No Dirty South Yoga Fest This Year
Jun 01, 2025 06:00AM ● By Staff
Jessica Murphy (Photo: Kelly Raye)
After reappearing in 2024 for the first time since the pandemic, the Dirty South Yoga Fest will not be held in 2025. The organization held its 10th festival last summer.
For Jessica Murphy, founder of Atlanta’s Dirty South Yoga Fest, the event was always about community. However, her sense of “community” when she founded the festival was about “gathering people and celebrating.” Now, she feels a reset is needed.
Although she has not begun rewriting mission and vision statements yet, Murphy provides a sense of what she’s wrestling with. “Ten years ago, it was just the idea of gathering people in celebration, and [now] I think, to really be in community, it means going a layer deeper and … reconciling with the fact that there may be disagreements, and there may be different perspectives and there may be challenges to being in community,” she says. She is aiming to build a strong enough foundation and agreement between people “that there are ways to navigate some of the challenges and create opportunities for repair and nuanced discussion.”
While there won’t be a festival in 2025, Dirty South did hold a small event earlier this year, and Murphy feels certain that other small events will be produced. But she’s less certain that the large festival will return. She feels the community will continue, but she’s exploring a concept that is yoga—but “more than yoga”—something that will have “a broader appeal and a broader reach beyond just the yoga community.”
For Jessica Murphy, founder of Atlanta’s Dirty South Yoga Fest, the event was always about community. However, her sense of “community” when she founded the festival was about “gathering people and celebrating.” Now, she feels a reset is needed.
Although she has not begun rewriting mission and vision statements yet, Murphy provides a sense of what she’s wrestling with. “Ten years ago, it was just the idea of gathering people in celebration, and [now] I think, to really be in community, it means going a layer deeper and … reconciling with the fact that there may be disagreements, and there may be different perspectives and there may be challenges to being in community,” she says. She is aiming to build a strong enough foundation and agreement between people “that there are ways to navigate some of the challenges and create opportunities for repair and nuanced discussion.”
While there won’t be a festival in 2025, Dirty South did hold a small event earlier this year, and Murphy feels certain that other small events will be produced. But she’s less certain that the large festival will return. She feels the community will continue, but she’s exploring a concept that is yoga—but “more than yoga”—something that will have “a broader appeal and a broader reach beyond just the yoga community.”
