New wellness festival in Tipperary launches this June bank holiday weekend

A new wellness festival is coming to Tipperary this June bank holiday weekend, bringing a mixture of yoga, music and good food to the town of Cahir on June 1.

Eddie Kendrick and Aaron Wall are co-owners of The Heat Retreat: a woodfired sauna located in Cahir Park AFC, and from their keen interest in wellness they have decided to create a festival dedicated to the idea.

Cahir Well-Fest will take place on Sunday June 1 from 11am until 5pm, at Inch Field in Cahir which is located next to the picturesque Cahir castle.

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Speaking with Eddie, he explains what exactly will be happening on the weekend.

“It’s a wellness festival but we will have vendors here too so coffee vendors, food vendors, arts and crafts, yoga, pilates, fitness talks. We also have an event in the castle as well. We’re hoping to have arts and crafts stalls, it’s our first year doing this so we’re trying to see who wants to be involved as well.

“It’s about people's mental health, the idea behind it was prevention over intervention, and we hope that people will learn about the different wellness related activities and we hope people in the area will use these services in the future. And what a place to showcase these activities, in Inch Field.”

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The pair tell me they have been friends since the age of four or five, and always wanted to start a business together. “Last year we bought a portable barrel sauna together, so we both co-own The Heat Retreat in Cahir. As a spin-off to that, we are both very interested in wellness. I’m a counsellor also. We just think Inch Field is a brilliant space and it’s not used enough. It’s amazing and it’s underutilised, so a wellness festival was just a natural progression from The Heat Retreat and the lifestyle we’re living now, into a healthier thing.

Aaron says they’ve noticed a change in people over the last year. “We see it on Sunday morning. People used to come to the sauna hung-over, now they just come to socialise as well. People are just looking after themselves better. We do love the town and feel that more needs to happen here, so we’re taking the reign a bit” said Aaron.

Eddie tells me why Cahir is the perfect place to have Well-Fest. “The town is really proactive, there’s a really good committee. The Tidy Towns have been brilliant too, they’re really helping us with this and have had a lot of ideas too, they’re really supportive as well.”

With busy lifestyles and too much time on screens, this weekend sounds like a nice retreat from everyday life for one sunny weekend.

Both organisers of the festival tell me that there is a space for more wellness related events, people are becoming more health conscious and there’s a gap in Tipperary for something like Cahir Well-Fest.

It promises to be a fun day out for all the family with tickets costing €20 for an adult, and anyone under 16 years of age has free entry. Tickets can be purchased via links found on the social media of the event @cahirwellfest and here.