Deep Water Dance Festival

(2020 dates to be confirmed) Deep Water Dance Festival is your type of festival if you like diving and dancing. You will be staying in a beautiful house located on a hill and living with the other festival participants. You will be dancing at Y-40 pool, which is the world’s deepest swimming pool. You need to be a certificated […] » read more

Northern Permaculture Gathering

(2020 dates to be confirmed) Northern Permaculture Gathering is for people who are interested in sustainability. All Ireland Permaculture Gathering won’t be happening this year so instead we have the Northern Permaculture Gathering which shares the same format. You will be learning ethical methods to build a better world and attend interesting workshops. Camping at the event is possible. […] » read more

Space to Emerge

Space to Emerge is a weekend retreat full of workshops. In three days, you will be able to engage in one-to-one healing therapies, workshops and dance till morning while meeting like-minded people in a peaceful environment in the Lake District. The organizers say: “At Space to Emerge, we aim to create a community to restore community. […] » read more

Winter Warmer Festival

(2020 dates to be confirmed) Winter Warmer Festival is a small festival with good vibes and energy. Instead of waiting the summer for the festivals, this festival would be a good way to spend a getaway weekend full of music and stories in the cold winter days. The organizers describe the festival as “a magical […] » read more

The best big music festivals in Europe?

We’re sometimes asked which are the best music festivals in Europe? We don’t know. We only publish a list of small, alternative festivals and so you won’t find a good list of big music festivals here. But here are some other sites who have their own festival recommendations: The Guardian has chosen these as 10 of the […] » read more

Transylvaliens Festival

Dates To Be Announced By the looks of it there will be plenty of music, plenty of fresh air, promising light shows and an opportunity to set up hammocks. What’s not to like? Organisers say: “Transylvaliens Festival is a transformational psychedelic arts gathering in the wild Transylvanian nature focused on celebrating diversity through music, arts […] » read more

Connection Festival

(2020 dates to be confirmed) Connection Festival offers a week filled with Goa trance and a limited number of participants (1500, to be precise). Their AfterMovie from 2018 probably gives the best introduction about what to expect: The organisers say : “This year we go a little later in September: September 17 to 24: Right […] » read more

Irish Decompression (Burning Man)

irish decompression burning man festival

Dates To Be Announced From what we can make out, this is an Irish version of Burning Man with the chance for artists and performers to come as participants and infused with Celtic spirit. The organisers say: ‘Ladies and gentiles, boys and girls, people and persons, lads and lassies. We are go for launch! We […] » read more

Summer of Eros Festival

valle de sensacions tanta retreat in spain

(2018 dates to be confirmed) The Summer of Eros is a summer long festival with workshops and circles exploring sacred sexuality in the Valle de Sensaciones (Valley of Sensations) in Andalucia, Spain. The organisers say: ‘This summer, for the first time, Valle de Sensaciones is producing a sensational immersion into the lands of Eros. Together […] » read more

Being Gathering

being gathering in portugal (was b-in)

(2018 dates to be confirmed) The Being Gathering (formerly known as the Be-In Gathering, perhaps a throwback to the 1967 San Francisco Be-In for the hippie historians among you) is organised by the same team that makes the Boom Festival every two years, and is held in the same location by a lake in central […] » read more

Buddhafield Festival

Buddhafield festival uk

With 4000 people, Buddhafield hits a sweet spot between a small, cosy festival and an event big enough to have a lot going on. Infused with the philosophy of Buddhism, this is a very conscious festival without alcohol or drugs. The festival organizers say: “Buddhafield Festival is a joyful gathering of around 4,000 people, celebrating […] » read more

Travel Storytelling Getaway

(2019 dates to be confirmed) Following their Travel Storytelling Festival last year, there’s now going to be a Travel Storytelling Getaway in February. We guess that’s like a more intimate version of the previous event with talks, jams, films, music and plenty of travellers, voyagers, vagabonds, new age nomads and maybe the odd tourist. The […] » read more

Free Tree Open Air Festival

free tree open air festival in austria

Free Tree Open Air Festival is a bit more mainstream culture (alcohol, bands on stage) than many of the small festivals that we include on our calendar but hey, each to their own.. A friend described the festival as: “A Green Event with lots of different Music Acts of all genres, poetry Slam, Travel Stories, […] » read more

The Old Saw Mill Garden Party

(2020 dates to be confirmed) The Old Saw Mill Garden Party is held in a secret location and there are only 500 places available. Details of what the festival is about are few and far between but isn’t it nice to be surprised? The festival organisers say: “This Is Not Your Average Garden Party! ‘As […] » read more

Small is Beautiful Festival

sustainability festival small is beautiful

(2019 dates to be confirmed) Read the book? Small is Beautiful from E.F Schumacher? We’ve looked at the back cover blurb a number of times and made plans to read it one day when intelligence upgrades can be downloaded at will, but if you were a thinking person and are looking for a festival where […] » read more

Snow Surf Contact Jam Festival

ukraine contact improv festival

We love this one. Contact improv in the Carpathian Mountains of the Ukraine. Looks like a really cosy, intimate, special CI festival at a time of year when not much else is going on! The organisers say: ‘Seven days of contact impro jams and laboratories, snowboarding, skiing, music, bodywork, sauna singing, tea ceremonies, art and […] » read more

Nomads Festival

nomads gathering hitchhikers

(2020 dates to be confirmed) Whereas many travellers are anxious to distinguish themselves from tourists, ‘nomads’ have gone one better and are earnestly trying to create an identity as dumpster-diving, hitchhiking, couchsurfing, telecommuting wanderers who come together every now and then to share tips and stories of living on next to nothing in the First […] » read more

What Is Music? Arts Gathering

what is music arts gathering in spain

If you’re a musician and you’re free in July you should be in the What is Music Gathering in the north of Spain. Imagine being with a whole troupe of creative people from musicians to artists to dancers doing workshops on flamenco rhythms, clowning, creating music with the voice, Indian melodies and more. Looks like […] » read more

Spark Liberosis

For many of us the original Burning Man in the US is just a bit too far away and perhaps there’s a feeling that we wish we’d gone 20 years ago… Much of the founder Burning spirit might be found however in the regional Burns which now reach as far even as Austria where the […] » read more

Space of Love Festival

Space of Love Festival is held on the Swedish isle of Oland and so is a great place to meet some Scandinavian hippies running workshops from family constellation to yoga to African dance. “There we celebrate and create, meet new and old friends, and try new paths to discover more about ourselves, one another and […] » read more