Free yoga classes could be charged $400 per session to use beach

A free yoga program in Melbourne could be slapped with a $400 fee per class for becoming too popular.

A free yoga program run at an iconic beach might have to be scrapped due to its popularity.

Soaring numbers for the free mental health yoga sessions could mean the sessions would be categorised as commercial events and thus attract a $400 fee.

The Feel Good Flows are run at St Kilda beach in Melbourne and were initially started during lockdown to encourage people to get outdoors.

However, a new fee initiative from the City of Port Phillip would mean owner Eliza Hilmer would have to either cap her classes at 15 people or cough up $400 per session.

A free yoga program in St Kilda might have to be scrapped due to its popularity. Picture: Instagram

“I’d need to pay it three months in advance,” Ms Hilmer said to Yahoo Australia.

“So, I need to pay for three months worth of events – I’d have to pay ten grand.

“This is a free community gathering for the people of St Kilda who have been doing this for four years.

“It will immediately have 15 people, what do I say to the 16th person, when they arrive?”

The gatherings, held twice per week, are free for anyone to join and donations are optional.

They have surged in popularity since their inception in 2020 and now attract as many as 50-80 people per session – but are still completely free of charge.

Many people rely on the classes for maintenance of mental health, Ms Hilmer said, and if the fees went ahead then she would be forced to cancel the classes because capping her classes would mean rejecting “many vulnerable people”.

Yoga instructor Eliza Hilmer says she doesn’t want to turn people away. Picture: Instagram

“[Many attendees] can’t afford to go to the studio where I have to charge them $35 to come for a yoga class,” Ms Hilmer said.

“They can’t afford to have a private one-on-one with me.

“This is the demographic that needs this practice the most.

“So that’s why I have developed this and it’s become a victim of its own success.”

She said the council could still “be the solution” and her goal is to have the council sponsor Feel Good Flows to make the most of the enterprise she had built.