Health and lifestyle festival designed to create balance

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A two-day health and lifestyle festival will take place in Greenville this fall. The Ness Fest is scheduled for Oct. 20-21 at Fluor Field and is designed to bring people together in one place and equip them with tools to find balance in life.

Festival founder and CEO Brenda Luginbill said there are four pillars to the Ness Fest:

• Wellness: Your community physicians, dentists and more
• Goodness: What we eat, drink and our overall gut health
• Fitness: Our daily activities
• Wholeness: Mind, heart and soul connection

“A focus on these four pillars allows for individuals to become vehicles for change and to engage the community in a unique fashion,” she said.

The Ness Fest will feature four active fitness stages, cooking demonstrations, seminars, a music stage, sports-related training camps, 100 health and lifestyle vendor booths and more, Luginbill said. Companies are invited to partner with the Ness Fest in many ways, including sponsorships and vendor booths, as well as “giving to our community walls where half of these funds will be used as grant tickets for local families in need. We are looking to engage in custom activations to showcase your company in a unique light,” she said.

Luginbill brings personal experience to the planning of the festival. During her 15 years of event production work she found herself tempted to give all of herself to her work, without taking time to take care of herself.

“I have had to learn how to balance work and life. If I am being honest, it is a growth process I am still pursuing,” she said. “I came to the conclusion at the conception of the Ness Fest that I wanted to share my process with others. The Ness fest is a reflection of my willingness to engage my community with my own growth through wellness, goodness, fitness and wholeness.”

Allie Maietta, event director, also sees healthy living as more than what we eat or how much we exercise. She said there needs to be a shift in what healthy looks like.

“It’s not just about what you eat, how much you exercise or how many likes you get on an Instagram post — it’s about the mind and soul, too,” Maietta said, adding that she hopes the Ness Fest is more than just a two-day festival, that it shows the community how all encompassing a healthy well-being is.

“I think we need more ways for the children of Greenville to feel empowered when it comes to their health. Kids should be excited about getting into the kitchen with their parents, learning about where their food comes from, getting off their iPads and video games and staying active,” Maietta said. “There are some great restaurants, like Seedlings, and organizations like Generation Kid Strong that are definitely taking us in the right direction. I’d love to see us doing even more to focus on our future generations and empowering them to want to have some more control when it comes to their own health and wellness.”

Luginbill said the future of Greenville and surrounding communities are in the hands of everyone, including businesses, social leaders, academic leaders, working professionals and homemakers, she said.

“We all have a role to play. We all have the opportunity to touch lives for the positive. We all need to find the role we are going to play in bettering this community,” she said.

Luginbill said the Ness Fest will be for everyone — for “every mom who wants to be the best mom she can be; every dad that wants to be the best dad he can be, and every child learning a healthy lifestyle.”

“No age, no career, no income level or knowledge base can exclude you from coming to have some fun, get a little exercise, and educate yourself on something new, while exploring all that Greenville has to offer,” she said.