Yoga in the UK has become big business, worth over 800 million pounds a year. Around half a million people go to yoga classes and there are 10,000 yoga teachers to cater for them. Unless everyone now sticks to doing Yoga With Adrienne on Youtube after the quarantine experience…
First of all here’s where you can find a yoga class if you’re in the UK:
LocalYogaClasses.co.uk has good listings of hatha yoga, iyengar yoga, kundalini yoga classes as well as pilates.
Yoga Festivals in the UK and Ireland in 2022
Here are a few yoga and wellness events that take place each year.
The World Yoga Festival in Reading, England 28-31
Who knew that the centre of the world would turn out to be Reading, England?
The festival organisers say:
‘Four rejuvenating days incorporating yoga asana from many different lineages, pranayama, meditation, non-duality, Ayurveda, chanting, kirtan, wisdom talks and music concerts in a series of large, decorated and carpeted marquees set in a country park beside the river Thames.‘
The Soul Circus 18-21 August, in the Cotswalds, England
The Soul Circus bills itself as a wellness festival with hot yoga, aerial yoga, sound massage etc by day and flow arts performances and dj sets at night.
The festival organisers say:
‘Come and discover the UK’s most exciting wellness festival, celebrating movement, music and food.
Join us on a journey of healing and transformation as we take time to realign and recalibrate. Creating equilibrium in your body and rejuvenating your soul with inspiration from world renowned teachers, speakers and musicians.’
The Big Retreat 3-6 June, 2020 in Pembrokeshire, Wales
The Big Retreat or the Feel Good Festival is set in the Pembrokeshire coastal national park in Wales which makes for a stunning locale.
The festival organisers say:
‘Our life experiences are met by our senses and by going away from your usual place of life, you get to fully embrace change and new people.
During a retreat your mind is at peace, you can focus on what really matters. You reconnect with yourself, you listen to your body and mind.
At a wellbeing festival you also reconnect with others, and often all of that is achieved by group activities and experiences. Be it outdoor activities, music or arts and crafts. And the The Big Retreat Wales offers all of that.’
LoveFit Festival 15-17 July just outside London, England
LoveFit Festival takes the gym to a camping festival experience.
The organisers say:
‘LoveFit aims to mix the elation festivals evoke with the euphoria of a workout. Fitness is often seen as an end goal, but we believe life is about the journey — through finding workouts that are more likened to sports and adventure.
The people at the forefront of the industry are so creative — performers and athletes — surfers, dancers, free runners, mountain-climbers, all focussed on reframing the way we view fitness & wellbeing. LoveFit is an escape from monotony, a taste of freedom, a place for people to explore new ways of living and moving.’
The Devonshire Yoga Festival to be announced, Devon, England
The Devonshire Yoga Festival organisers say:
‘The Devon Yoga Festival is an annual, not-for-profit and non-commercial event that celebrates and embraces the holistic practices of yoga.
‘The festival is set in an idyllic location in Devon, UK and offers comfortable residential accommodation, delicious vegetarian cuisine and a full timetable of inspiring yoga workshops, talks, music and kirtan.’
The Celtic Woodland Yoga Festival to be announced, Louth, Ireland
The festival organisers say:
‘The Celtic Woodland Yoga festival is dedicated to broad-mindedness, diversity and conscious exploration, so that we can continue to grow this yoga into the future as a living, breathing spiritual art form.
‘This festival is designed to be a place where we can all make new friends, network with other yogis and join together to expand the yoga community in Ireland and worldwide.’
Our yoga retreats
The Road Junky Sahara Retreat 24-30 January and 21-27 February, 2021 in Morocco
We also organise our own retreats in the Sahara Desert each winter. The retreat variously include yoga, meditation, dance therapy, contact improv dance and freeing the voice. All retreats feature storytelling, music and singing around the fire as we camp in traditional Berber tents under the full moon deep inside the sand dunes.
The Festival of Creativity 8-17 July, 2022 in the Czech Republic
The Festival of Creativity is small enough that it feels like a retreat with just 100 people, no phones and loads of creative workshops on and acoustic music around the fire. There are classes on meditation, dance, yoga, singing, theatre, art, music and many, many more things to experience and learn.
And of course you can find plenty of yoga, dance and meditation going on at many of the events on our main calendar of small festivals in the UK.