Muddy campsites and too little sleep still come with festival season. But more events are now making room for yoga, saunas and spa treatments as organisers chase growing demand for wellness.

The UK wellness industry is worth more than £160bn and is continuing to grow in 2026, according to the Global Wellness Institute. It said the average consumer spent about a third more in 2024 than five years earlier.

Organisers of the Boardmasters festival in Newquay, Cornwall, said they had seen a massive shift in demand as attendees looked to “maintain their at-home rituals” like morning yoga, runs or treatments while at the event.

“Five or 10 years ago, wellness was very much a niche add-on. Now it’s a core part of why people come,” organisers said.

Boardmasters has expanded its programme over the years to include run clubs, sound baths and Pilates, alongside jewellery and candle-making. For 2026, it has introduced a boutique spa, which organisers said would offer treatment tents, facials and aromatherapy as “moments of serenity” for festival-goers.

Organisers said attendees were increasingly looking for experiences that were not just about partying but where they could “recharge and reconnect” with their wellbeing.

“People want both the euphoria of a headline set and the calm of a cliffside yoga session the next morning,” they added.

Lizzy McNamara, from Pembrokeshire in Wales, joined Boardmasters’ run club last year to keep a “normal routine” while camping at the festival.

The club ran for three days and was run by travel company Run Weekends. McNamara described it as “welcoming” and “lovely with great vibes” as everyone ran together at a slow pace.

She said running with the club meant she had done something positive for her body “in a weekend of little sleep and festival food”.

“I don’t drink alcohol so it was such a lovely way to spend a morning when others were feeling groggy,” she said.

Global market insights provider Innova said Britons were choosing to prioritise wellness as they became more aware of the risks of poor diets and sedentary health.

A spokesperson said social media had increased access to health information and the trend was being driven by a “desire for emotional stability, weight loss and disease prevention”.

In Birmingham, Alex Hyde and Sam Carter-Smith hosted the OneRetreat Wellness, a one-day festival with exercise classes, sauna sessions and professional talks, to make health retreats “easily achievable”.

The pair said they cofounded the event after noticing a “massively growing demand” for in-person retreat weekends as attendees made more space for wellness.

“People are on their phones all the time and online events are harder to sell, they want to see real faces in real life,” Hyde said.

Interest in wellness events is not new. The Mind Body Spirit Festival was founded in London in 1977 to show the “inter-relatedness” of the mind, body and spirit, and organisers said they wanted to change the public’s attitude “and perception of themselves in the world”.

Its key highlights included a meditation sanctuary, vegetarian restaurant and “psychic” readings organised by the British Astrological Society and Psychic Society.

Organisers said more than 30,000 people now attend the festival each year in London and Birmingham, where exhibitors sell organic food, crystals, homemade products and supplements.

“People have become a lot more aware of their own wellness in the last five years as they submerge themselves in health and wellbeing markets,” event organisers said.

Read more from BBC News.