Body&Soul Founder & Creative Director Avril Stanley welcomes you to this year's eagerly-anticipated B&S bash, which runs from June 23rd – 25th.
Body&Soul was devised by a team of like-minded passionate creatives who aspire to deliver a world-class pioneering weekend festival each year.
This year, we’ve introduced the theme Second Skin, to encourage our Body&Soulers to dust off that forgotten frock or fish out your most flamboyant costume - particularly for Saturday night's Masquerade Ball. We invite our guests to leave the daily grind of 9-5 behind, and join us for an adventure dotted with new experiences, and extraordinary moments around every corner.
One of this year’s new areas is The Library of Progress stage: Body&Soul was originally conceived as an incubator of great ideas, and it’s in this spirit that speakers will dismantle and debate some ‘big ideas’ by the great minds with a line-up including Blindboy Boatclub of Rubberbandits, Emmet Kirwan and more.
Body&Soul has never been solely about the music line-up - each year we devise new, exciting areas of the festival that give time to art, culture, talks, workshops, performances and more. We make it our business to collaborate with visionary artists to create ambitious installations that will catch your eye and shift your perspective. We also pack our programme with the best of Irish theatre, incredible kids programming that keeps little ones mesmerised all day long and holistic workshops to quiet the mind and soothe the soul.
Our music line-up always features exciting up and comers with legendary acts from across the musical spectrum. Whether you love clubbing, intimate acoustic gigs, big guitar sets or beguiling jazz, we have a little something for every musical taste. Our newly crafted Body&Soul stage (with its unique backdrop of indigenous trees) sits in the centre of a beautiful natural amphitheatre, and we always carefully hand-pick the acts that will appear on it; highlights this year include the wonderful electronica of Metronomy, the atmospheric stylings of Lambchop and synth-pop Canadians Austra.
Another act I'm excited about is genderqueer rapper Mykki Blanco, who will light up the Midnight Circus arena on Sunday night with a wild performance.
Being a mother myself, the enchanting realm that is our Soul Kids programme is close to my heart. Soul Kids is a place where children can be free in a world without schedules or routines. Our programme of adventures and magical happenings is the ultimate playground for the imagination with spectacular acts, performances, creative workshops and adventures in the forest, lakeside, walled gardens and hidden pathways. To make it easy, we’ve curated a new family campsite.
Elsewhere, you'll find stunning art installations, hidden forest dens and al fresco spas. You can dance your socks off in the forest before soaking in an outdoor hot tub or engaging in Ireland’s largest outdoor meditation session. One of last year’s festival favourites is our Food on Board area; there’ll be menus curated by some of Ireland’s most exciting food purveyors, alongside a Sparkling Conversations Salon that will feature everything from an Irish oyster shucking demo to the world’s top female sommelier. Then there's the Masquerade Ball, where guests are invited to reawaken their inner Marie Antoinette or evoke the Charleston era, and twist and twirl amongst mischievous masked revellers.
With one eye always on the future, the festival has invested significantly in the beautiful land at Ballinlough to ensure that the site can properly accommodate its festival family each year. Home to the Nugent family we invite all our festival audience to ‘Leave No Trace’ and honour the land of the estate that has hosted us for the weekend.
Every year is different and each experience unique. Our advice? Leave your weekday self at home, expect the unexpected and be prepared to leave with a glint in your eye!
Body&Soul takes place from June 23rd – 25th 2017 at Ballinlough Castle, Clonmellon, Co. Westmeath. More information here.
