Better Read Book Festival
Explore Better Read Book Fest, a one-day festival of books, ideas, and authors to support your mental and emotional wellbeing.
Perfect For
Better Read Book Fest is for readers interested in self-development, mental health and emotional wellbeing. It's for coaches, therapists and wellbeing practitioners. If you want to learn more about how you can support your own mental and emotional wellbeing this festival is for you.
Why You’ll Love It
Better Read Book Fest is the UK’s first literary festival dedicated entirely to wellbeing books. It's a one-day celebration of books focusing on self-development, mental health and emotional wellbeing, and their authors. The festival is taking place on Saturday 3 October in Abergavenny, south Wales.
What Makes It Special
Literary festivals may include books on mental health and self-development, and wellbeing festivals can feature wellbeing authors alongside workshops and practical experiences. But until now there hasn’t been a UK literary festival dedicated solely to books focused on personal development, mental health and emotional wellbeing, and their authors.
No workshops, no other genres, purely authors sharing their books, their experience, research and expertise with readers. These books provide validation, greater self-understanding and practical tools, empowering the reader where they’ve felt lost and alone, in an accessible form and price.
You will leave feeling inspired, informed, empowered and uplifted.
The If Lost Take
When we first heard about a festival dedicated entirely to wellbeing books, it was an instant yes. It brings together so much of what we care about: wellbeing and words, connection and community, ideas and the people who love them too.
We believe there’s something powerful about the right book finding you at the right moment. It can steady you, shift your thinking, or simply help you feel a little less alone. And already, the authors announced for this festival feel like exactly those kinds of voices.
There’s also something quietly joyful about being in a room full of people who care about these books as much as you do — who know the non-fiction bestseller list almost as well as their local takeaway menu.
We’ve interviewed Gabrielle (and speaker Suzy Reading) on the podcast, and what stands out is the warmth and intention behind this festival. It’s been thoughtfully curated with a genuine belief in bringing people together around ideas — not to prescribe what wellbeing should look like, but to help each of us explore what it means in our own lives.
Founder’s Story | Gabrielle Treanor
“Years ago when I was struggling with anxiety, people-pleasing, overthinking and overwhelm (which I later discovered was due in part to my unrecognised ADHD) it was picking a book on positive psychology off the shelf in my local bookstore, and subsequently diving headfirst into wellbeing books, that gave me a sense of agency. In these books I found explanation and understanding as well as ideas and tools to support myself.
I then embarked on a journey which ultimately led to writing my own book, The 1% Wellness Experiment (published Dec 2023), and supporting others as an ADHD coach, writer and podcaster.
My respect and appreciation for the writers who pour their knowledge, skills, experience and heart into their wellbeing books inspired me to champion and celebrate this genre by creating Better Read Book Fest.”
Some Practical Details
The festival is a day of interviews and panel discussions with the authors about their books, self-development, mental health and emotional wellbeing, and space to ask them questions. There will be the opportunity to purchase the authors’ books and have them signed by the authors. Festival merchandise will also be on sale.
Authors confirmed so far are Suzy Reading, Natalie Lue, Dr Helen Wall and Natasha Page.
The festival won't be available online but there will be interviews with the authors in a special festival season on the Pressing Pause podcast.
Venue: St Mary’s Priory Hall, Monk St, Abergavenny NP7 5ND
Date: 3rd October, 2026
Postcards from a Happy Place
A day at The Happy Place wellbeing festival — and the ideas I brought home with the tote bag
I’m sitting under the shade of a 100-year-old tree in a west London park, the kind with branches that creak when the breeze moves through them. I’ve claimed one of the bright bean bags scattered across the lawn and wedged it against the bark. It’s quieter here than in the big open-sided marquee where the talks are held. I almost left earlier — the heat was stifling — but this patch of dappled light invited me to stay.
This is the Happy Place Festival, Fearne Cotton’s annual celebration of all things wellbeing. Held in Gunnersbury Park, the event feels relaxed despite the crowds. There’s a sound bath tent, hormone talks, yoga happening under awnings, iced lattes for a quick pick-me-up, and a hum of voices talking about nutrition, breathwork, sleep, and happiness.
I wander a little, swap my trainers for sandals, browse the book tent, and eventually drift towards the Talk Tent — where the ideas start to land.
What Wellbeing Looks Like When You Do It at Your Own Pace
There’s a clawfoot bathtub painted bright yellow on the lawn. Giant HAPPY PLACE letters. Pink phone booths for Instagram moments.
People move slowly, or not at all. Some stretch into yoga poses. Others lounge with notebooks. I’m surrounded mostly by women. An older woman in a navy wrap dress stands near a mother and daughter in yoga pants. And I start to wonder: What are we all here for?
A day of self-care? A search for clarity? A break from decision fatigue?
For me, it became about gathering small, meaningful insights or the big ideas that I hope might stick. Here's what I took home from a single day of getting away from it all (so I could get back to it all).
5 Takeaways from The Happy Place Festival
1. Midlife Is for Beginning Again
“Everyone has something.” — Donna Ashworth
Poet Donna Ashworth shared that she didn’t begin writing until her mid-40s. “It was either me… or it,” she said. There was something inside her that needed to be expressed — even if it emerged messily.
Holly Tucker, founder of Holly & Co, echoed this. She shared that 75% of the small businesses they support were started by people aged 40–60. Midlife isn’t an ending. It’s the start of something else.
2. Listen to the Whispers of the Soul
The idea of tuning inward came up again and again. Katy Hill spoke of following the “whispers of the soul.” Kelly Holmes said she’s living not in the “if onlys” but the “maybes.”
What if we don’t need to have the whole plan — just enough of a nudge to start?
3. Time Is Measured in Moments, That Become Years
“Life is 80 summer holidays.” — Julia Bradbury
Oliver Burkeman’s 4000 Weeks was cited more than once. It’s a reminder that life is not endless. Julia Bradbury put it plainly: "You only get about 80 summers." She advocates for nature snacks as the way to reset her days — stepping outside every couple of hours to widen your gaze, regulate your nervous system, and remember you’re alive. The evidence backs her up. A University of Exeter study found that if 1.2 million people took part in a green prescribing project that would save the NHS £635.6 million.
4. Start Imperfectly, Stay Imperfect
“Just begin.” — Donna Ashworth
Donna’s talk — and the reading of her poem “Just Begin” — was a balm for the overthinkers. “Someone here needs this,” she said before reading. She was right. That someone was me. And maybe it’s you too.
Start before you’re ready. Begin without knowing the outcome. Let the thing live in the world. That’s where the magic happens — not in the editing, but in the doing.
5. Small Impacts Matter
“What’s my impact?” — Holly Tucker
Holly said she grounds herself daily in one question: What will my impact be today? Not in a pressure-filled way, but as an invitation. She believes we all have the potential to lift others — to support their dreams in small, significant ways.
And if you don’t know your answer yet? Ask yourself: What lit you up when you were 10?
Wellbeing That Feels Possible
There’s a lot out there right now about how to live better. Some of it’s helpful. A lot of it is loud. What this day reminded me is that you can be curious without committing to a complete reinvention.
Wellbeing isn’t a fixed destination or a 12-step plan. It’s something you get to define. Something you can build, imperfectly. Slowly. Softly. On your own terms.
Your happy place might not be mine. And that’s more than okay.
So, what’s your Version of a Happy Place?
Maybe it’s not a festival. Maybe it’s a book, or a walk, or a quiet cup of tea. The point is not to do more. It’s to tune in.
Here’s a gentle question to leave you with:
What whispers have you been ignoring?
And what might shift if you started to listen?
Want to explore this further?
We’re creating spaces for the wellbeing curious — people who want better days, not busier ones.
HowTheLightGetsIn Festival
Discover HowTheLightGetsIn Festival in Hay-on-Wye — the world’s largest philosophy and music festival. Join Nobel Prize winners, Grammy artists, thinkers, and dreamers for a long weekend of ideas, talks, live music, comedy, and connection.
Perfect For
Anyone who feels most alive when they’re learning something new. For the curious, the restless, the thinkers and the dreamers—the ones who want their minds moved as much as their bodies.
Why You’ll Love it
Ideas sit so close to wonder here. New thinking propels your imagination forward, with academics out of the universities and into fairground fields, dancing late into the night.
You’ll spend your days soaking up mind-expanding discussions on subjects like black holes, AI, anxiety, and epidemiology, and your evenings beneath glitter balls at riverside discos or swaying to live music.
It’s a rare space where Nobel Prize winners and Grammy award-winners share the same billing—and where you leave feeling stretched in the best way.
What Makes It Special
HowTheLightGetsIn is the world’s largest philosophy and music festival (that these go together says it all). It’s not just about intellectual sparring or abstract debate—it’s about weaving ideas into real life, combining heavyweight talks with laughter, connection, and dance.
The magic comes from the mix: sitting under a tent roof in the afternoon listening to leading thinkers, then catching comedy sets or live bands as the sun goes down.
The Story Behind It
It all starts with the name.
“There is a crack in everything… that’s how the light gets in.”
These Leonard Cohen lyrics trace the festival’s origin story and tone. The “light” here is unarguably ideas—but also a reminder that light comes through imperfections, through play, through music, and through gathering. Held bi-annually, the festival takes over Hay-on-Wye each spring for one long, invigorating weekend, and Greenwich in the autumn for a shorter city edition.
The If Lost Take
HowTheLightGetsIn isn’t just about absorbing knowledge—it’s about feeling the spark of aliveness that comes when we expand. This festival offers intellectual adventure and playful escape all at once: a space to be both serious and silly, thoughtful and joyful, stretched and soothed. For anyone seeking a festival that feeds both brain and soul, this is your place.
Practical details
Location: Hay-on-Wye, Wales
Tickets: A range of options available, including day and Flexi passes. Under-25s and students receive a 40% discount; children under 12 attend free.
Accommodation: Choose from self-pitch camping, pre-pitched tents, or glamping.
Accessibility: The festival is committed to inclusivity, with accessible facilities and support.
More info & booking here
Festivals That Move You: 5 Mind–Body Gatherings to Bookmark This Summer
Discover five of the UK’s most inspiring wellbeing festivals for summer 2025—featuring yoga, trail running, wild swimming, live music, mindfulness and more. From Love Trails to Wilderness, these gatherings offer movement, connection and joy in stunning natural settings.
When we talk about mind–body wellbeing, we often imagine yoga mats, silent retreats, and solo meditations. But what if feeling well could be louder, looser, and shared with thousands of others under open skies?
These festivals go beyond the traditional wellness format—they bring together movement, music, community, and nature in ways that are joyful, embodied, and deeply connecting.
Here are five to discover:
1. Love Trails Festival
10 — 13 July, 2025 | Gower Peninsula, Wales
A festival where trail running, adventure, and music are brought together, Love Trails is for those who see movement as a form of freedom. Morning runs, cold dips, wild swims, yoga sessions, and night-time dancing—it’s about moving through the weekend with curiosity and community. If you’ve ever wanted to combine endorphins with exploration, this one’s for you.
The If Lost Take:
We love it because it proves that fitness can be soulful and adventure can be mindful.
2. Boardmasters
Wednesday 6 – Sunday 10 August, 2025 | Newquay, Cornwall
Surf. Skate. Sounds. Set against the cliffs and beaches of Cornwall, Boardmasters blends a coastal lifestyle with world-class music and wellness. Think: morning beach yoga, breathwork, cold water therapy, surf sessions, and then dancing under the stars to big-name DJs. It's a sun-kissed reset that brings together body and rhythm, rest and exhilaration.
The If Lost Take:
This is wellbeing for the wave-chasers, sea-dippers, and free spirits who feel better with sand between their toes.
3. Wellnergy Festival
13th & 14th June, 2025 | Wimbledon Park, London
Wellnergy blends fitness, mindfulness, music, food, and mental health into a one-day experience that’s accessible, thoughtful, and full of positive energy. With talks from psychologists, live workouts, laughter yoga, and nourishing food stalls, it’s designed for those looking to dip into lots of feel-good tools without the overwhelm.
The If Lost Take:
We love how welcoming and inclusive this festival is—a taster menu of wellbeing, served with heart and good vibes.
4. Wilderness Festival
31 July — 3 August, 2025 | Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire
Wilderness mixes music, wild swimming, feasting, wellbeing workshops, and open-air theatre into one of the UK’s most beloved boutique festivals. The Sanctuary area offers everything from forest bathing to dynamic yoga and fire rituals. This is where mind-body meets wild creativity, and you’ll leave sweaty, inspired, and maybe a little changed.
The If Lost Take:
It’s a beautifully curated pause from real life—a reminder of what’s possible when we come back to our bodies and the land.
5. Verve Festival
Saturday 13 & Sunday 14 September, 2025 | Wiltshire, UK
Tucked into the Wiltshire countryside, Verve is a small, beautiful wellbeing festival designed to restore and uplift. Think open-air yoga, creative workshops, soulful conversations, forest walks, live music and seasonal food, all with a focus on mindful, meaningful living. Intimate, accessible, and community-led, it’s one of the UK’s best-kept secrets for a conscious weekend in nature.
The If Lost Take:
We love Verve for its intentional pace and gentle spirit—a space where wellbeing feels joyful, local, and connecting..
These festivals invite you to move differently, connect deeply, and come back to yourself—through rhythm, nature and shared joy. Whether you're craving a hit of endorphins, a soulful workshop, or a dancefloor under the stars, there's a mind–body gathering waiting to meet you this summer.
Want more ideas like this? Join our mailing list for thoughtful guides, small shifts, and fresh inspiration on how to feel better in everyday life—no festival wristband required.
The Frome Kindness Festival
How a small town in Somerset is trying to be kinder
“Frome is already full of kindness, but there’s always scope for more – particularly towards the people that we don’t feel close to.
The scientific evidence is that simply watching someone else doing something kind can set a ripple of positive change in motion. As Aesop said: No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted.”
Go here if: you would like to be a kinder person, you would like to have more kindness in your life, or you would like to make where you live and work a better place
What is it: Brought to you by The Good Heart, a local non-profit, this week-long festival aims to make Frome, a market town in Somerset, the kindest place on earth
Why you’ll love it: When else do you get to put kindness front and center in your life, and the lives of others? And how often is kindness even the aim that we have for the communities in which we live and work?
What you need to know: Now in its second year, The Frome Kindness Festival takes place from 5th to 11 March, 2023.
Each day of the Festival has a kindness-related theme, and events range from a Caravan of Kindness to a West Country afternoon tea with Radio 4 presenter Claudia Hammond.
There will be a debate about Kindness in Social Media, a film extravaganza, and clothes swaps for children and adults, including a catwalk where eco-conscious shoppers can be photographed in their new outfits.
On the streets, there will be live music, pop-ups and a flash mob featuring a specially commissioned Kindness Dance. The Boyle Cross in the centre of the town will be decorated with a super-sized hat that encourages passers-by to “put your kindness hat on.”
At heart: “the Festival aims to bring together young and old to celebrate, practice and explore the power of kindness to improve mental and physical health, transform relationships and strengthen communities.”
Something to do: Join the Kindness Challenge, where local individuals, groups, businesses and organizations have the opportunity to give back. You’re invited to do something kind, imaginative, special and down-to-earth.
Even if you can’t sign up for the Kindness Challenge, you could bring in acts of kindness wherever you are. See some ideas for how to do that here.
Read The Compassionate Project, a great book about how Frome turned to human kindness to solve the problem of loneliness.
VERVE Festival | A conversation with co-founder Anna Hayward
One of Conde Nast Traveller’s “Woodstocks of Wellness”, we interviewed co-founder Anna Hayward about how doing what you love is at the heart of any well-being practice
“Wellness can be whatever makes you feel better.”
We talk to Anna Hayward, the co-founder of VERVE Festival— a weekend wellness reset located in the heart of the Wiltshire countryside — about why you don’t need to be a wellness warrior to attend and how we can all shape a practice that reflects who we are, rather than who we think we need to be.
Where once there were music festivals, literary festivals, and ideas festivals, it now feels like there’s a movement toward wellness festivals. Why do you think we are now drawn to them?
I think that’s true although there are still only a handful of wellness festivals.
It feeds into our current moment. I know from feedback how much people appreciate just having a real me-day and not everyone these days wants to go out to a festival and drink till 4 am. We’re all starting to care a bit more about our health and well-being.
We celebrate healthy hedonism; we still have a bar, we still have cocktails, and we’ve got DJs in the evening, but it’s more of a balance.
Do you think the perception of wellness has shifted? We’re noticing how wellness has become something of an unachievable goal, ironically given its intention.
I feel like the version of wellness that you offer is more accessible; that it’s ok to be messy about it (wellness doesn’t have to be this pristine thing anymore – it’s ok to fit it in when your kids are crawling on you).
I think so too. I think the idea of wellness is for everybody and it’s for all shapes and sizes and ages and it doesn’t matter. We get all kinds of people at VERVE Festival – we had a man in his seventies and older ladies with grey hair and bigger girls and skinny girls and everything in between and that’s what it should be. It shouldn’t have ego; it shouldn’t be about anything other than just trying to be better to yourself.
Wellness is different for everyone. It can just be about having a big burger and a glass of wine (that’s what makes me happy). That’s just as good for you, isn’t it? Wellness can be whatever makes you feel better.
What do you hope people experience with the festival?
It’s different for everybody. People were coming up to me at the end of the last festival – complete strangers – hugging me and saying what an amazing time they’d had. Many people said: “I can’t believe I’ve never done this before. I’m going to go home and carry on with it.” And quite a lot of people said they were going to make changes. They’d listened to a talk, or something had happened during the day, and it was going to be a little catalyst for change in their lives.
The timetable allows people to do their own thing and most things are free once you are at the festival, so people just drift around and everyone has their own way of approaching the day.
We enable people to try some things that are different, that they may never have thought of doing in a million years. While some people literally want a day away from their children, or to sit with their friends and drink cocktails and listen to some music. That’s great too.
There’s been a huge surge of interest in nature since you started, but you built that in from the beginning.
Yes, the whole idea is health, wellness, and nature. We live in an area of natural beauty, a dark skies reserve, and the farm we hosted on the first year was so beautiful. We realized that’s our Unique Selling Point. There are other wellness festivals, but no one has got this natural space, this greenery and this beauty quite frankly. We’ve done star gazing, we once got the AONB to come along with their astronomers, we had runs along the farm, we offered forest bathing, and everything was just to celebrate being outside and being in nature.
Even a few years ago, when we held our first festival, no one really talked about nature but obviously, with the pandemic — when people were going out walking and that’s the only thing they could do in a way — people realized how important it is to their lives.
What advice do you have for someone starting a wellness practice wherever they are?
Do what makes you happy. I’m lucky I’m a glass-half-full person, but my advice would be don’t force yourself to do something if you are not going to enjoy it because whatever you do it’s got to make you happy.
Don’t do something because you think you should or someone else is doing it. Do something that is true to you. Which is what we’re doing with Verve.
We’re excited be participating in VERVE Festival this year. Find out more here.
All in the Mind Festival
Discover an annual festival that uses creativity to explore mental well-being, and that’s finding ways to use performance to make happier brains.
“We use theatre to create happy brains.’”
After a couple of years that have seen our individual and collective mental health impacted and that has also forced us physically apart, the All in the Mind Festival comes at a crucial moment. Gathering people together to experience creative projects that explore our mental wellbeing, All in the Mind offers the conversations and connections we so badly need right now.
But though timely, it’s now into its 7th year. Founded in 2016 by the Fluid Motion Theatre Company, this festival has become an annual one-day event, bringing together actors, musicians, poets, comedians, and artists, for performances, workshops and interactive activities that harness the power of the arts toward better mental health for everyone. We found out more about the vision behind it and what makes it different.
What is it? All in the Mind is the leading outdoor mental health arts festival in the UK, held in Glebe Gardens in Basingstoke’s town centre.
What do you offer? A day jam-packed with family-friendly shows and activities – from inspirational and quirky performances, to fun and interactive workshops, nature trails, a solar-powered carousel, delicious local food and drink and a community parade – there is something for everyone!
Tell us a little about your story: Our vision is to use the arts as a tool for helping open up the conversation around mental health, challenge the stigma and improve wellbeing
This year the festival will take place on Saturday 10 September 2022, is themed around nature, with tickets on sale here.
The Little Retreat & The Big Retreat Festival | A Conversation with founder Amber Rich
We speak to Amber Rich, founder of The Little Retreat and The Big Retreat Festival about how she arrived at these projects, how wellness is now something that we all reach for, and her role as a curator of discovery and awe.
To call The Little Retreat in Pembrokeshire glamping is like calling Glennon Doyle a blogger. Staying in one of the wood-furnace heated domes (with furniture you’d find in a boutique hotel), warming up in your own Scandi hot tub, or roasting smores by a private fire pit after a day at the beach or walking in the Preseli Hills, you’ll sink into what life could be if we stopped for a while to notice its possibilities.
The Little Retreat was founded by Amber Rich, who also curates The Big Retreat “feel-good festival” that takes place on these grounds (2022 tickets are already on sale), and from which it takes its cue. Where the festival has a Darwin den, campfire stage, cold water swims in The Cleddau, a talk tent curated by Shelf Help director Toni Jones, and creative workshops, its weekend away counterpart has sustainability woven through its design, foraging workshops about to start, stargazing tents with views of dark skies, and curated programs focusing on such practices as breathwork, yoga, arts and craft. The festival and retreat overlap, exchange ideas, and share their approach, with both offering a slowed-down lifestyle and collective experiences that get you closer to a vision of how you might shape your own life when you return back to it.
After a few days at The Little Retreat, we had the chance to speak with Amber about how she arrived at this place, how closely the festival and the retreat are connected, and how wellness is now something that we all reach for:
Let’s start with the connection between The Big Retreat and The Little Retreat. Why did you start them and how do they connect? If the core value of the festival is one of ‘discovery’, how would you describe the retreat?
I used to own my own gym and ran fitness and wellbeing classes to improve mental and physical health. After the birth of my daughter Bea (who is now 7) I decided that I wanted to utilise the family land to create a sanctuary where people could come to escape their busy lives, pause and reconnect. This was the start of the original "Little Retreats".
I found that these retreats were having such a profound effect on people’s lives and making a real difference: One lady who attended had not been able to sleep for years. After our retreat, she learnt how to pause and use those skills to have her first good night’s sleep in 7 years! It was feedback like this that spurred me on to create The Big Retreat Festival.
I wanted to create a space where people could come and discover breath work, fire walking, gong baths, yoga, wild swimming, forest bathing — literally anything and everything that allowed people to "find their feel good". It also included festival favourites such as gin workshops and music to enhance people’s experience and wellbeing.
I realised that giving people time and space in a beautiful setting to discover all of these wonderful life-enhancing experiences could really make a positive change in people’s lives.
Discovery and "finding your feel good" still remains the core value to this day.
What do you think people are looking for who stay with you or attend one of your events?
I think people are looking for time to reflect on themselves, to unplug from daily life and to find out what makes them feel good. We are perfectly poised in the heart of the Pembrokeshire National Park on the banks of the "Secret Waterway". The stunning location inspires awe and wonder every time and we think the unique setting coupled with a sanctuary and safe space to discover is the catalyst for change.
What do you hope people experience with the projects that you create? What do you hope they take away and bring into their everyday lives?
I hope that people’s appreciation for nature and the outdoors grows and they are able to reconnect and utilise outdoor space to improve their wellbeing. I think it’s important with the complexity of modern living that people are reminded that sometimes it’s the simple things that bring us the most happiness.
If you attend one of our Feel Good Retreats you will learn skills that you can take away with you and implement straight away in your everyday life. The goal is to inspire people to reset and to really connect with themselves and the great outdoors.
I see my role as a curator of discovery and awe, allowing people the opportunity to reset, rethink and equip themselves with a host of skills and experiences — a toolkit that they can take home and continue to use to ultimately change their path and enhance their lives.
How do you think the idea of wellness has shifted since you started The Little and Big Retreats?
When I first began The Little Retreat the words wellbeing and wellness were quite niche and only appealed to a select few. Today looking after your mental and physical health is much more mainstream and in the public psyche. With the Covid pandemic more and more people are realising just how important nature and mental as well as physical health are to enhance our lives. That is one positive we can take away from the Covid pandemic.
What motivates you to create these spaces in the world? What kept you going during recent challenges?
My key motivation is to provide a sanctuary that allows people to discover not only nature but how to unwind and reconnect for their physical and mental health. A safe space where people are free to discover and pause.
The design of the space at The Little Retreat was about focusing on ways for people to connect with the outdoors without necessarily having to "rough it" to experience the joys of being close to nature. A key focus was also to have a minimal impact on the surrounding ecology and landscape.
The pandemic has actually given me the time and space to take ecology and planning into focus and look at ways for nature to thrive. We noticed during the pandemic the return of otters on the river banks and native oysters that had previously been wiped out due to human impact. This rewinding of our natural space showed me just how important it is to tread lightly on the site and in everything we do. We have worked to encourage nature in the planning — from bat boxes, swallow bricks, hedgehog runs, planting native species and harvesting the rainwater. We are really hoping to reduce our carbon footprint at both The Little Retreat and The Big Retreat Festival.
Over the pandemic, I realised that conserving the area was so important for nature and our own wellbeing that I set up the nonprofit arm "The Big Retreat Community". This is geared at enhancing and protecting nature as well as giving welsh artists a platform at our next festival.
In our guide for life, we roam across ten different pathways in the places that we feature and I’m curious about where you’d position your projects and why?
After looking through your Ten Pathways it is extremely difficult to choose one. All of them are intertwined intrinsically in everything we do from untethering upon arrival, to reconnecting mind and spirit right through to purpose and doing good. All of your pathways align exactly with our mission and how we conduct our projects.
How do you bring the values of the places you create into your own life?
I am constantly trying new things and discovering not only the latest external wellbeing practices but rediscovering the landscape. I make sure I set aside time every day to do this. Whether it’s a cooling wild swim in the Cleddau or a mindful walk through the woodland set around our site. I make sure that at least once a day I allow time for myself to reconnect and discover. I think it is so important to schedule this time into your diary in the same way you would an appointment at the doctor’s.
As we emerge from the lockdowns and are maybe feeling more hopeful about our worlds, is there anything that you’re particularly excited about going forwards?
There is so much going on at The Little Retreats this year it’s actually really really exciting. We have the addition of wild food workshops offering a foraging course and a 12-course dinner, the release of our Find Your Feel Good In Pembrokeshire guide, wild swimming sessions, forest bathing, and breathwork. We are currently building the space for the new stargazer tents with outdoor hot baths — a perfect opportunity to make the most of our stunning location in an official UK Dark Sky reserve. There are so many things that are organically falling into place.
We want both The Little and The Big Retreat to be a sanctuary and a beacon for anyone and everyone who wants to set aside time to find out just what it is that makes them tick and "find their feel good".
While there: we recommend pastries and bread from the micro bakery in the village Hugtasty, the award-winning beach shack Café Mor at Freshwater West (also the site of Dobby’s resting place), the stunning beaches, hikes, and paddle-boarding at Stackpole, and cafe with a mission Get the Boys a Lift.
A Calendar for When Life Starts Again (UK edition)
As we’re coming up for lockdown air, we’re looking to this year’s festivals to restore a feeling of togetherness.
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?
The Good Life Experience
Is it too soon to start planning for a different year? The Good Life Experience is one festival that might get you back to enjoying everything that life has to offer.
What is it: Billed as a festival like no other, The Good Life Experience takes place over a long autumn weekend on a castle estate in North Wales and has all the things that you’d hope to have in your regular life — great music, creative expression, inspirational books, time in the great outdoors, incredible food — to give you a taster of The Good Life. Founded by Cerys Matthews, Steve Abbot, and Charlie and Caroline Gladstone in 2014 to be ‘more than just’, from its starting point of “powerful, memorable and — most importantly — FUN experiences.”, it has since expanded to include Summer Camps, a dog-diving competition, and a range of activities for our grown-up inner children like fairground rides, ax throwing, and blacksmithing!
Why you’ll love it: Sometimes we think of The Good Life like our guide made in festival format: it has all the components that we try to weave together in the way that we approach the world: connection, nature, wellness, untethering, purpose, meaning, awe, creativity and doing good. All that is needed for our wellbeing.
Or see it like a favorite lifestyle magazine that makes all the things recommended and talked about happen in the real world rather than just on the page, so there’s the latest authors talking about their writings, top chefs cooking their recipes with us, sustainably produced fashion and small independent makers to shop, and travel spreads on glamping that you get to inhabit for a few nights. It's all there for real-world engagement.
Or consider it like how kids feel when they get to a theme park and want to do all the things and they have that squeaky voice and excitement inside, but here it’s us grown-ups (though many of us with our kids) wanting to do all the things too. On our list are floristry and weaving, dancing to new bands then star gazing, faery card reading, and campfire cooking sessions.
In short, The Good Life Experience is a playground of the thoughtfully curated and frankly just fun for the curious and the seekers among us.
What you need to know: Are we allowed to plan ahead yet? If so, booking a slot at The Good Life Experience is high on our list of things to do for making 2021 nothing like 2020. (Tickets are already available for next year’s festival taking place from 29 April to 2 May and the waitlist for them has already started — which we’re now also on, sigh).
How to bring this into your life: The Good Life Experience is not just a festival anymore, it’s becoming a way of life to access year-round. And when lockdown happened (and is happening again) the team behind it got active: see a community shop in a pub, new podcasts and daily posters, Some Good Ideas, and a whole array of Good Life Experiences to do at home. At the time of writing, you can participate in the new project Lockdown Radio and an All Day Communion, a partnership with writer Mark Shayler. Out of festival hours, there are also weekend camps at sister project Glen Dye in Scotland and open through all the times their farm shop on Hawarden Estates.
Why we think it’s different: There was a moment not that long ago when making anything other than toast for breakfast was seen as the norm and self-care extended to a long bath. Maybe we learned knitting from our nans, or we tried Jamie Oliver when we needed to cook, or we got into the National Trust to go outdoors. But then something shifted, hugely. With the constant demands of our working and online lives, a planet on a horribly destructive path, and daily life that’s getting harder on our minds and souls, many of us are now seeking out the different and the good and the life-affirming. We’re looking for ways to connect with something slower, more meaningful, and dare we say it more human.
Such pastimes as wild swimming, crafting, and poetry, have become newly popular and widely sought out. Just think about those sourdough starters and new crocheted wall pieces that you started in Lockdown. We turn to other things when the world turns inside out, and often these are simple pleasures, the people around us, and the natural world.
Where once The Good Life Experience was a singular way of being, now more of us are open to experiences that help us find new ways of navigating our lives and having better, more joyful, and sustainable days as we do so. If The Good Life Experience becomes just an interruption in the year from all the things that make modern life what it is than that’s great, but taking new discoveries beyond the weekend has the capacity to help year-round.
In their own words: “At its core, this movement can best be defined, perhaps, as The Search for The Good Life; a life that’s fulfilled and considered, yes, but is also fun and values the things that matter... family, friends, a real connection with The Great Outdoors, proper food and drink, discovery, music that comes from the soul, great books, craft. All the things that don’t cost a great deal but that make life richer, more rewarding, and better fun.”
To find out more: Website / Instagram / Twitter / Facebook
Additionally try: The Big Retreat
Soul Circus Festival
Too soon to think about what your well-being looks like next summer? Not according to this Cotswold based glitterball of a holistic festival.
What is it: A summer festival that puts wellness at the center but keeps the fun going, set in the beautiful Cotswold countryside.
Why you’ll love it: 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, breathwork sessions from GOOP superheroes, and yoga to Beyonce (as in played not present). Don’t worry there’s 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).
What you need to know: Is it too early to think about summer festivals and spending long summer days outside (as we start to huddle indoors in 12 layers)? Seems not. Tickets are already on sale for 2021. Who knows where the world will be by then but this year Soul Circus managed to pull off a COVID secure festival with 46,000 attendees spread over 59 days of programs in Cheltenham’s Montpellier Gardens.
What they offer – from here and there: When our worlds closed down earlier this year, Soul Circus brought its festival to our homes with their on-demand platform. Still going strong you can recreate some of the magic in your living rooms, with videos that offer the same range of classes and events, with yoga, dance, pilates, HIIT, cooking classes, DJ sets, and coaching sessions. There are even Gong baths online.
Why we think it's different: This is one festival that gets that wellness isn’t just white lycra and the splits against beautiful sunsets. The 2020 event had a community mental health clinic in one of its tents to meet new needs after months of pandemic induced stresses. We are all struggling in our own ways and there are like a thousand ways (not an exact number) to respond to those needs. Soul Circus isn’t about how stretchy your body is, but about finding a way that works for you to recalibrate your life. Then you can take whatever it is you have discovered with you when you return to your everyday world.
In their own words: “Because at the end of the day, we’re here to expand your curiosities, provide you a safe place to explore your unknowns, and sprinkle just a bit of glitter into your every day.”
To find out more: Website / Instagram / Facebook
If you’ve visited the Soul Circus Festival or you love other wellness-based festivals let us know about it. Things change all the time and we want to make sure we’re bringing you the most up to date information and the latest places to go to find that mind/body connection.
Scrappy adventures at home
This weekend we brought the outside world indoors. Now we’re trying to bring the magic of the undomestic world home.
In a creative outburst (or desperation on day 40 of lockdown), we pitched a tent in our living room and went camping. We blew up the deluxe mattress, brought down our duvets, and hung a super bright lantern. The six-year-old asked for spooky stories, the eleven-year-old asked for more bouncing on that deluxe mattress, the forty-four-year-old husband gave up and headed for an actual bed, alone. As I fell asleep with the kids, we looked at the sky and trees through windows, snuggling into the warmth of indoor camping and our even cozier imaginations.
As we’re increasingly longing to be out in the world, we’ve also starting to think about how we can bring our favorite places indoors. We’re learning in our very scrappy way how to recreate a little of our former world’s magic in our domestic unbliss. Thrown together with whatever we have lying around the house, our manifestations at home are ungainly, un-Pinterest worthy recreations, but somewhere in our souls, they are filling an ever-growing need to be somewhere else, with you in the world outside.
We’ve noticed on social media the creeping in of festivals, discos, museums, into our living rooms, gardens, kitchens. We’re seeing a blending together of before and now, and a relentless hope that once was will come back again. For now, our attempts at capturing the spirit of where we once gathered will have to do.
Here’s our rundown of what we’re missing and how we’re, and you perhaps, are bringing places out there in here.
Cafes: Missing, missing, missing. We admit to buying a coffee maker as Step 1 of our lockdown journey (not sure there was a Step 2) and have since spent way too much time working out how to make an oat milk latte with froth (who needs to write the next NYT bestseller?). Add in Spotify’s Coffeehouse playlist, find a quirky chair at home, and nurse that coffee for 3-4 hours while trying not to make eye contact with anyone else. Maybe even throw $7 in the bin if you live in the Bay Area. You are almost, almost there.
Festivals: Can of wine, loud music, and deck chair on whatever outside space we can find. Kids running wild. We’ve nearly nailed it. The only things left are to throw mud at our tent, find the wellies, and start smoking.
Bakeries: A friend is baking cookies and cakes for distraction. Actually, everyone is baking cookies and cakes for distraction. There’s a run on flour and yeast and cultivating a sourdough starter has just become the new learning a language of lockdown. We’re also opening cookbooks like “50 most calorific things you can cook today with real sugar”, rather than “The Joy of Kale and Brown Rice”. Scents of bread baking, old school achievement, something to eat that isn’t from a can or cereal. Also comfort eating – it is a requirement to comfort eat right now. Pairs well with white wine at the end of the day. This is not the moment to diet, numb feelings yes with carbohydrates and alcohol. No one can see you anyway.
Coworking: If you live alone, sorry this one is going to be tough; you could make cut out figures as today’s art project and prop them next to your laptop while smiling at them occasionally. If you live with other people, just find any table, crowd around it, write an aspirational saying like ‘We work best together’ somewhere on a wall, and occasionally high-five each other. Points for adding name tags.
Indie cinema: Just switch out Netflix for National Theater Live, add in posh popcorn and a vodka tonic, and you’ve got the vibe.
Museum: Entry-level efforts, hang all the new creations you’ve been working on with everyone else on a wall in a pretty way. Add wall labels with cute names and give the whole thing a title (no, “Untitled” is cheating). Even better hang them on a wall outside and call it ‘Public Art’. But if you want to take it seriously, and you do, because you know ‘Art’, then follow the lead of New Jersey resident Teresa Mistretta. If you want to get super fancy, make your home into one of those experiential museums – paint your walls candy-colored (you need a DIY project right now). Even better, make merchandise in said theme to sell back to yourself.
Library / Bookstore: Those books on your shelves at home you’ve been meaning to read, now is the time to actually read them, not just wave at them. That might mean pulling I Could Pee on This off your shelves, but hopefully, you have something lying around like Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking. If going for the library vibe, post them back through your front door for added return affect. If indie bookstore, make cute piles randomly around your house. For either, go crazy and curate subject areas, that only you understand – brave princesses who’ve learned to say no, self-help for the days you hate everyone, chick-lit which you basically see as the great American novel but are too ashamed to say so. You could also print a cool Indie Store name on the side of a paper bag and shop your shelves. We always wanted to own a bookstore.
Lecture series: You can be inspirational too. Watch something by Brene Brown or Elizabeth Gilbert or Glennon Doyle, then hold forth at dinner about the value of vulnerability, creativity, love. Your co-lockdown companions will appreciate your Ted Talk at the kitchen table. They might even take notes.
Safari: If you have pets, just follow them around the house for an hour, narrating their escapades. Maybe even give them a backstory that adds drama – you need an arc for this one to work. Make sure to practice a Megan Markle narrating Elephants range of emotion.
Retreat: Basically, lockdown with some sort of epiphany and hiding alone in your bedroom trying not to talk to anyone.
Places in the world – we miss you. And though our attempts to make you real in our living rooms and gardens may be naff, they’ll have to do for now. One day when we visit you again, we will shower you with love and attention and never take you for granted again. We Promise.