Highs on a hill inside the fitness festivals of 2022 – Financial Times

Those visiting Chamonix last month might have been surprised to hear a reverberating pulse echoing from Planpraz apicturesque plateau just beneath a mountain summit that can be accessed via cable car. Under normal circumstances, such sound waves at 2,000m of elevation might come with an avalanche warning. But this time, the buzz was electric, not tectonic the echoes of a live stage line-up hosted by the Canadian outdoor brand Arcteryx.

The energy came from a 1,500-strong crowd of mountain enthusiasts who hadspent the previous week at the Arcteryx Alpine Academy a week-longmountain extravaganza thats bringing the hedonistic air of the musicfestival into the wellness arena. Asthe sun sets,festival-goers sunkissed, sweaty and ready to party ascended to the summit to let loose tohiphop and R&B from a roster ofinternational artists. Theyhad tiredmuscles, big smiles andbeer thirst, according to Stphane Tenailleau, a marketing director at Arcteryx and the brains behind the festival.DJs are on thedecks until 2am.Every night theres thechance to burnoff your last calories onthe dancefloor Were taking [the experience] to new heights.

Fitness holidays are undergoing a rebrand and in 2022 endorphins are the headline act. Forget the traditional yoga retreat theres no snoozy Eat, Pray, Love mood or matcha mornings here. This summer, those seeking a collective high canhead to the wilds of the Faroes (tjan Wild Islands Festival), the coasts of Devon (Above Below) orthe trails of Tring (Salomon) for a gorpcore-meets-Glastonbury experience.

For many, the festivals give access to a sense of community

Arcteryx, meanwhile, has rolled out itsconcept this year to include climbing academies in Vancouver and backcountry ski festivals in Wyoming punctuated byfilm screenings, photography workshops and gigs. Other labels are offering smaller iterations: Raphas Pennine Rally is a 500km point-to-point cycle from Edinburgh down the Pennines to Manchester, which culminates with beers and food, while Japanese outdoor brand Snow Peak and theOutdoors Store have teamed up withThe Good Life Society for a weekend of fly fishing, egg-and-spork racing andfirepit cooking.

Its about challenging stereotypes astowhat fitness and wellness can be,saysTheo Larn-Jones, founder of LoveTrails, a four-day running festival heldinWales that offers everything frompaddleboarding and surfing to banquetdinners hes launching it in Madeira later this year.

And outdoorsy activities have seen ahuge boom of late, says Will Watt, co-founder of Above Below, a three-day swimathon in Devon that sees attendees pack their possessions into a raft and breaststroke along estuaries and coastal bays before camping each night. People are starting to understand that challenging your body and your brain gives you anatural high instead ofother pursuits that leaveyou feeling less thangood afterwards.

Healthy hedonism is areal draw. Organisers arecareful to feed the moreconscious lifestyle: many on-site bars are now stocked with zero per cent abv beers and plant-based foods. Norway even plays host to Morning Beat, a booze-free yoga festival headlined by trance DJs. Its not all-or-nothing, says Henry Knock, a 42-year-old London-based freelance photographer who has shot campaigns for Adidas, Barbour and Manchester United. A self-professed party boy, he has spent decades dancing in fields. But this year, he has bought a ticket for Love Trails his first fitness festival. I can let my hair down but still indulge in my new passion for running, he says. As I approached my 40s, I became much more conscious of my health.

Knock, who usually runs in the city, is keen to try trail running for the first time. And many festivals offer a refreshing change of pace from the status quo: 10km road-runners are encouraged to try sprinting up a mountain; urban boulderers can get to grips with craggy rock faces; and lido swimmers can plunge into coastal waves.

Under the supervision of expert guides, festivals can provide experiences that one is unlikely to attempt alone. They give you the confidence to try something new, says Larn-Jones, who offers add-on adventure days where happy campers can run 20km routes before coasteering or abseiling alongthe Gower Peninsula. In Chamonix, meanwhile, Arcteryx attendees could bookinto more than 40 clinics from an overnight bivouac in the Mont Blanc massif with Slovenian climbing champion Luka Lindic to rescue training including how to haul your partner out of a crevasse. Its money-cant-buy events that cant easily be found on the market, says Tenailleau, who has enlisted the expertise of more than 30 world-class athletes and sponsored guides to host sessions.

Regular music festivals dont offer such experiences. According to research bythe Harris Poll, 78 per cent of millennialswould rather spend on an eventthan a possession. Arcteryx says younger clientele are attending 30 per cent this year are under 30, an increase on2019 while Love Trails says about 60 per cent of its campers are young women. The festival environment offers them relative safety in the outdoors, and the chance to make new friends.

People can come and find their tribe, says Larn-Jones, who notes that many campers turn up alone. In a similar vein to running or swimming clubs, which have surged in popularity, fitness festivals give access to a sense of community.

The epicly Instagrammable settings of these events are another USP. tjan Wild Islands trail-running playground in the Faroes boasts scenes that look straight out of a Tolkien novel, where wild mountain paths meet verdant valleys. The islands arent easily accessible, yet this year, 90 per cent of the festivals attendees are set to make the pilgrimage from overseas.

The scenery is neck-twisting, says Tenailleau of the Chamonix mountainscape that adds to the Arcteryx Academys appeal. Its Alpine village is flanked by jagged peaks. We could have just rented ahall but any first-timer is blown away bythe Bossons Glacier, which looks like a river of lava flowing towards the valley, and the radiant dome of Mont Blanc.

Envisage that scene on Planpraz when the sun sets. Body pulsing from the bass; newfound friends letting loose; Mont Blanc twinkling in the distance. Up there in the crisp air, flanked by the shadowy mountains, you feel insignificant. But spiritually, you belong. Moments flicker by. You lose yourself in the ethereal experience. Just as mother nature and the DJ intended.

Read more:

Highs on a hill inside the fitness festivals of 2022 - Financial Times