It isn’t often you have the chance to party at a six-day festival as well as focus on your wellbeing in the same space. Defected Croatia has successfully entwined the two, with a carefully crafted wellness programme by Smokin’ Jo taking place over the course of the festival.
After the last 18 months, we felt it was more important than ever to bring back our wellbeing element of Defected Croatia. In 2019 we saw our community attend yoga sessions, breathing workshops and more to take a break from non-stop dancing. As much as we love to party, the wellbeing sessions offer a unique opportunity to take in the beautiful surroundings of Tisno and take some downtime.
With Defected Croatia fast approaching we caught up with DJ, producer and yoga teacher Smokin’ Jo who has curated this year’s wellbeing programme…
Hey Jo, we can’t wait to see you in Croatia next week! Could you firstly tell us a bit about the Wellness Programme you’ve curated…
This year for the programme it’s mostly yoga, which is what I’ll be teaching on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Monday I’ve got an amazing meditation teacher named Belinda Matwali. She comes and does electronic music meditation, sometimes it’s quite tough tribal beats and you just dance and shake for half an hour. A lot of the time this puts you in a trance, she’ll play this amazing soundwave and you just go off into the universe, it happened to me the last time I did it, it’s almost an out-of-body experience.
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Wow, that sounds great. How do you think people can benefit from attending the wellness sessions?
I think you benefit because you need some time out, especially if you haven’t done this kind of thing before it gives you a chance to try something new. It’s great for your mind and body, yoga is amazing for it all, it’ll keep you calm, it’s about coming back to you.
And why do you think it’s important to look after your wellbeing during a six-day festival?
I think it’s very important, the reason I took up yoga myself is because of all the gigs, travelling and late nights I was doing. When you’re doing that kind of thing you need the antidote, if you just keep going crazy for five days you really will not feel great. If you get up at least once or twice and do the yoga it will reset you again, giving you a clear head.
For many this might be the first time getting involved in yoga so do you have any tips for yoga newbies?
If you’re new don’t give yourself a hard time! Sometimes you can go into a class and see people doing crazy stuff which makes you think you’re rubbish. It’s not about that at all, it’s the fact you’ve gone there and got on your mat that is enough, even if you just lay there for the whole thing. Be kind to yourself and rest throughout, you don’t need to do every pose or do it exact, give yourself a break. Enjoy it!
Some sound advice there Jo, I’m sure that’ll put many newbies at ease! So how did you get into yoga teaching and how are your sessions different to traditional yoga classes?
I got into it whilst I was living in Ibiza, I’d sometimes be travelling on six flights a weekend so I was exhausted. I was with a yoga teacher at the time who got me into it and I realised, wow this is what I need! It helped me get my head together and relax when I wasn’t working.
I’d say my classes and different to the traditional ones because I use music, they are quite upbeat, half the class is house music. It’s music, it’s flow, it’s breathwork and they are really fun sessions. It’s definitely still a workout though, put it that way…
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And finally, what are you most looking forward to at Defected Croatia?
I’m looking forward to seeing other DJ’s and having a little dance, it’s been so long so it’s going to be amazing to see people and get back to some normality. I can’t wait, I can’t believe it’s happening!
We can’t to see you out there and get stuck into the wellbeing programme!
Defected Croatia will take place from the 5th-10th August 2021, find out more HERE
