BIRMINGHAM’S FIRST INDEPENDENT WELLNESS FESTIVAL IS COMING – AND IT’S TAKING OVER ONE OF THE CITY’S MOST ICONIC VENUES
OneRetreat Wellness will take over Highbury Hall on this Summer, transforming the Victorian mansion into a full-day destination for movement, recovery, connection and rest. Birmingham has a thriving wellness community – and on 6 June, for the first time, it gets a stage to match.
Deliberately designed not to feel like a typical wellness event, OneRetreat Wellness is a completely new premise for the city – an accessible, full-day celebration that shines a light on the wealth of practitioners on its doorstep, many of whom have never shared a platform quite like this before.
Set within the hall’s grand interiors and sweeping grounds on the borders of Moseley and Kings Heath, the festival will bring together more than 40 of the region’s leading wellness practitioners across five distinct spaces.
The day-long programme will include yoga and Pilates on the lawn; breathwork and sound baths; saunas, ice baths and contrast therapies; Tai Chi and calisthenics; dance, fitness and run clubs. There will be treatment rooms and holistic therapies on offer, as well as health food traders and holistic markets.
Live music and DJs will set the tone throughout the day, and for parents keen to get involved, there will be a free on-site crèche provided by Mortimer Nannies – removing a practical barrier that has too often kept parents from prioritising their own wellbeing.
OneRetreat Wellness will feature keynote talks and expert-led workshops from several prominent Birmingham-based practitioners. Attendees will hear from psychologist Dr Lalitaa Suglani, author of the upcoming book Not Yours to Carry: Shed Shame, Live Courageously, alongside resilience coach and Unshakable Resilience podcast host Krishna Ruparelia. Sound practitioner Manoj Koeri of Manoj Collective, whose work has been featured at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, will also lead sessions.
Harborne-based personal trainer Sarah Kirk (The Mummy PT) will also offer expert guidance on pregnancy and postnatal fitness. Additionally, Stirchley-based somatic coach Sophie Rey will bring her nature-led approach to the retreat, focusing on body image, anxiety, and trauma-informed movement.
Sam Carter-Smith, co-founder of OneRetreat Wellness, said: “In the past five years the UK wellness scene has exploded, but London has remained the main destination for large-scale events. We wanted to change that. When we started planning the festival, we simply wanted to give people a day that sends them home feeling better than when they arrived. We never dreamed we’d end up working with 40 of the region’s brightest practitioners and taking over one of the city’s most beloved venues in the process.”
Co-founder Alex Hyde added: “This event has been a long time coming. Highbury Hall is steeped in history, having been home to Joseph Chamberlain, and it is now one of Birmingham’s most cherished heritage venues. It provides a setting that is quite simply unlike anything else in the city’s events calendar.”
With just a few weeks to go, Birmingham’s first independent wellness festival looks set to make its mark on the city’s events calendar. Further information and tickets are available at www.oneretreatwellness.co.uk/tickets.