The best UK festivals to boost your wellness and wellbeing

These wellness wonderlands are the best picks for those of you who want to leave behind your mind-expanding, toe-tapping festival experience feeling revitalised this year.

Improve your mental health with a wellbeing-focused getaway.

The Big Retreat

June 1-4
Lawrenny, Pembrokeshire
From £219

Nourishment for body and soul is the focus of this wellness-leaning long weekend, which promises to offer ‘What Feel Good means to you’ across a dozen festival areas. There’s high-energy workouts, gong baths and wild swimming, plus workshops in mental health, puppet-making and whatever ‘energy orgasms’ are. There’s live music too, but with headliners including Toploader and Scouting for Girls, your mileage may vary.
thebigretreatfestival.com

Timber Festival

July 7-9
Feanedock, The National Forest
From £105

The woodland location leads the programming at Timber, a gathering in the midst of the Midlands’ National Forest that invites us to reconsider our relationship with the natural world. Firmly within the ‘festival of ideas’ format, the weekend includes discussions, workshops and guided walks responding to the environment, alongside music from the likes of The Go! Team, and spoken word from Simon Armitage and Raymond Antrobus.
timberfestival.org.uk

Camp Good Life

July 7-31
Hawarden, North East Wales
From £312.50

A unique proposition among this year’s festival offerings, Camp Good Life is a grown-up take on American summer camps, transferred to the stunning walled gardens of Hawarden Castle. Choose one of four long weekends in July and immerse yourself in a boutique experience of food, nature and culture, with activities ranging from foraging walks to blacksmithery workshops. With a non-culty focus on wellness (and real showers!) this is one festival you’ll leave feeling refreshed rather than exhausted.
thegoodlifesociety.co.uk

WOMAD

July 27-30
Charlton Park, Wiltshire
£260

Founded by Peter Gabriel, this long-running celebration of world music features artists from over 50 countries, spanning genres from Spanish flamenco to Moroccan gnawa. Headliners include jazz trio The Comet Is Coming, Afrobeat prince Femi Kuti and reggae legend Horace Andy – but the defining WOMAD experience is wandering the stages and making genuine discoveries, in genres you may never have even heard of before.
womad.co.uk  

We Out Here

August 10-14
Wimborne St Giles, Dorset
From £210

In a new home for 2023, We Out Here is founded and curated by DJ Gilles Peterson, with a line-up reflecting his eclectic tastes across jazz, hip-hop, dub, techno and electronic music – from black midi to the Sun Ra Arkestra. Expertly catering to its audience of refined older clubbers, the festival also offers loads of activities for kids, and an extensive wellness programme.
weoutherefestival.com

Read our full 2023 festivals guide here.