Fort Collins Yoga Studio Opens Rooftop Class Series for Summer

Old Town Yoga Collective is taking its Tuesday and Thursday evening classes to the roof this summer, moving select sessions to a downtown Fort Collins rooftop with views toward the foothills.

Studio owner Danielle Okafor says the rooftop series started as a one-off event last year that sold out within a day, prompting her to build it into a recurring summer offering. "We didn't expect the demand," she said. "It told us people wanted something different from the same four studio walls, even if the practice itself doesn't change."

Weather as the Main Operating Risk

Running classes outdoors introduces a variable the studio doesn't usually have to plan around: weather. Okafor says the studio has built a same-day cancellation policy specifically for the rooftop series, with a backup indoor slot available if a class gets rained out. She says the studio has only had to cancel a handful of sessions since starting the rooftop format last summer.

The rooftop classes run at a slightly higher price point than standard studio sessions, a premium Okafor says reflects both the venue rental cost and the limited class size the rooftop space can accommodate. Even with the higher price, she says the rooftop sessions have sold out consistently faster than comparable indoor classes.

Part of a Broader Seasonal Shift

Old Town Yoga Collective isn't alone in experimenting with seasonal formats. Several Fort Collins fitness and wellness studios have added outdoor or seasonal offerings over the past couple of summers, a trend Okafor attributes partly to the area's short but intense warm season and partly to a broader appetite for experiential fitness formats.

Okafor says she's considering extending the rooftop series into early fall this year, weather permitting, and is exploring whether a similar format could work for the studio's meditation and breathwork classes.