Wednesday, August 17, 2016

SeaWheeze Sunset Festival Recap

Did you read my recap of the lululemon SeaWheeze Half Marathon yet?! If not, make sure to check it out HERE before proceeding... I mean, you wanna know all about the race that earned us the party, right?! [FYI: The answer is YES!]


Alrighty dighty, now that we are all caught up, let's get on with it! If you know anything about SeaWheeze, then you probably know the weekend is more than just a race. It is all about Yoga + Run + Party! And since we ran in the morning, it was time to get down and funky (like a Motown monkey)!


The Sunset Festival is open to all, whether you ran the race, spectated or are in the Vancouver area and just love Stanley Park (although if you are not a runner you do have to purchase a ticket to the shindig). It starts at 4:30pm and ends at 11:00pm. The awesome folks putting the party together even had free shuttles running from the Convention Center to Stanley Park starting at 4:00pm (we ended up getting on one around 4:10pm and didn't have to wait at all).

The shuttles were school buses, but they worked fine


The schedule of events was:

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For some reason the #WeRunSocial meet-up didn't make the official schedule (LAMESAUCE! We will need to somehow work on that for next year.). We were meeting to the left of the stage at 4:30pm and I did NOT wanna miss it (although a ton of us were in town, my lack of having an international phone plan prevented me to communicate with them {and hence hang out} unless we were sitting at the hotel with our free WiFi... which we were doing very little of).

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It was great getting to touch base with some amazing runners (even if I feel like we never have enough time together). Many laughs were shared, plenty of selfies were taken and the runner's love was definitely felt internationally!



Soon enough it was YOGA TIME! It was still pretty hot out, so I knew the practice would get a bit sweaty, but after all of the activity we had been doing the prior few days, I HAD TO get my stretch on! The practice was lead by the sweet Stephanie Snyder. Although I was sort of hoping it would be 60 minutes of pigeon pose, it was still an amazing session.

The hubby decided to opt out of yoga and enjoy an adult beverage in the shade. He caught a pretty cool picture of the crowd doing yoga!

After we got our sweat and stretch on, it was time for the tunes! I will be the first to admit, I didn't know any of the three bands that were set to perform (I am slightly bummed that we missed out on Yeasayer last year and Capital Cities the year before, but music is music I guess). First up was Youngblood, followed by Dear Rouge and then Chromeo took the stage. We ended up only staying through half of Dear Rouge's set (due to extenuating circumstances, nothing to do with the festival itself), but everything we saw was fun, entertaining and full of super high energy.

Most people just pop a squat on their yoga mats to enjoy the music

There was a ton of stuff going on around the festival - including a pop-up store, some lulu putt-putt, photo booths, vendors and food. It was suggested to us to grab food prior to arriving at the party (the lines can get long, the prices are pretty high and the choices aren't everyone's cup of tea), which is what we did, but everything we saw folks munching on looked delicious (from toasted marshmallows and acia bowls to street tacos and poutine).

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Although the gif's are normally low quality, we loved that
they would print out all four pictures for you at the photo booth

The festival is definitely a chill time to relax with your crew. Had I been in a better mood, we probably would have stayed and grooved the night away. When the sun sets, the temps did start to drop (although not as much as I was originally expecting when I threw a heavy hoodie and toque in my backpack) so I'd suggest bringing an extra layer with you.

The view as we were leaving

It was quite the way to wrap up an amazing race day! Like I said in my race recap, what you get for your registration fee is mind-boggling (especially compared to similar races)! I have no idea how they are able to make it happen (and still make a profit), but whatever they are doing - THEY ARE DOING IT RIGHT! 

Do you enjoy the festival vibe? 

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