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Confession: I’m not really a morning person. I snooze and snooze. Or if I’ve made the foolhardy decision to fit in an early morning work-out, I invariably reset my alarm. So when it sounded this morning at 5.45am, as dawn was just thinking of cracking, I pondered why this morning rave ‘thing’ has become such a ‘phenom’.
Morning Gloryville is the newest way to get your healthy kicks, having arrived to our shores this summer by way of London, naturally. It’s already swept Dublin; the first event sold out, so episode 2 moved to The Vaults at CHQ, nearly doubling capacity. The aim of Morning Gloryville is to change the way we think about mornings and make them an enjoyable part of the day, by bringing people together for breakfast, yoga, massage and a side of stone cold sober raving. Curious and somewhat apprehensive, I struggle out the door much the same as usual, just two hours earlier.
On arrival I receive a free hug (as I was forewarned) and proceed inside for a pre-rave caffeine boost. It’s a minimum requirement. On offer are healthy smoothies, fresh coffees, granola pots, assorted breakfast bars and baked goods, catering to any dietary need. Next door gentle yoga classes and various massage and healing practices are taking place and the vibe is pretty zen despite Daft Punk spilling in from the adjacent dancefloor.
It’s really all happening on those tiles. I doubted a Dublin dancefloor would adapt so easily to sobriety but it’s packed of happy sober morning people rocking their socks off, abstaining with aplomb and raving without restraint. It’s hard not to let go and get down. I leave flushed, invigorated and wide awake.
I don’t know if I’m totally converted to the religion of rising early. But maybe once in a while I’ll try to rethink my morning snooze, scramble and rush to work; there is a sense of achievement in having done something, anything, before 9am. And I think my coffee count today is one less than usual.
Stay tuned for episode 3. www.facebook.com/morninggloryvilledublin
Val Jordan @ValJrdn