Seeing in the New Year in a conscious manner

Celebrating New Year differently

Fire poi performers entertain the crowds as the festival waits for midnight to celebrate the New Year. Picture: Kim Ludbrook/EPA-EFE

The annual AfricaGrow Festival of Friends, in the Wilderness, outside Port Elizabeth, sees 500 people gather to welcome in the New Year in a conscious manner. The festival, now in its 6th year, is set in the ancient forests of The Crags on South Africa’s Garden Route. Attendees celebrate New Year’s Eve in a loving, open-hearted, and environmentally supportive way. Pictures: Kim Ludbrook/EPA-EFE

: A festival-goer and consciousness activist hugs a huge tree in a ceremony after planting local indigenous trees. The essence of the gathering of the hippie energies is a conscious collaborative creative play party offering live music, dance and yoga classes, and health and well-being practices, tree-planting in an environment of enjoyment of creative and expressive performance art. Pictures: Kim Ludbrook/EPA-EFE

: Local hippie Raoul the Owl is pictured through two of the huge bubbles he is blowing while he plays. Picture: Kim Ludbrook/EPA-EFE

: Fire poi performers entertain the crowds as the festival waits for midnight to celebrate the New Year. Picture: Kim Ludbrook/EPA-EFE

: Nic, a festival goer, greets the backpackers rescue horse, Miracle. Picture: Kim Ludbrook/EPA-EFE

: A festival-goer dressed in his Viking-like outfit enjoys the some of the fun and entertainment. Picture: Kim Ludbrook/EPA-EFE

: Festival-goers and consciousness activists prepare to plant local indigenous trees. Picture: Kim Ludbrook/EPA-EFE

: Local hippie Raoul the Owl does his early morning press ups while he watches over his son Willow as he bathes in a tub. Raoul and his family are one of the food providers at the festival as well as providing the hula hoops and stilts. Picture: Kim Ludbrook/EPA-EFE

: A festival-goer practices early morning yoga. Picture: Kim Ludbrook/EPA-EFE

: A party-goer sleeps on a sofa after dancing all night. The event has a live band line up each night. Picture: Kim Ludbrook/EPA-EFE

: A group of friends practice a unplanned massage train as they massage each other in the main tented area of the festival. Picture: Kim Ludbrook/EPA-EFE