Are Wellness Festivals the New Music Festival?

Lighuen Desanto/Alma Festival

I was recently invited to a festival in Ibiza, the Balearic island known for its turquoise waters, untamed coastlines, and electronic music-fueled parties. But this invite wasn’t to Mike Posner’s Ibiza—the pills would instead be homeopathic ones touting health and wellbeing, and the headliners included biohacker Ben Greenfield, Los Angeles-based trainer Kim Strother, and women’s health and menopausal expert Dr. Jessica Shepard. Hosted at Six Senses Ibiza, a secluded resort on the island’s northern tip, the event blended music, healing practices, and communal experiences. Called Alma (Spanish for “soul”), its themes span psychedelic breath work and sex chats to sound healing and biohacking. “Longevity is a key pillar of what we do,” Alma Festival founder Talana Bestall tells Traveler.

This kind of trip—one planned around a wellness gathering—is catching on. And it makes sense: We already travel to eat; to discover the true meaning of al dente or slurp noodles in Michelin-starred ramen joints. We book flights to concerts where revelers wear glitter and wide-brim hats and dance in the desert. Research shows that travel has become a top priority in our lives, particularly among younger generations, and many travel to feel better from the inside out (and vice versa). Adults—especially millennials and Gen Z, are preoccupied with wellness, disillusioned with healthcare, and willing to splurge on trips and upgrades. This alchemy has fueled the rise of the wellness festival—events and destinations promising the keys to the elusive state of wellbeing.

Going (way) beyond music: The wellness festival boom

The first thing to understand about a wellness festival is that it’s not a retreat—for retreats trace their origins to millennia-old Indian ashrams, where gurus guided participants in meditation, contemplation, and yoga. In the US, spiritual (or, at least, pseudo-spiritual) retreats began gaining traction in the late 20th century alongside the rise of yogi culture and spandex.

The genre of festivals we’re talking about, which tend to be larger in scale and often have a medical component, didn’t take shape until the late aughts. Wanderlust, which premiered in Tahoe in 2009, pioneered the concept of a music festival with a collective healthy bent—offsetting the debaucherous, sweaty nights with mindful, endorphin-boosting mornings. This pivot created a more vulnerable vibe, co-founder Sean Hoess recalls. “People meditated and did yoga, their guards came down, and they felt part of something,” he said. “Suddenly, you’re willing to talk to the person next to you. New relationships formed. It sounds hackneyed, but there was a strong spirit of love.”

Dig deep: What’s on the program?

In November 2024, the Wanderlust founders took the concept to the next level with the Eudemonia Summit—which is named for the Greek word for “wellbeing.” Like Woodstock, it was a three-day event attended by thousands (2,750 registrants, to be exact)—but rather than a cow pasture, it was held in a 350,000-square-foot convention center in West Palm Beach, Florida. There were cold plunges and microdosing explainers, HIIT workouts led by Jillian Michaels, and neuroscience chats with Andrew Huberman.

Unlike Eudemonia, though, many of today’s wellness festivals are grounded in natural settings. In the Baa Atoll UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, Soneva Fushi is the picture of Maldivian heaven—villas constructed of sustainably sourced wood and bamboo perched on crystalline waters. The five-star resort hosts the annual SOUL Festival, featuring “mindful movement” activities on white-sand beaches and interactive panel discussions with health and wellbeing experts such as author and Flow Genome Project founder Jamie Wheal, and oncology expert and author Dr. Nasha Winters.

Set on the Greek island of Zakynthos, The Peligoni Club’s PACE wellness weeks entail activities like cycling with former Olympian Sir Chris Hoy along narrow, windy roads shaded by olive and Aleppo-pine trees. On the other side of the itinerary are sound baths led by author and holistic wellbeing expert Jasmine Hemsley set against the aquamarine Ionic Sea. Wonderfruit in Pattaya, Thailand, blends art installations, musical performances, and wellness talks held in the Unconditional Space venue (made from regionally sourced materials like firebrick and bamboo). This year, the program included a talk on the “Architecture of Time.” An existential thread runs through the event, which has been dubbed “Asia’s eco-friendly, high society version of Burning Man.”

Eudemonia Summit stands apart in its dogged dedication to wellbeing through science-based prevention, drawing on leading voices in alternative medicine. Hoess, CEO of Eudemonia, said, “We're trying to explore the intersection between evidence-based wellness practices—whether that’s cutting edge stuff like hyperbaric chambers or PEMF [Pulsed Electromagnetic Field therapy]—and the progressive wing of Western medicine.” He continued, “To accomplish that, we brought in almost 50 medical doctors, and brands in the wellness tech space [producing] cutting-edge technologies, combined with things you can learn and ddo.”

One of the speakers was Dr. Austin Perlmutter, a bestselling author who focuses on what he calls “brain science”—topics such as the link between ultra-processed foods and depression, and the potential impact of psychedelics on dementia prevention. Perlmutter told CNT that following his talk, attendees were eager to chat and delve deeper. Eudemonia, he noted, was more expansive than his typical medical conferences. “The overall feel was centered around whole-body wellness, and it [combined] experiences like yoga sessions, paddle boarding, spin classes, and a silent disco, which added substantially to the quality and the immersive experience.”

What’s included in the sticker price?

The price tags for wellness festivals and summits are far from insignificant, and range greatly: Maldivian SOUL costs $3,200 per night for two adults. Tickets to PACE week in Greece will run you about $605 per week per person, without accommodations; guests can book nearby villas ranging anywhere from $1,000 to nearly $20,000 per week. A Wonderfruit five-day pass costs about $560 (when purchased at the door—it’s less expensive to buy in advance online), without accommodation. A three-day pass to Eudemonia costs $1,500, accommodation not included.

The question: What are attendees paying for, besides talks, workshops, and workouts? (And the social media caché of a grid post featuring bare feet and the shimmering Ionian Sea, of course.) For starters, meaningful access, says Hoess of Eudemonia: “People who follow these celebrity health experts on podcasts or wherever else can't interact with them. [At the festival], these folks roam the halls and interact with attendees. It's very much an opportunity to ask questions in person.”

Alma founder Bestall echoes that sentiment: “The beauty of Alma is that you're in such an intimate setting—you can sit next to Christian [Drapeau, a leading stem cell researcher,] at lunch and ask him questions.” Another draw: That meal might include dishes like Balearic red prawn al ajillo with quinoa, avocado, and espelette pepper, or grilled pumpkin with tahini, watercress, and pomegranate seeds.

In addition to the talks, activities, and meals, attendees receive guidance through the increasingly noisy discourse on wellness. Dorian May, a New York-based writer and content creator, attended Eudemonia and had an overwhelmingly positive experience: “There's so much information coming at us from every source, I think it’s important to find trusted resources to help guide the decisions for how you treat your body.”

Festivals offer a cross-pollination of ideas in a unique, ephemeral community. Eudemonia, for example, brings together groups you wouldn’t normally see in the same space. “Medical doctors mixing with the biohackers mixing with the yoga slash wellness set—everyone fit together very nicely,” said Hoess.

Festivals offer an intangible that modern professionals crave. ​​“​​I think people want more connection,” said Bestall. “When you're in London, Paris, or New York, you’re constantly on your phone. If you get out of your head and out of your comfort zone and do something new, it’s a pretty cool experience. The takeaway from that is far more important than you would find on a two-day weekend—that lasting reconnection.”

In the end, think of it like this: Many wellness festivals offer an opportunity to take both the blue pill and the red pill. It’s an escape to a mindful place where you can cultivate awareness of how your lifestyle impacts your lifespan, while letting those same worries slip away as you settle into blissful creature comforts in far-flung destinations.

Originally Appeared on Condé Nast Traveler