Ecstatic Dance Festival 2026 – Movement, Music,Nature, Community &Wellness
ECSTATIC DANCE FESTIVAL UK:
Find your path. Unlock your potential. Learn. Explore. Create.
Step into a 5-day (or weekend) immersive wellness festival devoted to Ecstatic Dance, conscious movement, music, nature connection, and holistic wellbeing. This is more than a dance event, it’s a transformational gathering where body, heart, and spirit come alive beneath the summer sky.
This is your call to move freely, live consciously, and celebrate togetherness.
Dance with the land. Breathe with the trees. Listen to your body.
Your mind, body, and soul will thank you.
👉 Secure your place now – limited Super Early Bird tickets available.
🌿 WHAT TO EXPECT:
A vibrant programme designed to inspire, nourish, and expand you:
- Ecstatic Dance journeys/ DJ-led movement experiences (multiple sessions)
- Live music with URUBU Dance Tribe Afro-Brazilian musicians
- Yoga, Guided Meditations, Bioenergetics, Breathwork
- Singing & Sound Journeys
- Trance Dance Rituals & Active Meditations
- Beautiful dance / workshop spaces with great sound systems! Plus dances outdoors & around the campfire weather permitting.
- Saunas & Cold plunges + Sauna whisking sessions
- Cacao ceremonies
- Relaxing and Rejuvenating Massage/ Bodywork offerings (extra cost)
- Nature walks & grounding rituals
- Wholesome vegetarian meals, teas & chai, 3x meals per day, x12 total OR x7 total for weekend attendees (we all eat together at set meal times)
- Cafe & Healthy Bar (for coffee, cake and other yummy creations!)
- Campfires
- Facilities with hot water/ bathrooms
- Camping / Campervans/ Bell Tents/ Private Accommodation options
- Heart-led community connection
- Hangout on comfy sofas, chat, sing slackline, play frisbee & soak up festival vibes
- Alcohol and drug-free environment
- …and plenty of space to rest, integrate, and simply be!
Whether you’re deepening an existing practice or discovering conscious dance for the first time, you’ll find welcoming facilitators, open-hearted people, and a down-to-earth spiritual atmosphere.
📌APPLICATIONS OPEN TO CO-CREATE THIS YEAR’S FESTIVAL (apply by 1 April 2026)
–ECSTATIC DANCE DJ’S/ MUSICIANS/ FACILITATORS/ PERFORMERS/ YOGA/ SOUND HEALERS please apply here .
–BODYWORKERS/ MASSAGE THERAPISTS please apply here.
🗓️ DATES & TICKET OPTIONS
- Full Festival: Wed 22 July – Sun 26 July
- Weekend Pass: Fri 24 July – Sun 26 July
Arrival: from 4pm on your first day
Departure: after 4pm on your final day
📍 LOCATION
Gillingham, North Dorset
Easily accessible, approximately 2 hours direct train from London, surrounded by beautiful countryside. Bring your camping gear and settle into a natural, spacious setting designed for movement, connection, and restoration.
✨ WHY JOIN?
- Dance barefoot on the earth under open skies
- Reconnect with your body, creativity, and inner rhythm
- Share meaningful moments with a conscious, inclusive community
- Experience a transformational adventure that supports personal growth and authentic expression
Come solo, with a partner, or with friends, many arrive alone & leave feeling part of a tribe.
✨ WHO IS THIS FESTIVAL FOR?
- Open to all adults (18+)
- No prior experience required
- Ideal for lovers of ecstatic dance, wellness festivals, embodiment, yoga, music, and nature
- Please note: This year’s festival is not suitable for under-18s
- No dogs or other pets permitted on site
💷 TICKET PRICING & DEPOSIT
Reserve your place now with a £20 deposit on Eventbrite and lock in the Super Earlybird price of £380! The remaining £360 is due by the end of March 2026 via a booking link that will be emailed to you closer to the time.
-Super Earlybird price: £380
-Earlybird price: £420
-Regular price: £460
-Weekend only price: £240 (Accommodation NOT available for weekend ticket holders as we prioritise accommodation for 4 night attendees)
EVENTBRITE ORDER CONFIRMATION: Email might be in the spam folder. Please check. Do not print any paper tickets, we will check you in by your name.
– Unfortunately no dogs/ other pets are permitted on site.
– Children/kids: Unfortunately this year’s retreat will not be suitable for under 18’s.
TICKETS ON EVENTBRITE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ecstatic-dance-festival-2026-movement-musicnature-community-wellness-tickets-1979930666923
🥗 WHAT YOUR FESTIVAL TICKET INCLUDES:
-All Workshops & Cacao Ceremonies
-Camping spot, bring your own camping gear
-Car parking space
-All meals (3 meals per day, total 12 meals OR for weekend ticket holders 6 meals). During the festival, we all eat together (breakfast/ lunch/ dinner). Venue runs a vegetarian/vegan kitchen and does its best to meet the most common food requirements for guests such as gluten free/ lactose free/ vegan and all dishes will be clearly labelled. Venue might not be able to cater for other special diets. Please complete dietary requirement section when booking your festival ticket on the venue’s website.
-All saunas (7x sessions), small sauna towels will be provided.
-Unlimited teas/coffes, accessible anytime in the main house.
🛏 ACCOMMODATION OPTIONS & UPGRADES: (available from 20 Jan once the link for this will be published on venue’s website)
–Campervan space (bring your own campervan) from £10 per night plus power if needed
-Shared dorms in the house £25 per night
-Deluxe dorms in the house £35per night
-Standard Bell tents £45 per night (with a double bed or 2 single beds, no electricity)
-Deluxe Bell tents £60 per night (with a double bed & electricity)
-Private Rooms and private Pods from £60 per night
-For Weekend only attendees accommodation might not be available as we prioritise full festival attendees. Thanks for your understanding.
📍FESTIVAL PROGRAMME & LINE UP: ECSTATICDANCEFESTIVAL.CO.UK
(to be updated soon with 2026 line up)
(Bodywork session sign ups: at the festival’s notice board, pay cash/card in advance directly to therapists. Please note – most bodywork sessions will be in a shared indoor wellness space divided by currtains, one or two private bodywork rooms & bell tents.
♥ EXAMPLE DAILY *SCHEDULE
7:20AM – 8:30 AM Good Morning Active Meditation/ Movement Practice or Yoga
8:30 AM –9:30 AM Yummy Breakfast
9:30 AM – 1:00 PM Morning Gathering, Ecstatic Dance & Sharings, Workshops
1:00 PM – 1:30 PM Magnificent Lunch
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM Dishes Help
2:30 PM – 6:30 PM Sauna/ Massages/ Workshops
6:30 PM – 7:00 PM Delicious Dinner
6:50 PM – 7:50 PM Dishes Help
8:00 PM – 10:00 PM Evening Ecstatic Dance / Workshops
10:00 PM – 00:00 PM Campfire/ Sauna/ Dance Parties / Workshops
*PLEASE NOTE: this is just an example schedule, all workshops and timings might change slightly as we want to offer some flexibility with the schedule.
PHOTOGRAPHY/ VIDEO NOTICE
We live in the age of social media and so to capture our alcohol and drug free festival, we want to share to the world that we can have a great time without intoxicants. We will be photographing and videoing this festival. We thank you in advance for accepting this fact, and we ask please not to attend if you’re not happy being captured. Our media team, will of course be sensitive, and will only use the best shots of you.
💜 ALL UPCOMING WELLBEING EVENTS, RETREATS, FESTIVALS +CREWING:
Website: ecstaticdancelondon.com/events
Linktree: linktr.ee/ecstaticdancelondon
Instagram: @ecstaticdance_london
Mailing list: https://ecstaticdancelondon.myflodesk.com/we-are-london
💛FREE CREW SPACES:
We’d be very happy to hear from you if you’d like to help us in exchange for a free ticket! Requirement – you need to have attended at least two indoor events before you can join the crew. Please complete the sign up form and we’ll be in touch.
If you have any questions, please send us an email to: info@ecstaticdancelondon.com or ecstaticdancefestivaluk@gmail.com
WHAT IS OUR ECSTATIC DANCE FESTIVAL ALL ABOUT?
- Ecstatic Dance Festival® is an invitation to awaken the dancer within! Dance to feel alive, find your creativity, and free your body and mind through conscious dance!
- Connection with ourselves and our bodies explored through a cross-section of approaches.
- Live music with outstanding musicians
- Learn powerful exercises for grounding, releasing fear/stress/ tension/ trauma from the body and developing deeper presence and body awareness.
- Explore a wide variety of ecstatic dance and active meditation processes.
- Using music, movement, ritual, and connection to achieve a unified field of being.
- Rest, Relax & Rejuvenate with Sound journeys, Yoga Nidra, Massages & Saunas
- Attune to Nature and the living environment, release stress and come home to your Ecstatic-Self!
- Experiential not-to-be-missed retreat!
- This is an experiential playground for co-creating transformational experiences through dance and other movement and embodiment practices.
- It is full of Life-affirming transformational workshops beyond the old Drug and Alcohol paradigm
Whether you are looking for a way to better deal with the everyday stresses of life, get away from the City life and connect to Nature or whether you just simply want to try new body-mind based exercises, dance & laugh, meet and connect with new people, relax in the sauna, we invite you to explore the tools & practices during this deep dive of 4 days and discover the positive benefits for yourself.
<<<<<*~ PRACTICAL INFORMATION ~*>>>>>
CANCELLATION POLICY
We offer this festival in order to support the growth of physical and mental wellness of attendees and it requires many hours of organisation and planning. We ensure we have sufficient funds to do this with the following policy:
– Participants join the retreat at their own risk. Ecstatic Dance London accepts no responsibility for spontaneous joy, open-heartedness or sore cheeks from too much smiling.
CANCELLATION BY ATTENDEES:
-All festival tickets are non-refundable. If you cannot attend the festivaldue to any reason or personal matter including covid, we will not be able to issue a retreat ticket refund, sorry.
-You are welcome to pass on your festival ticket to a friend, colleague or family member, resell your ticket or consider gifting your place to someone, there are many people in our network who do not have the funds to attend such a retreat. Please let us know name and email address of the person attending in your place by sending us an email with replacement person’s details to so we can transfer the ticket in their name.
CANCELLATION BY THE ORGANIZER/VENUE:
Due to situations beyond our control, Ecstatic Dance London reserves the right to change booking or cancel the festival and shall inform the customer as soon as possible. You may transfer your full payment to another retreat or you may request a refund of your payment to us, constituting a full settlement. Alternative arrangements will be offered but we do not accept responsibility for any costs incurred, including travel. Ecstatic Dance London is not responsible for your expenses incurred in preparation for any cancelled retreat such as travel costs, loss of work, and/or other costs associated with preparing for your trip. As organizers of this retreat, we do not take any responsibility for any matters beyond our control or for any covid related matters that occur during the retreat.
CARS/ TRAINS/TRAVEL
CAR PARK ON SITE FREE OF CHARGE: there is a car park available on site free of charge to all festival attendees. As much as possible, please arrange car shares to limit the carbon footprint and reduce the amount of cars on site.
LIFT SHARES: Attendees will receive a link to a WhatsApp group to arrange lift shares and train journeys. Link will be sent few weeks prior to the festival.
TRAINS: Nearest train station Gillingham, Dorset. Please check https://www.thetrainline.com for train tickets and train schedules. There are local taxi services and we will send a list in April with contact details to all participants. One way journey from station to venue will cost under £10. We do encourage car & taxi sharing if possible as it’s more eco friendly.
FOOD
All meals are included (3 meals per day, total 12 meals). Venue runs a vegetarian/vegan kitchen and does its best to meet the most common food requirements for guests such as gluten free/ lactose free/ vegan and all dishes will be clearly labelled. Venue might not be able to cater for other special diets. Please complete dietary requirement section when you book festival ticket via venue’s website. Teas/coffees available at anytime with a selection of alternative milks. Filtered drinking water also available to refill your water bottles. There is also a Coffee/cake shop which is run by Leela community and will be open at certain times during the day.
PLEASE NOTE: Festival takes place at Leela and there is a community of people who already live there or have joined one of their live-in programmes. To support the community and help with the practicalities, participants will be required to help once during the retreat with the dishes– either one day after lunch or dinner. Many thanks in advance for your support with this.
VENUE
Ecstatic Dance Festival site is located 10 minute drive by car from Gillingham train station in North Dorset
ADDRESS: The Leela Centre, Thorngrove House, Common Mead Ln, Gillingham SP8 4RE
DIRECTIONS AND HOW TO GET THERE: https://osholeela.uk/getting-here/
ARRIVAL & DEPARTURE: We ask participants to arrive between 4pm-6pm on the first day to allow time to check-in, explore the grounds and settle in before we start. The festivalwill start with dinner at 6:30pm followed by a welcome session from 8pm. The festival will end at 3pm after lunch on the last day and there will be plenty of time to pack up and depart. Please do not leave before the end of the retreat. Aim to depart around 4pm to give yourself enough time.
EXTRA NIGHT’S STAY: Option to stay on site until Monday 27 July 11am for a reduced rate including dinner & breakfast. If you’re staying in any accommodation, there will be a charge for extra night accordingly. Sign ups and payments – please go to the Leela office directly on Sun 26 July after lunch or select this option when booking your festival ticket.
WHAT TO BRING
We encourage all participants to have a Digital Detox during the retreat and to switch off phones. Maybe bring a simple alarm clock so you can wake up for morning meditations/yoga.
-If you have booked accommodation, please note that all bedding is provided .
-Camping gear for those who choose to camp (tent, pegs, mattress, insulating mat, sleeping bag or duvet, pillow, extra blanket, hot water bottle, lights to put inside the tent etc)
-Reusable water bottle
-Yoga Mat & blanket
-Ground coffee & cafetiere for coffee lovers (venue provides instant coffee and has limited cafetiere’s so please bring your own if you have one). Community run coffee & cake shop will be open at certain times so you will be able to buy a proper coffee/lattes etc if you wish to.
-Torch (head torches are really useful)
-Clothing in layers suitable for movement/ dancing
-Clothing & boots/shoes suitable for hiking/ outdoors
-Waterproofs or umbrella in case of rain
-Warm jacket or jumper for evenings as temperature will drop during the night
-Swimsuit/ swim shorts for sauna
-Towel
-Ear-plugs (if you’re a light sleeper)
-Toiletries: (natural & biodegradable products if possible please)
-Acoustic music instruments if you wish to such as guitar, ukulele, drums etc.
-Snacks such as nuts/ dried fruit/ flapjacks/ chocolate, avocados etc for when you get peckish or if you want extra yummy things
-Personal items such as phone/ charger/ card/ keys etc.
-Anything else you think will make the retreat more comfortable for you!
♥ FEEDBACK FROM PREVIOUS RETREATS/FESTIVALS:
“That was a very beautiful experience. An amazing journey inward & out. To express in a free space filled with joyful vibes & gorgeous smiling faces. In sound, in rhythm, in motion, in colour, in sweat, the Dance, the Soul.” Cath
“The smiles, the kind eyes, the bits when I lost myself in the music, the joy of the moments when it felt as if the whole room was jumping in unison.” Salvo
“ What a profound experience! The music was so beautiful … it carried me effortlessly inward facilitating a deep connection to Spirit, moving my body in a way that I felt I had little control over. It was magical! Thank you ” Ashley
“Thank you guys. This was an exceptional experience of deep healing, awakening, and opening. I feel so light, peaceful, and full of Love. Through the workshops we took, I touched some of my wounds, gently but deeply releasing and healing what was ready to be alchemised. Thank you to all the other lovely participants. Please organise the next one soon! ” Tanja
“ The workshop gave me the opportunity to go deeper into my body and discover new experiences which I hadn’t been able to tap into before. It was a good mix of different exercises, and I had a really blissful experience with the breathwork.” Vijay
” I feel so grateful I had the opportunity to attend this workshop. I felt that Seth, through his presence, allowing, way of being, created a very unique, safe space in which I could release, discover, explore and meet different aspects of myself. I was amazed how during the two days I was – often unexpectedly and gently – led to bring forth and embrace a child, an ancient woman, an animal, a spoiled brat, a mother, a lover, a goddess… Also through Seth’s guidance and suggestions I felt within very short spaces of time both my immense sorrow/yearning/pain and my immense joy/gratitude, realising how close to each other these seemingly opposites are. Today I feel a more solid belonging in the world, and a heightened awareness of the soles of my feet on the floor, like the earth, was more magnetic!” Maria
💜 ALL UPCOMING WELLBEING EVENTS, RETREATS, FESTIVALS +CREWING:
Website: ecstaticdancelondon.com/events
Linktree: linktr.ee/ecstaticdancelondon
Instagram: @ecstaticdance_london
Mailing list: https://ecstaticdancelondon.myflodesk.com/we-are-london
💛FREE CREW SPACES:
We’d be very happy to hear from you if you’d like to help us in exchange for a free ticket! Requirement – you need to have attended at least two indoor events before you can join the crew. Please complete the sign up form and we’ll be in touch.
If you have any questions, please send us an email to: info@ecstaticdancelondon.com