Moynalty Yoga Festival ties rural practice to farming calendar in Meath

In Moynalty, the yoga weekend is being timed around silage, not the other way around. Organiser Marion Gilsenan says the festival lands in a natural pause after the crop has been cut and before the next farming cycle begins, giving a working farm field a rare opening for yoga, music and community without losing sight of its primary use.

The Moynalty Yoga Festival is listed on its own website as a three-day event from May 29 to 31, 2026, at Rathinree Lwr in Moynalty, Kells, Co. Meath. Agriland described it as a Saturday and Sunday gathering on May 30 and 31, underscoring how the festival is being shaped by the farming calendar as much as by the yoga timetable. Moynalty itself sits in north-west County Meath, about 8 km north of Kells and close to the County Cavan border, which gives the event a distinctly rural setting.

Gilsenan, founder of the festival and associated with Red River Yoga, has built the gathering into a local fixture since it began in 2012. An early listing from 2013 said the festival had first taken place the previous August and was already expanding because of popular demand, with three areas for classes and an ancestral healing ritual led by Amantha Murphy. That blend of movement, ritual and landscape still shapes the event’s identity.

This year’s programme is set to include yoga, dance, meditation, sound healing, heart-opening talks, wellness stalls, wholesome food, a sauna and a children’s area. Live concerts will open and close the weekend, while the ticket price includes weekend camping. The festival also highlights a dedicated Bhakti Marga tent and sauna rituals with Lithuanian bath masters, including group or individual sessions and a Pirtis bathing ritual.

The teaching line-up reflects the same down-to-earth tone. Eleanor Moran is listed as a facilitator for Eco Nidra and Traditional Yoga, with her approach described as simple, self-inquiry-based and focused on bringing yoga into daily life. Festival materials say the gathering is “brought together in nature” and grows “more magical each year,” a claim rooted in the site itself as much as in the schedule. With local food, reusable materials, a zero-waste mindset and an emphasis on herbal workshops and native plants, Moynalty is positioning the weekend as a rural yoga event first and a festival second.