Three days of music, arts, food and wellness an hour from Dublin ...
Ireland’s award-winning boutique festival Beyond The Pale returns to Glendalough Estate in Wicklow on June 12-14 for its fifth year, with headliners including Primal Scream, Sister Sledge, a Groove Armada DJ set and landmark appearance by Mike D of Beastie Boys closing the festival for Sunday’s finale show. This marks his first Irish performance in 20 years and the first time any member of the band has returned to the live stage since Adam Yauch’s death in 2012.
Beyond the music, the boldest arts programme to date spans over 600 artists and performers in comedy, cabaret and immersive theatre across 12 stages and areas. Beyond The Plate also levels up this year with talks, tastings, and restaurant dining from three of Dublin’s best restaurants in Host, Reggie’s and Ibíle. There’ll also be special events including Una Mullally’s Grianstad: The Trip, a Birdwatching Walk with Seán Ronayne and a secret guest tipped to close Púc Fada.
Photography by Celeste Burdon.
The Acushla wellness area returns as an open-access escape for a breather between gigs, offering free Tai Chi, Shamanic drumming, cacao ceremonies and more in an inclusive environment. For those seeking a moment of respite during the weekend, British supermodel?turned?wellness advocate Sophie Anderton’s Anam Kara Wellness provides an alcohol-free retreat within the historic Glendalough House. Guests can book guided sessions in yoga, breathwork, meditation and sound baths, delivered by expert facilitators. Luxury glamping, saunas and cold-water dips round out the premium experience. We spoke to Sophie about how a traumatic accident as a child led to her modelling and subsequent wellness journey, the benefits of yoga and sound baths, what visitors can expect and what’s next for her.
What can we expect at Anam Kara Wellness Retreat? Anam Kara Wellness opens its doors for the first time to welcome Beyond The Pale festival goers to step away from the madness, and join us at the main house for rest and restoration. Come and experience a tranquil getaway in our 6,400 sq ft biophylic sanctuary, where myself and my team will help you explore a variety of unique retreats that will leave you ready to hit the party once again, night after night! Choose from Fire & Ice in our newly built handcrafted saunas and ice baths with Marta Vera, or a gentle Vinyasa flow and sound bath in The Fernery. For the more adventurous, The Music room calls you to our state-of-the-art aerial yoga space, followed by an idyllic floating sound bath cocooned in sheepskin and shavasana blankets.
Within the beauty of The Water Gardens, we’ve integrated an immersive experience in nature where you’ll be serenaded by the water flowing through the srutháins and our resident songbirds while feeling the power of Shamanic drumming. For meditation, the Ambient Garden boasts a fusion of live music set deep within the walls of our ancient garden shaded by Magnolia trees. There truly is something for everyone.
What are you looking forward to at Beyond The Pale? I simply love everything about BTP, from watching production build the magnificent stages and art installations to the buzz of the imminent arrival of our regular thousands of festival goers. For me, though, it has to be welcoming you all to Anam Kara Wellness for the first time and, of course, Groove Armada and Primal Scream!
What do you love about Glendalough? I love standing on top of the mountain looking down on the valley into the glacial lakes or the expansive views across Wicklow Mountains National Park. More than anything, I love my community. After being a true nomad, for the first time in my life I’ve found my forever home. Creating Anam Kara Wellness here has been one of the most meaningful chapters of my life, shaped by the grounding and renewal that the Glendalough Valley offers every day. Bringing it to Beyond The Pale allows us to share that sense of stillness and reconnection with others, whether someone is seeking calm, clarity or simply a moment away from the festival’s energy.
Do you have a favourite type of yoga? There are so many different yoga practices that I’ve come to love over the years since I first discovered it while working as a model in South East Asia, aged 17. Spiritually, Kundalini Shamanic yoga awakens my energy in a transformative frequency; it always allows me the most powerful of emotional releases. Vinyasa yoga combined with Ashtanga is my perfect yogi workout that supports my love of strength training. Now that I’m 49, it’s a great way to focus while challenging my body and mind. I opt for Yin yoga at night to reduce my cortisol levels and regulate my nervous system before I sleep.
I discovered aerial yoga in the Bahamas 12 years ago, where I immediately fell in love with the feeling of flipping, flying and floating. It’s an incredible suspension workout, but never fails to bring out the inner child in me. I challenge anyone not to laugh and smile throughout! It’s also wonderful for those, like me, who might suffer from scoliosis as it enables spinal decompression. With yoga, there’s a practice for everyone and all levels, so we tailor classes to facilitate variations for all abilities.
For the uninitiated, how are sound baths healing? I hope to initiate everyone to its healing abilities, especially those who perhaps aren’t so keen on yoga. At AKW, each of our sound healers has their own unique approach. From my experience and the amazing feedback I receive from our community, the main benefits are a noticeable and immediate reduction in stress, relaxation that feels like it reaches you on a cellular level and, most of all, a guaranteed blissful eight hours of sleep – offering a respite from perimenopause sleep interruptions! I’m extremely sensitive to light, noise and vibrations, so sound healing sends me into a deep meditative state. I always emerge energised and creatively inspired.
Can you tell us about the accident in your childhood and how it affected you? I was hit by a drunk driver when I was 11-years-old, which left me with swelling on the brain and multiple fractures so severe that I nearly lost my foot. It was thanks to the most incredible surgeon flown in to Bristol that my life and leg were saved. However, all of my nerves and ligaments were severed, so the skin and tissue died on my ankle. Over three traumatic years, I suffered multiple bouts of gangrene and 27 operations, relieving my 24/7 pain with heavy doses of prescribed morphine.
While I regained my health – even winning four national modelling competitions on crutches – I was understandably scarred and needed to address PTSD, but also my unhealthy go-to of numbing pain, whether that was physical or emotional. Those formative years sketched a clear addiction pattern that followed me into my twenties until I did a full u-turn on how I approached my physical, mental and spiritual health. No-one walks away from an accident of that severity without wearing the scars, but those scars weaved together to make me the woman I am today.
Did that traumatic experience draw you to wellness later in life? Absolutely. When modern medicine failed to heal my open to the bone wounds for three years, ancient Chinese medicine, acupuncture and reflexology healed my leg in three months, so looking back I’ve always been on the path that’s lead me to where I am today. At 30, I began educating myself about nutrition, exercise and spirituality. It was a long journey that was especially painful at the beginning as I began my road to recovery at the same time. It led me to creating Anam Kara Wellness as a safe space where everyone belongs with one sole intention – to seek solitude from the noise, negativity and stress that the outside world sadly embodies on a magnified level. We’re all equal and judgement is unwelcome.
What’s next? We’ll be bringing some international wellness concepts new to Ireland soon. Watch this space as we’re only just beginning and the best is yet to come!
