A Calendar for When Life Starts Again (UK edition)
Events where we can gather together feel like a dream right now. We’re writing this in the winter lockdown. Festivals are still canceling for the year — including iconic Glastonbury and one of our featured places Do Wales. But over the past week, as new rules have become clearer and there are tentative dates moving forwards, we’re feeling cautiously optimistic, pulling out our calendar, thinking about how we might even fill some of those days with others.
Many of the festivals that we’ve come to associate with living a thoughtful life in the UK have been doing the same, announcing dates and line-ups and partnerships and glamping deals. They too are hoping to give us a break from screens, with non-zoom formats returning and in-person tickets selling fast.
We’ve pulled together the festivals that currently have dates next to their names, even if the format they are taking this year is still evolving. Of course, these might change — so check with the festivals themselves for the latest. We recommended using this list with this calendar from Marby & Elm that starts in April 2021, our hoped-for New New Year.
July
1 to 4 | Love Trails | Nature, Mind & Body
Love Trails is the world’s first trail running + music festival. Set in the stunning Gower Peninsula it’s aimed at everyone with an interest in running, from those who have just discovered it as a salve for lockdown days to those who have goals that include marathons and races. Each day of the four-night festival features runs of different lengths (from 5k to 42k) and different themes (sunrise, beer, mindfulness – not together) hosted by running clubs from across the UK. Still, have some energy to burn? There are also activities like wild swimming, sea kayaking, paragliding, yoga, and pilates sessions to keep you moving. And this being a festival, the days are closed out with live music and dancing, a spot in the soothing hot tub to ease those tired muscles, and camping under the stars to sleep it all off, but you’re more likely to wake up to fellow festival-goers arising for sunrise runs rather than falling into ditches.
16 to 18 July | Life Lessons Festival | Mental Wellness
A relatively new addition to the circuit, now in its second year, this thought-led wellness festival takes place this spring in the open-air setting of eighteenth-century Chiswick House. Over three days, smart thinkers will be applying their big ideas to our everyday lives. This is a festival that aims “to get to the heart of what it means to be human: finding meaning in life, creating better communities, living more sustainably, doing business better, and realizing more from society and politics.” You can build your own festival by choosing which of the six sessions over the weekend you are interested in attending. We’re looking to our favorites The Poetry Pharmacy applying words to healing, Bryony Gordon talking about her relationship with her own mental health, and Caitlin Moran updating us on her take on modern feminism.
August
6 | Getahead Festival | Mental Wellbeing
Billed as the only 24-hour festival focusing on mental health and wellbeing, the Getahead Festival steps into a moment when many people have been struggling. As Co-founder and CEO Jenni Cochrane has stated: “We may have a vaccine for the pandemic, but there is no vaccine for the mental health crisis we’re facing.” Over the course of a long in-person day at the Omeara in London attendees will have the chance to recalibrate their approach to their own wellbeing. Sessions will include those on mental and physical health, with topics including body positivity and mindful drinking, as well as lectures on personal and professional development with much-needed talks on financial wellbeing and productivity. To lighten the mood, they’ll also be a sober rave, comedy, dancing, dog therapy cuddles, and a sleep retreat. The non-profit Getahead launched its first festival in London in 2018 with a 25-year mission to positively impact a billion people.
5 to 8 | Wilderness Festival | Nature
Hot tubs, dodgeball, tug-of-war, dancing, river swimming, even a cricket game in the center of it all. After its 10th birthday year was canceled, this boutique festival is back this summer in the stunning setting of Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire — a 500 acres deer park and one of the only privately owned forests in southern England — for all the summer fun to be had and a sense of joy that’s been much delayed. Over four days, you can book experiences across categories such as wellbeing, the outdoors, and dining, filling the long days with inspiring workshops and delicious food, and maybe longer nights with live music, DJs, and dance.
20 to 22 | Soul Circus Festival | Mind & Body Connection
A summer festival that puts wellness at the center but keeps the fun going, set in the beautiful Cotswold countryside. If Downward Facing Dog in the company of hundreds and an openness to all things wellness is your thing, then this is the Summer weekender for you. Who needs wellies and stumbling drunk into tents when you can have tipis full of meditation, breathe work sessions from GOOP superheroes, and yoga to Beyonce (as in played not present). Don’t worry there are still cocktails to be had, comedy for life-affirming belly-laughs, and serious dancing in the evening (Goldie and Norman Jay MBE have attended previous years).
27 to 29 | The Big Feastival | Connection
A village fete supersized that takes place on Alex James (Blur’s bassist) farm in the Cotswolds, this year supporting the work of charity partners The Flying Seagull Project and Magic Breakfast. It’s a uniquely family-orientated festival, where music shares billing with food; performances, and family silent discos in the evenings following days of workshops with Michelin starred chefs and hands-on cooking sessions. A vintage funfair and an on-site farm, as well as a BBC Introducing stage, brings the magic to all ages for a summer weekend of being in the moment, a Hawaiian poke bowl in hand.
27 to 30 | The Byline Festival | Awe & Wonder
Now entering its fourth year, The Byline Festival takes place on Pipingford Park Manor in East Sussex and bills itself as “a festival with a social, environmental and moral conscience. not just a shopping mall in a field.” Founded in 2017 by Stephen Colegrave and Peter Jukes, the executive editors of the sister organization Byline Times with a focus on the future of journalism, free speech, and the issues of the day, it also includes literary events, music, and comedy. This year’s festival will take you further into the forests with events from Lowkey, Tokyo Taboo, The Human Library, Hardeep Singh Kohli, The House of Comedy, and partners Frontline Club.
September
17 to 19 | The Good Life Experience | Untethering
Though The Good Life Experience is canceled, a more intimate version, Camp Good Life, is going ahead in September. It promises to have all the same elements that we’ve come to associate with its usual outing but reimagined for our current times.
25 | VERVE Festival | Mind & Body Connection
There have been some changes this year to the weekend wellness reset located in an area of outstanding natural beauty within the Wiltshire countryside. Now taking place over just one day and in a new location at Pyt House Kitchen Garden, it will keep its focus on health, exercise, and nature, with group yoga and pilates, lifestyle workshops and meditation sessions, forest bathing, and farm runs; something you might love already, and some new discoveries to try. Don’t worry, you don’t need to be a wellness warrior to attend, as VERVE caters to all levels, including families (who get to do bushcraft and foraging). Co-founded by Anna Hayward and Charlotte Cummings, VERVE prides itself on being sustainable – it’s a zero-waste festival and works with local food and drink suppliers to reduce food miles where possible.
Many of these festivals are now on our post-pandemic bucket list; we’re definitely finding that future thinking is keeping us hopeful. But these are just a handful of festivals that we’re looking forward to, for more connection, nature, wellness, and wonder later in our year. Let us know where we’ve missed. What are the places on your future festival list? Where are you longing to attend to bring more togetherness in the shape of a long weekend of out of our house fun?
