Blog: Wild & Well - A New Festival of Wellbeing, Launches in Bristol
The Wild & Well programme presents a diverse range of events – from paddle boarding on the river to silent disco workouts in the woods, a Tai Chi Tea Party to Wild Caveman Cooking, a panel talk on Nature Connection and Mental Health to a workshop on having ‘The Best Sex Ever!’ with Jamie Catto of Faithless and 1 Giant Leap.
Across the weekend the festival will welcome authors, theorists, health and fitness professionals and more to share their ideas and bring them to life in a live setting.
By presenting a huge range of ideas in a creative and engaging way, and encouraging people to choose what works best for them, Wild & Well aims to create a new approach to wellbeing with resilience, connection and enjoyment at its heart.
MOVE
Wild & Well’s Move programme encompasses fitness classes, outdoor sports, dance events and a huge line-up of yoga classes and workshops. Music will play a key role in the fitness classes, with a carefully curated soundtrack for each class, many with live DJs, including Vogue-Chi, Bollywood Dance, Drum ‘n Bass Workout, Punk Aerobics and Reggae Yoga.
Wild & Well has teamed up with Bestival founder Rob da Bank and former Olympian Tim Weeks to bring SPIINBOX to the festival – a unique spinning studio with classes set to headline DJs.
Wild & Well will also encourage people to get active outside with a whole host of adventure activities including mountain biking, climbing, trail running, hiking, aerial yoga from the iconic harbourside cranes and a Wild Animal Bootcamp at Ashton Court.
And after a couple of sessions to get the blood pumping, festival goers might want to chill in The Cocoon – a restorative space dedicated to the art of relaxation. Events on offer include aroma yoga, soundscape meditation, gong baths and mindfulness workshops.
EAT
The festival’s Eat programme will throw decades of diet fads out the window in favour of delicious food that is good for people and planet. Focusing on seasonal ingredients, rustic techniques and cooking over fire, demos and workshops will include Curing and Smoking with River Cottage’s Steven Lamb, How to be an Ethical Carnivore with best-selling author Louise Gray, Cultural Comforts in Food with Zoe Adjonyoh and Root to Fruit Eating with Tom Hunt.
Wild & Well will look at the kitchen as a medicine cabinet with workshops on Medicinal Mushrooms, Foods for Moods, Nutrition for Mental Health and several foraging walks throughout the weekend. There will also be a panel debate on Food: Fetishes, Fads and Feeding the Soul as part of the festival’s Connect programme.
In the city centre, there will be street food superstars and food producers aplenty courtesy of Love Food Festival and to wash it all down, festival goers can choose a guilt-free tipple from the Botanical Cocktail Bar or even take part in a Tai Chi Tea Party!
CONNECT
Connect at We The Curious will feature panel talks and workshops, exploring the world within us and the world around us, looking at how both influence our mental and physical wellbeing. Panel talk topics will include: Rethinking Relationships for the Modern World; The Happiness Myth; Bringing Death into Life and Evolving Medicine Beyond Prescriptions.
Connect workshops will include: Ageing Creatively; Stress-Free Success; Mindful Masculinity; Building Better Boundaries, Understanding Anxiety and Depression and ‘The Best Sex Ever!
Wild & Well will delve into a broad range of topics – from contentment to community, gender to grief, loneliness to technology, relationships to resilience – with an incredible line-up of speakers and experts from all walks of life.
EXPLORE
Wild & Well’s Explore programme will empower people to connect with nature and the outdoors up at Ashton Court with Survival Skills; Orienteering; Shelter Building; Earthwalks; Firecraft; Wild Caveman Cooking; Writing the Wild; Foraging; Mindful Photograph; Wild Singing and Nature Pottery workshops.
In Ashton Court Mansion, festival goers will hear from inspirational speakers who have found solace in the natural world including The Times walking correspondent Christopher Somerville whose book The January Man follows his pilgrimage walking the length and breadth Britain in the wake of his father’s death; British longboard champion Sam Bleakley on Mindfulness and Surfing; Mollie Millington on Climbing Kilimanjaro and Elle Adams and Rupert Hutchinson AKA Living Alive on Awe, Wonder and Stargazing.
Meanwhile, Wild & Well kids will build their very own adventure playground with the award-winning Woodland Tribe, using saws, hammers and tonnes of reclaimed wood!
Wild & Well is also taking over the IMAX theatre for an outdoor film festival, entry to which will be included in the ticket price.
