The boom in wellness practices and services over the last decade aligns with a cultural shift in London that prioritises mental health and better living. It was clear that the metrics used for success and status at the end of the previous century were more attuned to financial gain and career development, often to the detriment of other aspects of personal growth and family life. The old adage that ‘you cannot pour from an empty cup’ is a concise way of understanding exactly how important this new appreciation of self-care is. If we are to be at our very best in our work settings and available to maintain healthy relationships with the people around us, then we must ensure that we are operating with a balance that attends to all aspects of life.
Wellness festivals are a great opportunity to deepen our own practice, connect and communicate with other like-minded people and try new activities that may unlock exciting new avenues for better physical and mental health.
Our guide to the best wellness festivals in London over the coming months profiles a collection of the very best.
Darbar Festival
October 2025
Darbar Festival is firmly established as the most important celebration of Indian classical music in the capital. In recent times, it has expanded its scope to introduce a programme of wellness experiences and practices that are inspired and informed by the very same philosophies that the music is built around.
The idea is for all attendees to experience the elements of movement, breathing, meditation and reflection into their lives in a harmonious way using the melodies and orchestration as a navigation tool. It takes place in the heart of London’s financial district at The Barbican Centre on Silk Street across two weekends in October and promises to be the best schedule yet.
Morning and afternoon sessions will be taking place alongside the main concerts with traditional yoga classes, modern breathwork and fully immersive sound baths, all available to book. Yogabliss is a mix of Asana yoga with live accompaniment from raga musicians, all driven by Kanwal Ahluwalia. Aurabreath with Davel Patel is another expected highlight, employing guided breathwork in one of the smaller spaces at the centre.
Darbar is accessible to all levels of experience and fosters a greater interaction with ancient cultural traditions and art forms. Combining one of the classes with an evening concert is a wonderful way to make the most of this excellent festival.
Wembley Park Wellness Festival
September 2025
The Wembley Park area of London has been a great redevelopment story in the recent history of the city of London. Built around perhaps the most famous sporting stadium in the world, it has become a new residential neighbourhood with leisure and shopping all superbly connected to London through transport links. It seems fitting then that Wembley Park will be the home to the first-ever Wellness Festival in the area this September. It has the ultimate goal of opening up access to the benefits of wellness practices to everybody with a packed programme of free activities on a drop-in basis.
Sunrise yoga sessions represent the perfect way to begin the day with a rotating schedule of breathwork workshops, energising gong baths and lots more. Dynamic fitness classes inspired by the HYROX training methods of strength and endurance will also be available to all levels of experience and ability. There is even the opportunity to try some more left-field offerings, such as laughter therapy or outdoor life drawing. A true festival atmosphere also promises to be created with food stalls, street art and local markets to accompany all the activity within the community.
Mind Body Soul Experience
October 2025
The Great Hall of Alexandra Palace in North London has seen so many incredible and important events over its 150-year history. It became known as The People’s Palace as it was always intended to be used for cultural and entertainment experiences directed to the public of North London. Mind Body Soul Experience is keeping this idea firmly alive for 2025 with over 100 exhibitors, workshops and guest speakers showcasing activities and content designed to care for the body, feed the mind and nourish the spirit.
Extended workshops in meditation, energy healing, self-development and the art of movement will all be available as bookable sessions or drop-in on the day to ensure the flexibility that attendees require. The Experience Zone at the festival opens up access to chakra dance sessions and belly dancing classes that work to get the heart pumping and limbs moving, while laughter yoga and sound baths can provide restorative energy for the moments after. The topics for talks throughout the programme are varied in subject but share an overall goal of development and wellness through shared insights on resilience, intuitive development and working towards a more spiritually aligned lifestyle. This is a high-energy schedule with deeper understanding for a truly thought-provoking experience.
Outdoor Living & Wellness Expo
October 2025
The push towards greater wellness has brought with it a better understanding of the importance of outside spaces in all our lives. Communicating with nature and the natural world is one of the defining features of 21st-century design and the Outdoor Living & Wellness Expo demonstrates how important this continues to be. It is a celebration of how the environments we operate in can shape and affect our entire wellbeing. Using themed zones throughout ExCel London, it shows how urban design, health and nature may converge to inspire both personal and public spaces. Immersive biophilic gardens are here to be explored with sustainable outdoor furniture on show and tips on how to create better mindful spaces in your own home for wellness practice.
Talks and workshops take place in an interactive way with thought leaders inviting all attendees to get involved with mindfulness techniques, movement classes and hands-on planting lessons. All of which can be used to transfer knowledge and applications into our own living spaces for wellness focus. The Outdoor Living & Wellness Expo is particularly attractive to wellness practitioners or those currently developing their own service.
2025 looks set to be a year in which the art of wellness develops even further for the residents and visitors of London. This current crop of festivals demonstrates how widespread its popularity and influence is becoming, as more of us are touched by its services, practices, workshops and methods. It also highlights how well placed the city is to embrace this important cultural moment, providing and delivering access to a better understanding of wellness for all those who seek it.
