A Year in Cabbagetown Park: How Haley G and amiqo Built a Yoga Community Worth Sticking Around For

TL;DR: One year ago on Cinco de Mayo, amiqo and yoga teacher Haley G ran a free class in Cabbagetown Park. 200+ yogis, 25–30 regulars per class, an Atlanta winter survived indoors, and a hangout at 97 Estoria afterward later — the series is monthly, free, and turning one. The on-ramp is yoga. The point is the people you meet after.

It is the first Tuesday of the month, just before 7pm in Cabbagetown Park. The light has gone golden over the grass. Mats appear in a loose ring — some yogis came straight from work, some with a friend, some are already cross-legged with their eyes closed. At the front of the circle, Haley G — the one her friends call Hales — kneels on her own mat and asks the group to take a breath together.

One year ago this Cinco de Mayo, this scene did not exist. Then it did. Then it kept happening — through spring evenings, through summer heat, through the Atlanta winter (more on that in a minute), and into a second year that starts next Tuesday.

On Tuesday, May 5, 2026, the amiqo Yoga in the Park series with Haley G turns one. Here is what twelve months of free yoga in Cabbagetown built — and why the thing we are most proud of has nothing to do with a pose.

One year in numbers

• 200+ unique yogis have come through the series — many of them repeat regulars who plan their month around it.
• 25–30 yogis at every class now. The class started smaller. The number grew because people kept coming back, and bringing friends.
• More than 50% of every class stays for the community hangout afterward — lingering in the grass, walking two blocks over to 97 Estoria for a drink, real conversations with people you didn't know an hour before.
• $0 for participants. Free yoga, in a public park, every month, for a year — including the cold ones.

Numbers are easy to write. The thing they describe is harder to name: a Tuesday evening in Atlanta now has a default option for adults who want movement, breath, and people in the same hour. That option did not exist before.

The point was never just yoga

Most yoga classes are designed for the same thirty seconds: roll up the mat, say thanks, walk to your car. We designed this one differently.

From the first Cinco de Mayo session, the brief was community + yoga, not yoga alone. The flow is the doorway. The grass after is the living room. 97 Estoria, a couple blocks from the park, is the dining room. People are explicitly welcomed to stay — to chat in the park, walk over together, or sit down on a bench with someone they just met.

That is not a side effect. That is the design.

Atlanta has plenty of yoga. What Atlanta — and most American cities — does not have enough of are recurring, low-cost, in-person reasons for adults to stand near each other long enough to become friends. Recurring third places are disappearing, and the adult friend group is mostly a myth. amiqo's product thesis is that showing up is the unsolved problem in modern friendship. Yoga in the Park is that thesis in physical form.

A free weekly class only works if people actually show up — which is exactly the problem amiqo was built to solve.

Meet Haley

Haley G is an E-RYT 300 yoga instructor and RCYT, an actress, a model, a Registered Behavioral Therapist, and — in her own words — a generally silly human. She holds a BA in Communications and Psychology from Tulane and earned her E-RYT 300 in Nosara, Costa Rica.

Her teaching is not a workout disguised as wellness. It is the actual work she did on herself, made shareable.

"My love for yoga and mindset work began through my own healing journey."

— Haley G, Live Free with Haley G

She describes a dysregulated nervous system, a disconnect between her mind and body, thoughts looped with overthinking and self-criticism, a body stuck in fight, flight, or freeze. Through consistent practice she learned to reconnect with herself through kindness — and got obsessed with everything she could learn about the mind-body connection, nervous system regulation, and healing anxiety.

Now she helps other people do the same — reclaiming their inner trust and power through movement, mindfulness, and compassion. Her bigger mission, in her words: to help create a more present and peaceful world by encouraging people to regulate, embrace self-kindness, and pass it on.

That last part — pass it on — is what made this partnership work. Yoga in the Park was never going to be Haley teaching at a room. It was always going to be Haley building something with whoever showed up.

How it started, and how it changed

Cinco de Mayo 2025: weekly Mondays

Haley and the amiqo team were already friends before any of this. There was no cold pitch deck. There was a real relationship, a shared instinct that Atlanta needed more low-friction, free, in-person ways for adults to be near each other, and a date — Monday, May 5, 2025 — to try the first one. Cinco de Mayo, on a Monday. That is why year one started on Mondays.

We ran it weekly through May and June 2025. amiqo's coordination layer, Haley's teaching, a public park, no cover charge, no gatekeeping. See if anyone came back the next week. They did. Then they brought friends.

July 2025: monthly first Tuesdays at 7pm

After two months of weekly Mondays, we moved the cadence to the first Tuesday of every month at 7pm — and it has stayed there ever since. Less frequent, more anticipated. The class went from a weekly habit to a monthly anchor — the kind of thing people put on the calendar at the start of the month and look forward to. Attendance per session went up, not down. The hangout afterward got longer.

Sometimes the right move is fewer events that more people genuinely want to be at.

When it got cold, we didn't stop

Atlanta winters are not Vermont winters, but they are not yoga-on-grass weather either. Most outdoor-class series die in November. This one didn't.

That is because the Cabbagetown community took us in. John Dirga, Executive Director of the Cabbagetown Initiative, opened the doors of the Cabbagetown Community Center and let us run the class indoors all winter. Same instructor, same circle, same walk to 97 Estoria afterward — just under a roof for the cold months. Year-round was suddenly real.

It is the kind of partnership that does not show up on a deck. A neighborhood leader hands you keys. A class survives the season. A community gets one more reason to keep showing up. Thank you, John, and thank you to Cabbagetown.

What makes it work

The class is the door, not the destination

Haley designs every flow around nervous system regulation — slow openings, real breath cues, language that meets people where they actually are on a Tuesday after work. People come for the yoga and stay for what happens after the final om. Half the room (often more) lingers — sitting in the grass as the light fades, walking the two blocks to 97 Estoria for a drink, ending up at a table with someone they didn't know an hour earlier. That hangout is not an afterthought. It is the point.

Free removes the wrong friction

amiqo's product philosophy: friction belongs in the right place — at the commitment layer, not the entry layer. Yoga in the Park is a textbook case. There is no cover, no signup wall, no studio membership. The only thing asked of a yogi is that they show up. Most months, most of them do. For the plans that do need a stake — coffee with one person, dinner for four — that is what amiqo is for.

Repetition built the room

Same place, same instructor, same monthly cadence, year-round. The first Tuesday of the month is a Cabbagetown thing now. People stopped asking each other if they were going and started asking what they were doing after.

In Haley's words

"Since teaming up with amiqo for our park flows, 25–30 yogis show up at every class and most hang out afterward. The community we've built together blossomed faster than I ever could have managed alone."

— Haley G, founder of Live Free with Haley G

What's next: the one-year anniversary class

On Tuesday, May 5, 2026 at 7pm — the first Tuesday of May, exactly one year after that first Cinco de Mayo Monday — we are celebrating a full year of Yoga in the Park with Haley. Same Cabbagetown Park. Same circle. Same walk to 97 Estoria after. Bring a friend. Meet a new one in the grass.

Year two is about deepening, not scaling. More consistency. More regulars. More of the after-class hour that is, quietly, the best argument for the whole thing.

[RSVP for the May 5 anniversary class on amiqo →](https://app.amiqo.life/r/T0YilwwJ)

FAQ

Is Yoga in the Park really free?

Yes. The class is free for everyone, every month. Donations to support Haley G are welcomed but never required. No cover, no signup wall, no studio membership — just show up.

Do I need to bring my own mat?

Yes — bring a yoga mat. A towel and water are also recommended. Wear something you can move and breathe in.

When does the class meet?

The first Tuesday of every month at 7pm in Cabbagetown Park, Atlanta. RSVP and full details are on amiqo.

Show up. Download. Follow Hales.

• RSVP for May 5 on amiqo → app.amiqo.life/r/T0YilwwJ
• Download amiqo → amiqo.life — find what's happening in Atlanta and actually show up.
• Follow Haley G → livefreehaleyg.com — yoga, mindset work, and a generally silly human you'll be glad you found.

One year. One park. 200+ yogis. The first Tuesday of every month, 7pm, we are here.