accommodation options at Envision
The first that probably comes to mind when somebody says “festival” is “camping”. And that is the most popular option at Envision too. You have the option to bring your own tent or you can book the “ready set camp” where you will get everything provided. Charlie booked that option as she didn’t want to carry around camping gear. The tent was really “ready set” and it had everything you need: a two-person mattress, two pillows, a separate sheet and a camping chair. The tent was also quite spacious and definitely bigger than the tent Charlie has at home.
There is also VIP camping available which is like a small room for double occupancy. Of course, it’s not really a “room”, but it feels like one. You can stand upright in there, have light and a fan, shelves and a thick mattress.
The third option is a Cabana. This is like a little house on the edge of the festival grounds that you share with multiple people.
The fourth option is to get a room or AirBnB in Uvita. There are taxis available at the entrance to Envision so you could easily shuttle back and forth. After 8 nights in a tent, that option certainly sounds appealing to Charlie. She didn’t want to travel back and forth, however the idea of a real bathroom with a shower, an A/C and a real bed seems to be a good idea. You would also save a lot of money if you had a kitchen to prepare your meals in instead of buying all your meals at Envision.
How to get to Envision festival
Envision festival takes places at a horse ranch just outside the town of Uvita. The festival offers an official shuttle bus from San José airport. That is the easiest and worry-free option. Alternatively, you could take a coach with Tracopa to Uvita and from there a local bus or taxi to the festival entrance.
A flight to Quepos is another option. However, it is about an hour North of Uvita and you would have to get a taxi or take a local bus to get to Envision festival.
You could drive too and there is parking available at Envision.
What to wear at Envision festival
The general memo reads: Less is more. There is only one rule that the festival organisers give: No nudity! Apart from that, everything is allowed. It is incredibly hot and humid in Costa Rica in March so your best shot is probably swimwear and that’s what most people do. You also see lots of shorts, skirts and dresses around. The general impression Charlie had was that the clothing at Envision doesn’t involve much tissue. This goes as far as some people only were their bikini bottoms and stickers to cover their nipples.
There is no rule, just wear whatever you feel comfortable in. Keep in mind that all the clothes you bring will probably get dirty from the dust and sweaty. If you want to participate in Yoga classes or go surfing, you should bring suitable clothing for those activities. “Suitable” might mean different things here for different people.
Internet connection at Envision
There are WiFi packages available for purchase at the festival. Charlie had a local SIM-card with Liberty and her data connection worked on the festival grounds. There were some downtimes, but it overall worked well.
Envision festival packing list
Apart from the usual things you need for any trip, there are a few things you certainly will benefit from having with you at Envision festival:
- Yoga Mat
- Sweat towel
- Insect repellent
- Head torch
- Fan
- Sun screen
- Hygienic wipes
- Toilet roll
- Refillable water bottle (and something to carry it in during the day)
- Bum bag or light back pack
There is a general store at Envision where you can get everything you might have forgotten. So, don’t worry too much. Keep in mind that the cosmetics you bring, especially shower gel and shampoo, should be biodegradable. You might also want to check the general Costa Rica packing list.
The other side of the coin
Whilst Envision prides itself with good intentions such as sustainability, education and health, there are a few things that left Charlie feeling like the victim of capitalism and commercialisation.
Booking fees
The first time she thought: “Wait a second…” was when she booked her tickets online and noticed the horrendous booking fees that were added to the overall price. With her initial booking, she had also booked the camping package. Approximately two months before the event, she received an email about theme camps and she was intrigued. There was no option though to swap the existing package for another one. She would have needed to book the new theme camp and then request a refund for the camping package. That would have been fine, the booking fees though caused her to not do that and stick to what she had already booked.
Showers
The second thing that got Charlie thinking was when her neighbour in the shuttle bus mentioned: “I think you need to pay 10 dollars for a shower.” Charlie had not seen this information before and she had booked the ready set camp. If you book camping for 8 nights (and pay a few hundred for it), you’d expect there to be a shower per day included, wouldn’t you? It turned out that her neighbour was partially right: you had to pay extra for a shower, but it was only USD 9. Bargain!
Food and drinks
That food and drinks are expensive at a festival is not surprise, however the prices at Envision exceeded Charlie’s expectations. If you are camping on site and want to have three meals per day, plus a coffee in the morning, calculate on average USD 80 per day.
You can bring your own dishes or get a cup and plate at the food stall. If you get the dishes there, you pay USD 5 and you get a dish voucher when you return your cup or plate at the so called Dishcoteca. That’s where they wash them. For your dish voucher, you can then get a new cup or plate for your next meal. That’s all good so far if only they hadn’t said that the USD 5 are a deposit. You’d expect to get it back at the end of your week. Instead, it is more like a fee that you pay for not having to wash your dishes. That seems fair, however, calling it a deposit, just isn’t right! Charlie met a few people that didn’t get the concept at first and paid the USD 5 multiple times assuming they would get it back in the end.
All payments at Envision are done via an RFID chip in your wristband that you connect to your bank. The vendors use their phones to take your order and to scan your chip. Before you confirm the payment they hand you the phone to enter the amount to tip. You have three options and “other” in the fine print. If you wish to not tip, you have to choose other, then enter zero as the amount. The way this is set up is made to make you tip the vendor as those are the first options you see. There’s nothing wrong with tipping the person that gives you food, however, it almost felt as if you had no choice as to add another booking fee to your food order.
Surfboard hire
On the first day of Envision, Charlie walked along the beach to the general parking lot where she knew from her previous stay in Uvita would be surfboards available for hire. She found the hire place, paid USD 10 and went surfing for 2 hours.
She returned the next day only to find out that there was no longer surfboard hire available at Hermosa Beach. All those boards had been moved to the festival grounds and were now only available for hire there for USD 30 per hour. That is 6x the usual price. Charlie only hopes that the local surf shops get to see some of that money.
Food for thought
Envision festival has dedicated substance-free zones and there is a separate area for those that are going through the week sober. That sounds very good in theory, the reality however is that you have easy access to all kinds of drugs if you walk to the beach. The dealers don’t even try to hide what business they’re doing in front of the gates to Envision. It would be naïve to think that Envision would be a drug-free zone. Charlie had a conversation with Courtney from her Yoga Teacher Training in Uvita about this topic and it was an eye-opener. Courtney spent years helping kids to get them off the streets and away from drugs. The yearly festival near Uvita however, is an invitation to reverse all positive impact on drug culture in the area.
The conversation with the indigenous at Envision made Charlie question some other things too that have come up more and more in recent years: cacao ceremonies, Temazcal sessions and Ayahuasca retreats.
It was during the cacao ceremony by the Bri Bri elder Abuelo Marcelino when he mentioned that only the elder have permission by the gods to hold such a ceremony. He said clearly that many people are offering cacao ceremonies these days who don’t have that permission. It got Charlie thinking…
Christopher Norris who lives with the indigenous and works the land to protect certain plant species added another aspect to this: Peyote, a psychedelic cactus, is almost extinct and takes a long time to grow. The popularity of Ayahuasca retreats does not help the situation. Instead of offering them as a weekend getaway, we should return to its original purpose – that of a medicine. What are retreat attendees trying to heal?
Maybe there are certain traditions that should not be monetized but instead given back to the cultures that practiced them all throughout history?
Final thoughts
Envision festival was an amazing experience and Charlie does not regret that she attended. It is a unique cultural immersion event that everybody should get the chance to experience and share. At a festival such as Envision, no two experiences will be the same. There is so much variety in the programme that everybody will find something they love, from Yoga to rave.
However, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Charlie. The commercial side of a festival that grows bigger every year is in clear opposition to what Envision originally wanted to be. Charlie only hopes that the local businesses, mostly food vendors and surf shops, that were present at the festival see a benefit for the local economy too.
