Facilitators

We’ve got an amazing lineup of facilitators with diverse workshops to expand, inspire, and connect us!

Matthew Cooper (they/he)

  • This workshop is hosted by Matthew Cooper (he / they), a queer facilitator, writer, and entrepreneur who loves unlocking people’s innate play and pleasure. ​Matthew brings more than a decade of experience leading workshops and conversations on masculinity, body image, and touch. Their work draws from several modalities, including Authentic Relating, the Wheel of Consent, and queer theory, with an emphasis on embodiment and play.

    Matthew is also the co-founder of financial health startup EarnUp (acquired by Array in 2026), a former national champion athlete, and a longtime builder of community spaces. Their writing and interviews explore themes of addiction and spirituality, and can be found at misfit-monastery.com. They are based in Vancouver, Canada.

  • Receiving Pleasure (Friday)

Jordan Layne (they/he)

  • I have been exploring tantra, intimacy, ecstatic dance and authentic relating ever since I was introduced to the first Ignite Festival in 2018. I love exploring the dimensions of psychology, consciousness and spirituality through my work with animals, children and adults; each having unique and diverse experiences and needs. I value mindfulness, listening, honesty and patience as accessible ways to deepen intimacy and connection. I currently work as a therapist, offering group and individual counselling, tarot & astrology readings, energy & bodywork, plant medicine integrative therapies, vocal activation and co-facilitating men's retreats. I aim to support health and wellbeing alongside/within nature, the cosmos and all our relations.

  • Authentic Relating (Friday)

    QTBIPOC Caucus (Friday)

    Nourishing Embrace (Sunday)

JoShiva Matha (he/him)

  • Jojo Zolina, also known as JoShiva Matha, is a multi-faceted Filipino Canadian artist with a profound influence in both the dance and wellness communities. Over the past 30 years, Jojo has gained recognition not only for his groundbreaking work in dance but also for his holistic approach to personal and collective transformation. As a dancer, educator, choreographer, community leader and the founder of 333nergy Dance & Wellness, Jojo has been instrumental in shaping the modern dance landscape. In addition to his dance career, Jojo's journey has led him to explore and integrate healing practices, blending breathwork, somatic movement, meditation, energy work, and yoga into his offerings. His work under the name JoShivaMatha aims to guide individuals toward personal sovereignty in body, mind, emotion, and spirit, especially through Tantra practices and energetic healing. Jojo continues to inspire and empower people worldwide to find joy, healing, and expression through movement and mindfulness. To find more information please visit www.jojozolina.com and www.333nergy.com for his offerings in Vancouver B.C.

  • Sensual Embodiment (Friday)

    Yoga Dance Flow (Sunday)

Simon Magnus (he/him)

  • Simon Magnus is a facilitator and creator exploring the playful, courageous edges of intimacy, embodiment, and connection. With over two decades of experience leading workshops and retreats primarily in Europe, he weaves somatic awareness, creative practice, and conscious sexuality into spaces where people can meet themselves more fully. His work invites presence, curiosity, and authentic expression—supporting queer communities and all who long for deeper relational intelligence, personal liberation, and a more alive relationship with their bodies and desires.

  • Playful Intimacy (Friday)

    Touch of Power (Saturday)

Wildheart (he/him)

  • Wildheart is a yoga therapist, researcher, and facilitator alchemizing science, sensation, and soul. With a background in trauma-informed care, community health, and partner-based yoga therapy, his work and play finds life at the intersection of nervous system regulation and embodied connection.

    He’s especially drawn to the spaces where healing meets intimacy, guiding people to soften out of their heads and into the rich, intelligent language of their bodies. Whether through deeply restorative yoga nidra or attuned partner practices, he creates containers that are grounding, consent-forward, and quietly expansive.

    Expect a blend of warmth, curiousity, and effervescence, inviting you to rest, feel, connect, and maybe have a revelation about yourself along the way.

  • Partner Yoga (Saturday)

Braden Alexander (he/him)

  • TBD

  • The Joy of Belly Worship (Friday)

    Coming Alive with Queer Polarities (Sunday)

Lui Gervais (he/him)

  • Five Elements Erotic Massage (Friday)

    The Erotic Power of Sound (Saturday)

    River of Love (Sunday)

Spruce (he/him)

  • Spruce is a psychotherapist - and former engineer - with over two decades of experience helping people transform anxiety into something they can actually work with — even find exciting. Based in Vancouver, he runs Curiosity Counselling, where his tagline says it all: "Be curious, not judgmental."

    His workshops blend mindfulness, Buddhist psychology, yoga, and CBT into something accessible, embodied, and maybe a little surprising. He draws from Tara Brach's RAIN practice, the Square of Awareness, and the science of how anxiety and excitement are closer cousins than most of us realize.

    Spruce works with anxiety, queer communities, men's sexual health, and clients navigating life's weirder transitions. Outside the therapy room, you'll find him hiking, ski guiding at Whistler Pride, kayaking, or spinning fire poi — which he first learned at Burning Man. He offers Walk & Talk therapy in Stanley Park, which tells you something about how he thinks healing happens.

    At Ignite, Spruce's workshops invite you to stop fighting anxiety and get curious about it instead — because when we meet emotion with curiosity, something shifts. We open. We trust. We connect. Turns out, that's pretty good foreplay.

    curiositycounselling.com

  • Befriending Anxiety: Keep the Emotion in Motion (Friday)

Andy Martin (he/they)

  • Andy is a facilitator, community builder, and co-organizer of Ignite Festival. He is also a peace worker dedicated to creating new cultural spaces for connection and expanded possibilities — places where people can discover new aspects of themselves, and go somewhere meaningful together. Based in Lkwungen territory (Victoria, BC) he loves dancing ecstatically and romping in nature.

  • Heart Circle (Saturday)

    Zoirée (Saturday evening)

Jackson Tse (he/they)

  • Jackson is a coach and facilitator with over 15 years of experience guiding individuals and groups into deeper authenticity, connection, and bravery. Passionate about supporting LGBTQ+ communities, he creates spaces where people can explore their edges, build meaningful relationships, and step more fully into their power—across life, career, and love.

  • Queer Ancestry Ritual (Saturday)

Geo McLean (he/him)

  • We thrive in spaces where our deepest realness can unfold, where we can be most present in our bodies, and in relationship. That is why when I hold containers for yoga, massage, sacred intimacy etc. my goal is always to dissolve the trance of mundane life, and wake up to our bodies, needs, connections; to really feel our desire, love, compassion, grief, and anger. I see this as liberation work: how can we advocate for our wants if we don’t know what they are? How can we act from our power if it is compromised by shame? What good is radical change if we aren’t present enough to experience it? For more information and contact info, check out www.EarthenEros.com

  • Pet Play (Saturday)

    The Gl0ryh0le Experience (Sunday)

Jeff Slowhand (he/him)

  • Since 2018, I’ve supported people to deepen their pleasure connection to their body and spirit through my sensual massage practice, Slow Hand Massage (www.slowhandmassage.com). I’m on the faculty of Men In Touch in Vancouver, facilitating sensual touch classes as well as Eros-Spirit Massage weekend workshops. I’m sparked to be returning to Ignite Fest this year with a new sensory experience touch workshop, Blindfolded Bliss!

  • Blindfolded Bliss (Friday)

Daka Ziji (he/him)

  • Ziji has been studying Tantra and Buddhism for 16 years, and now offers eros-spirit massage, sacred intimacy and psychedelic medicine integration. He strives to create spaces where people feel safe, appreciated, and honoured in body, heart and mind. Ziji is Persian-Canadian and committed to increasing diversity and belonging in the realm of sacred eroticism. Based in Coast Salish Lands (Vancouver), he is a steward of Men In Touch and a co-creator of the Ignite Festival. He loves being naked in the sunshine.

  • Embracing the Inner Child (Saturday)

    The Gl0ryh0le Experience (Sunday)

Mark Fleming (he/they)

  • Mark Fleming is a Sacred Intimate who has been exploring the healing connections between sex and spirit for 30+ years. His work toward Conscious Erotic Embodiment is underpinned by both Neo and Classical Tantra. Mark is a skilled traveler in the realms of subtle energy, breath work and varied states of consciousness. He is passionate about justice, poetry, meditation, consent, and touch. They live and work on the unceded lands of the Duwamish people.

  • Erotic Poetry (Saturday)

    Temple of Desire (Sunday)

Robert Birch (he/him/Fae/femme)

  • Robert Birch is a cis white settler born on the unceded territory of the Anishinaabeg people. He and his partner CrowDog have stewarded land at the southend of Saltspring Island (Čuʔén) for twenty-eight years. Over the past four decades, whether as a writer, theatre artist, community researcher or counsellor, Birch educates and assists people to adapt through intense periods of complexity. As a facilitator, he has sat, listened and processed thousands of hours within community circles. A practitioner of intergenerational co-mentorship, he devotes his work, studies and nature inspired art toward health and healing practices within community frameworks. www.robertbirch.ca

  • Queer Ancestry Ritual (Saturday)

    Heart Circle (Saturday)

    Eros & Eldering (Sunday)

In addition to our amazing facilitators, there is a stellar team of organizers, contributors and volunteers making the festival happen behind the scenes. Deep gratitude to everyone who is giving their care and energy to bring this festival to life! 🙏❤️✨