There’s something about festivals that stirs something deep in me — the freedom, the music, the soul connections, the joy. They bring out my inner child, my wild woman, and the part of me that just wants to feel fully alive.
Glastonbury: My Spiritual Playground
My first Glastonbury in 2006 blew my mind. I remember being blown away by it, it was like an adult’s playground — amazing live music, non-stop, so much to see and do, everyone high on life. I fell in love instantly.
From Raver to Healer
I used to be a big clubber — losing myself in music and community. And then life got serious, work got stressful, and the spark faded. But cacao — and festival life — brought that joy back. I found a new way to merge freedom and purpose, dance and depth.
Festivals are my happy place – I can’t put into words how it makes me feel to be there. They definitely bring out the inner child in me. It’s interesting too, as there is a part of me that finds it very daunting and overwhelming. Especially the older I’ve got, and maybe even after the pandemic lockdown experience- I’ve just naturally shy-ed away from big crowds. So now, it takes a bit of time to acclimatise to it, but once I do – I then love the sheer magnitude of the amount of people I am within.
I remember so clearly the first time I went to Glastonbury and finally set up our camp after hours of gruelling effort getting there. We literally had to walk an hour across the festival and up a steep hill to where my group wanted to be. (I had a number of breakdowns and strops doing that mission!) carrying my own weight on my back and a crate of beers in my arms – I have no idea how I managed it! Anyway, the feeling of relief when it was over, mixed with excitement that we were all there after so much lead up to it. When I first heard the waves of cheers that go around the fields of people celebrating being there, it gave me such goosebumps! It was such a joyous feeling, all these people coming to this place to just have fun. So many people suddenly put together from all around the UK, the world even.
This has been a huge part of festivals that I loved straight away – the feeling of community that you get from it. And not necessarily straight away – first maybe sticking to your group and playing safe, but eventually over the 5 days, everyone lets their guard down and connects more with the people around them. I’ve noticed this a lot more recently, and how much more you find yourself in random conversations in this environment. And these days, situated in the Greenfields, they’re the kind of conscious conversations that I’ve really missed from living in Guatemala.
It’s the same kind of openness and free-spirit energy as you get when you go travelling (backpacking) which I guess is why I fell in love with festivals. There’s something that happens when a group of people with positive energy/ outlook spend time together – that energy spreads. Like a smile, or a yawn – the behaviour gets picked up by the subconscious mind that wants to follow any actions that it knows will feel good and has a positive impact.
There is a theory that suggests that a group’s collective consciousness can be greater than the sum of its individual consciousnesses.
So, being around people in such an expansive, high vibration environment – where the main focus is around joy, fun, happiness. Doing the things that light you up and lift your natural frequency – like dance, music, laughing, dressing up, being around people you love – it all attracts more of the same feelings. And it becomes this bubble of high frequency energy that is very noticeable after being there just a couple of days. For me, this feels like home. It feels more like home than life in London. It feels more aligned with the way I want to feel and live. I love the feeling of wonder you get walking around, so much to see and take in, so much playfulness in the air, people running around, squealing with joy at things. Smiling and complimenting each other. It’s very different to life in London.
I feel like this is part of the big dip you get when you return home – the shift in the level of consciousness lived in, the sudden shift from being around lots of people daily, to not. The freedom and focus on joy and fun moving to responsibility and ‘the real world’ that doesn’t allow for most people to do what they love nearly enough and actually brings about a lot of pressure, stress and anxiety. Since I moved to working within the festival, my experience massively shifted. For years I used to go alone and would make friends whilst I was there. Thinking about it now, it was so brave! I’d always find really amazing people to hang out with and formed really great connections and had so much fun. I met a lot of people that way. And that’s when I really started to experience the community essence that Glastonbury brings. People forming great connections over their mutual love of music, dance and festival life. Now we’re based in the healing fields with our ceremonial work there – it’s becoming like being part of a big family. I love our space and the people that come together to form the healing fields. Again it brings that sense of being part of something really special and magical.
Festivals are Healing
There’s a collective energy at festivals. People open up. Masks drop. Conversations deepen. There’s more connection, more kindness, more play. It feels like how life should be.
And in the Healing Fields, we witness transformation after transformation. People walk into our cacao tent heavy and walk out glowing — having released something, seen themselves more clearly, connected to their joy again.
And now, with our Root to Rise workshop launching this year — guiding women to live in sync with their natural flow and cyclical wisdom — it’s become even more powerful. It’s about reclaiming our rhythm and rewriting what it means to be a woman in today’s world.
I love the opportunity that we now have to connect with so many people in our little bell tent sharing about the power of cacao ceremonially. We have shared so many enlightening, beautiful experiences with people from all walks of life, from around the world each with their own struggles.
One thing that comes up everytime, is the common themes of worries and stresses that each person sharing thought was just something ‘wrong with me’, thinking they were failing in some way, not doing as well as everyone else etc. And it’s always so heart-warming to see the reassurance they get from hearing a group of people echo back to them that they relate to their struggle. This itself is transformational, as it allows a person to let go of the negative energy around something, in order to allow in another reality.
We have been witness to so many shifts, releases and positive breakthroughs over the years sharing these experiences. The main shift we see is someone ‘seeing themselves’ for the first time. Realising how much potential they have, how much they actually do and achieve already and allow their self worth to rise.
I love seeing people leave our gathering looking more uplifted, glowing, feeling lighter, happier. I love how many people we get coming back too, year after year!
We get our regular Glasto workers who come on the Weds to set their intentions for the festival, we get people who bring their friends after loving their experience the year before. We even had one person say it was their highlight of the previous year! And that was the year Elton John played – so I thought that was pretty big lol.
This year I am looking forward to sharing my new workshop for women Root to Rise – a workshop for women embracing being in our natural Flow State. Guiding through ways to live in sync with our inner rhythm & embrace the energies of our menstrual cycle.
This is something I’ve had a calling to share, following my own journey around this and with so many women having challenges in this area. I’ve realised that there’s not being enough education around how to work to our highest potential as a woman, living in a woman’s world. We’ve only been forced how to work like a man in a man’s world. And so women are being pushed to overwhelm and burn out as we’re not listening to our body’s calling to follow our own natural cycles and rhythms.
I’m very passionate about this area, after reaching burn out twice by working at this unnatural pace and not optimising how I work in alignment with my own natural ways. I will share more on this topic very soon!
Why I Keep Coming Back
Because in that bubble of high-vibe, heart-led community — I remember what matters. I feel more myself than I do in daily life. I feel ‘home’. It enables me to stay true to my highest values of enjoying freedom, losing myself in great music and dancing and connecting with many amazing souls!
What Lights You Up?
Festivals are my happy place. What’s yours? Music? Art? Travel? Nature? Whatever brings you to life — make more space for it. Prioritise it. That’s where your magic lives.
Each of us has our own things that light us up, that raises our vibration and brings us joy. It’s always great to reflect on what that is for you, and make sure that you are allowing yourself that joy, to do what you love often. So you can be the best version of yourself and live your life fully. It’s so easy to forget these things and get lost in ‘work’ and responsibilities.
