Flow Fest Fort Lauderdale 2026 Brings a Full Day of Play, Movement, and Creative Connection to the Riverwalk
- Evan Snow
- Jan 14
- 5 min read
A one-of-a-kind festival where flow arts, dance, yoga, and community come together in the heart of the city
On a sunny January day in Fort Lauderdale, something rare happens along the Riverwalk.
Hoops spin in the grass. Music drifts across the park. People of all ages move, stretch, dance, laugh, and try things they have never tried before. Some arrive with yoga mats or flow props. Others are simply passing through and stop, curious. Before long, everyone feels like part of the same experience.
This is Flow Fest Fort Lauderdale.
Returning in 2026 to Esplanade Park, Flow Fest is not just a festival you attend. It is a festival you participate in. Designed as a family-friendly, public celebration of movement, creativity, and play, Flow Fest invites South Florida to reconnect with their bodies, with each other, and with the joy of learning through movement.
Founder Cassandra often describes it simply as “a festival of play,” adding with a smile that Flow Fest lets people “join the circus without running away.”
It is playful by design, but its impact runs much deeper.
Learning Through Play, in the Open, Together
At its core, Flow Fest is an educational experience disguised as a day in the park.
Throughout the festival, attendees can explore more than 40 workshops spanning flow arts, circus arts, dance, yoga, and movement-based wellness practices. These sessions are designed for a wide range of experience levels, from total beginners to seasoned practitioners looking to deepen their skills.
What makes Flow Fest unique is not just the volume of workshops, but where and how they happen.
Instead of retreat centers or conference halls, Flow Fest unfolds in a public park, in the middle of a major city. There are no gates separating participants from spectators. People walking by are invited to watch, ask questions, and jump in. Children try new movements alongside adults. Friends cheer each other on. Strangers become collaborators.
For Cassandra, this approach was born out of personal experience.
During her own journey into flow arts, she found herself constantly traveling to camping-style mini-festivals just to study with artists she admired. While those events were meaningful, they were also inaccessible to many people, especially those with families, limited resources, or full schedules.
“I wanted my local arts community to level up,” she explains. “I wanted access to great teachers without having to leave town.”
Flow Fest became her answer. A way to bring high-quality instruction, inspiration, and movement culture directly into the heart of the city, while making it visible and welcoming to everyone.
From a Local Idea to a National Movement
What started in Fort Lauderdale quickly revealed itself to be something bigger.
After the first few years of what was originally called Florida Flow Fest, Cassandra began receiving messages from people across the country. The sentiment was always the same.
“I wish there was something like this near me.”
That demand sparked the next chapter.
In 2015, Flow Fest expanded beyond South Florida, launching editions in Austin and Asheville, followed by Seattle, Chicago, and San Diego. Each new city was brought on through invitations from local flow arts communities who saw the value in the model and wanted it for their own region.
Unlike most flow arts gatherings, Flow Fest was designed as a hybrid event. Public access remained free, while intermediate and advanced practitioners could opt into paid workshops for deeper learning. This structure allowed Flow Fest to remain inclusive while still supporting high-level instruction and sustainability.
When the pandemic halted in-person gatherings, Flow Fest adapted again. In 2020, the team produced two full-length virtual Flow Fests, bringing movement, play, and connection into homes around the world. Those virtual festivals are still available today and now offered for free, extending the mission of accessibility even further.
By 2022, Flow Fest returned to parks and public spaces with renewed momentum. Since then, the festival has continued to grow steadily, adding one or two new cities each year.
By 2026, Flow Fest will take place in seven cities nationwide, with Indianapolis and Philadelphia joining the lineup and Louisville already planned for 2027.
Despite that growth, the heart of the festival has remained unchanged.
Why Fort Lauderdale Still Matters
For all its national reach, Fort Lauderdale remains a cornerstone of the Flow Fest story.
“Ft Lauderdale has a magical arts scene,” Cassandra says. “We’ve been very happy holding Flow Fest here since 2018.”
South Florida’s cultural mix plays a major role in shaping the festival’s identity. The region’s diversity, creativity, and do-it-yourself spirit align naturally with the ethos of flow arts. There is an openness here, a willingness to try something new, and a comfort with blending disciplines and cultures.
That energy shows up at Flow Fest every year.
Locals arrive early and stay all day. Artists, dancers, yogis, and families mingle freely. Passersby stop, watch, and often join in. The city itself becomes part of the experience, with the waterfront setting amplifying the feeling that movement belongs in public life.
Flow Fest does not feel imported. It feels embedded.
An Intentional Blend of Movement and Wellness
The diversity of offerings at Flow Fest is not accidental.
Yoga, dance, flow arts, circus disciplines, and open community jams are chosen specifically because they support and inform one another. Depending on the year, Flow Fest may also include African dance, capoeira, or aerial arts, expanding the definition of what flow can look like.
“The blend is one hundred percent intentional,” Cassandra explains. “We include movement disciplines that flow well together.”
Rather than focusing on performance alone, Flow Fest emphasizes exploration. Participants are encouraged to try something unfamiliar, to learn through experimentation, and to embrace the idea that progress can be joyful.
The goal is not perfection. It is presence.
At Flow Fest, wellness is not framed as something rigid or prescriptive. It is playful, communal, and rooted in movement that feels good.
Accessibility as a Core Principle
One of the defining features of Flow Fest is its commitment to accessibility.
The festival itself is free and open to the public. Anyone can attend, observe, participate in community jams, and experience the atmosphere without purchasing a ticket. For those who want deeper instruction, paid workshops provide access to structured learning with experienced teachers.
For Cassandra, this balance is essential.
“One of my goals is to elevate the profile of flow arts as an emerging movement discipline,” she says. “Inclusivity is inherent to the flow arts movement.”
Her broader vision is expansive and simple at the same time.
“A world at play.”
To her, the only way to build that world is by removing barriers and inviting everyone into the experience, regardless of background, age, or skill level.
Looking Ahead: Spreading the Flow
As Flow Fest continues to expand, Cassandra remains grounded in the philosophy that started it all.
She often returns to a quote by researcher Peter Gray that has stayed with her over the past year: “Play is how children learn, and art is how adults play.”
It is a reminder that play does not disappear when we grow up. It simply changes form.
Through Flow Fest, Cassandra hopes to continue spreading that message, city by city, park by park, community by community.
“The more we play, the better,” she says. “We want to spread the word and spread the flow as widely as possible.”
What to Know Before You Go
Event: Flow Fest Fort Lauderdale 2026
Date: January 2026
Location: Esplanade Park, Fort Lauderdale
Format: Free public festival with optional paid workshops
Includes: Flow arts, yoga, dance, circus arts, performances, workshops, and open community jams
Learn more: https://flowfests.com/ftl-2026/
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