Tell us your story, and how you came to found Float.
Both of us (Daisy and Laura) worked in fairly corporate environments for years and experienced first-hand the overwhelming stress that often goes hand-in-hand with climbing the career ladder. We knew we wanted to be ‘well’ but there’s a very traditional and prescriptive way the media tends constructs wellness, and this was just making us feel worse. We both felt that wellness should extend beyond yoga and nutrition, and embrace the fact that wellness means something different for everyone – for one person it could be cultivating mindfulness through art and creativity, for another it could be moving your body in fun ways such as dance, for another it could be getting balance back into the body through restorative activities such as reading.
There is no one size fits all and we feel like this message is not loud enough and therefore we wanted to create Float to help people to see that there is a new way to view wellness. We’re passionate about helping to join the dots between creativity and conversation as paths to wellness and sincerely hope that Float will help join these dots for a huge number of people.
Float is taking place this weekend, tell us what you’ve got planned…
We have a stellar line-up of eye-opening and inspiring talks, creative, mind-nourishing and therapeutic workshops, progressive, easy-to-follow yoga, and movement classes, pamper pods, live music, reflexology, flash mob dance troops, volleyball fitness, modern meditation, amazing independent retail pop-ups and more!
The festival has been programmed to appeal to everyone, regardless of gender, age or physical ability, with the overarching goal of exposing people to loads of different activities and letting them decide themselves what wellness means for them. We want to get everyone involved in the discussion and have the chance to experience different ways of feeling well, through creativity, movement, the simple act of having fun, and so on.
What has the reception been like to the festival so far?
It’s been wonderful! Everyone we’ve approached has been so receptive to, and engaged with, the concept of what we’re trying to promote and we’ve heard so many people tell us that this is exactly what Manchester needs right now.
Why did you feel it was important to introduce a wellness festival?
Wellness has become such a trendy buzzword of late but so much of the traditional media positioning around wellness is yoga and nutrition-centric. We want to shift the dial and help people really tune in to what makes them feel good and well and ALIVE. The most important thing to us is that people leave the festival on a high, with a promise to put what they’ve learnt into practise in their daily lives.
Have you got plans to extend your reach in coming years, around the UK?
We’re fully focused on our efforts up here in the North just now but never say never! Once we’ve delivered a kick-ass launch festival we’ll be able to step back, assess and plot our next move.
How can people get involved in this year’s festival?
Tickets are selling like hotcakes but we still have some Wanderers and Fun Lovers morning and afternoon sessions tickets available, which can be purchased via our website: https://floatfestivalmcr.co.uk/wannacome/
