About Us
Our story
Rise Wellness Festival, formerly known as Elevate Festival, was started in 2021 by a group of friends. Initially, we were looking to open a transformational healing retreat center where people could come to heal through dance, yoga, art, and other alternative healing modalities. While we were looking at properties we found a beautiful property that would make the perfect festival location and decided why not start a yoga, dance, and wellness festival in this location. This all happened just as COVID lockdowns were being lifted and it was a little risky as there were restrictions on gatherings still occurring. Luckily for us in 2021 the gathering restrictions were limited to 100 people, and so in our first year, we were exactly 100 people in attendance. We had one stage in the campground next to the Similkameen River, a kid zone, spa and wellness area, and a couple of workshop areas nestled in the resort of Similkameen Wild – located just outside of Cawston.
Since the first year was such a HUGE success, with lots of good feedback, we decided to run the festival a second year, this time at a different location – Lazy River Campground, located just outside of Hedley. In 2022, we were 150 people in total and expanded to include two different stages, the Main Stage + Rainbow Lounge, the kid zone, Elevate Spa & Healing Center, and an expanded vendors section.
In 2023, the festival was again another huge success, though due to the nearby wildfires in BC we had only 100 festival attendees. In 2023, we had to change our official festival name to RISE WELLNESS FESTIVAL, as there was another little festival called ELEVATE in the area. We decided to go with “RISE” as it has a similar connotation to “ELEVATE” and in general, speaks to the idea that we hope to raise your vibration and overall well-being by attending and participating in our small, yet mighty, wellness festival.
In 2024, the festival became incorporated as a nonprofit society – Rise Wellness Foundation.This year the festival changed locations and was held at Raven Ridge, an off-grid event space near Rock Creek. Some new additions to last year’s festival included a beautiful vendors’ alleyway with over 10 different vendors coming with wellness featured products and/or services. There was also a dedicated art zone and art exhibit entitled “Harmonic Heart” – a gallery featuring many beautiful local artists.
And finally, this last year we decided to organize our schedule to reflect the elements, where every day we honoured one of the four elements: Thursday we honoured Mother Earth, Friday we honoured the element of Water, Saturday we honoured the element of Fire, and finally, on Sunday we honoured the element of Air. This year the schedule will continue to reflect these elemental ceremonies.
2025
This year we have decided to move back to Hedley where we can all camp and enjoy the Similkameen River. Our lineup this year includes more acoustic musicians and an amazing DJ lineup. And our workshops and classes schedule is quite exciting with more than 25 facilitators and teachers coming from across BC, AB, North Carolina and India to share their passion, wisdom and teachings with all of us at Rise Wellness Festival.
We will continue to make the festival 4 days long, as we know that many of you love festival life and would love a little more time in community at Rise Wellness Festival. We encourage our guests to arrive on Thursday, to settle in, and enjoy the natural surroundings. We want you to soak up everything our festival has to offer!
Our vision
Our vision is to create a beautiful festival utopia for a weekend of dance, yoga, wellness, and healing.
A place where you can connect to yourself, to others, to nature and to spirit.
Feel it to Heal it!
A message from the Festival Director
I hope this writing finds you well. My name is Laurita, meaning “little Laura” in Spanish. I am the co-founder and director of the Rise Wellness Festival and I am honored to share my story with you.
I am a two-time Breast Cancer survivor and it is a miracle I am alive and thriving today! I believe that I am thriving with my left breast still intact, due to extensive art therapy along with ecstatic dance, these two modalities allowed me to connect with my body in a way that nothing else could.
I feel incredibly blessed to be growing with this beautiful community. Witnessing the unfoldment and impact the festival has had on people leaves me in amazement every year.
This festival is truly a reflection of my cancer journey and has been birthed from the place of living through a profound and life-changing experience; the modalities I tapped into on my journey are at the festival to create a space of wellness, play, laughter, relaxation, and the remembering of Hope & Love. I invite you to come to the festival with an open mind about what healing should look like and learn about the powerful ways that ecstatic dance, Kizomba, yoga, meditation, Kirtan, sound healing and bodywork, can all heal the body, heart, and soul. All of these modalities have left a profound impact on my life and my healing journey that brings me to this point in my life.
Since recovering, I have held the prayer for a healing centre, where people are naturally encouraged to connect to Spirit and feel togetherness. A space we can Rise in our authentic joyful expression and remember that healing is our birthright. We are in this together. We are walking each other home, may we remember the healing hands around and within us. The vision of a healing centre has been born through the playfulness of the festival and continues to grow stronger roots each cycle, to one day bloom into a centre of healing modalities for all to be nourished by.
It is my hope that in gathering together, building community, and weaving together, we remember the art of play and the healing power of dance. May we remember that it is in the simplicity of human connection and openness we can breathe the miracle of Love into our lives. We have the miraculous ability to heal now.
The power of my mind & heart working together, the power of faith, the power of community, the power of playfulness, the power of dance, and the power of sound healing have been a fundamental part of my journey in overcoming cancer. I learned to grieve. I learned about the importance of self-love and forgiveness. I have been blessed with a beautiful cancer journey which has been none other than a spiritual awakening for me.
I hope you feel the power of these healing modalities present at the festival, and maybe seek out these modalities in your home communities after the festival. The power to heal is within us and these various ways of connecting bring it out. We got to feel it to heal it!
Looking forward to meeting you on the dance floor.
With Gratitude,
Laurita Love