7 of the best wellness festivals to book in 2017

Ditch your usual schedule of summer music festivals this year...
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Sick of spending your summer waking up in a sweaty tent stinking of cider, a half-eaten, ill-advised mystery meat burger and only fuzzy memories of the night before?

Yeah.

Your festival season doesn't have to be all about hangovers and boozing. The wellness festival industry this year is bigger than ever before, which means you can swap queuing for gross toilets with sunrise yoga, swerve watching a questionable band for a workshop on how to meditate your way to success, and give undercooked cheesy chips a miss in favour of a sweet potato and quinoa bake topped with freshly caught salmon. That sounds nice, doesn't it?

Here's a few of the best wellness festivals to go to this year.

Fare Healthy, London

(Fare Healthy)

Fare Healthy, the UK’s first food, fitness and wellbeing festival, is returning to London this year with a veritable feast of foodie and fitness delights. Expect pop up restaurants and bars, exercise classes, expert talks and cookery demonstrations. You can hear from health experts including Ella Mills and Amelia Freer, then try out some yoga or ballet barre before refuelling with food from the likes of Daylesford and Mae Deli.

Fare Healthy, Truman Brewery, London, Feb 4-5

Envision Festival, Costa Rica

Since 2011, artists, yogis and wellness enthusiasts have been gathering in the Costa Rican rainforest in a bid to "awaken their human potential and positive energy". And let's face it, who couldn’t do with a bit of that in February?

Get ready for incredible world music artists (soul folk sisters Rising Appalachia are well worth a listen), more yoga than you can shake your shavasana at and talks from the likes of Burning Man founders Crimson Rose and Will Rogers, Erin Schrode (the youngest woman ever to run for Congress in the U.S.), and Kip Andersen, who you know from Cowspiracy, that documentary that stopped you eating meat for, like, a week.

Envision Festival, Costa Rica, Feb 23-26

Soul Circus, Cotswolds

A little closer to home is this Cotswolds-set wellness festival covering every fitness buzzword under the sun. Think hot yoga, gong baths, aerial classes, sunset meditation, light therapy, juices, clean eating... the list goes on. Don't worry though, it's not too virtuous – there's also gin tasting, live music and after parties, so you can still do what comes naturally at festivals (just make sure you do some yoga afterwards to combat the excess). They've also got a handy 'spread your payment over a few months' scheme so you don't have to dish out all your cash at once for the ticket.

Soul Circus, Elmore, Gloucester, Aug 18-20

Balance, London

Handily located in east London's Truman Brewery, this three-day event packs in more fitness and food than even your annoying mate who does pilates every day before work could handle. Try out classes from fitness big-hitters Another Space (their Box HIIT class is terrifying but excellent), Barry's Bootcamp, BOOM Cycle, Triyoga and Equinox. Then, once you're suitably tired out, get on the food with Live Cooking Theatres from The Flexi Foodie, Bettina's Kitchen and more, Q+As with the team behind Mindful Chef and – of course – all the (healthy) food you could possibly eat.

Balance Festival, Truman Brewery, London, May 12-14.

Wanderlust Festival, various locations

The Very Big Deal of the U.S. wellness festival market. Wanderlust festivals take place throughout the year, across the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Basically, wherever it's summer. Obviously, there's yoga (there's always yoga) – but there's also meditation, 'eco-kayaking', bike tours, horse riding, hiking, surfing and talks from authors, musicians, health experts and filmmakers. It'll set you back a bit of cash – especially once you factor in the plane fare – but if it's rejuvenation and invigoration you want, there's a fair chance you'll find it here.

Wanderlust Festival, various locations and dates.

Nature Nurture at Green Man, Brecon Beacons, Wales

Green Man Festival is already super zen but, if you want to go deeper, head over to their Nature Nurture healing garden for everything from yoga and pilates classes, meditation, Indian summer massages and outdoor wood-fired hot tubs (glass of champagne encouraged), to saunas, showers, hairdryers and straighteners. Who said camping had to be messy?

Green Man, Brecon Beacons, Wales, August 17-20

MindBodySpirit London Wellbeing Festival, London

Another city-based festival, this time at Olympia London. Expect workshops from holistic experts, food genii (hello, Natasha Corrett from Honestly Healthy), shamanism, tantra, meditation and more. There#s yoga pretty much all day, every day, as well as a 'wellbeing spa' which offers things like reflexology, aromatherapy, holistic facials and Swedish massage. Nnice.

MindBodySpirit London Wellbeing Festival, Olympia London, Apr 28-May 1

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