Reviews / Fire in Your Soul
Review: Fire in Your Soul – ‘Diving in yields pearls of connection and inspiration’
The smell of woodsmoke permeating the air and oversized flags, flapping in an unseasonal bluster, are the only signs there might be anything unusual taking place in this tranquil North Somerset spot.
Following the flags like breadcrumbs down a treelined track, a teepee-like structure beckons visitors into its dark interior, past a stage, through a bar and out into a courtyard.
It’s here the true majesty of Nature’s Spectacular is revealed, the Chew Valley lake glistening below and rolling hills stretching beyond to the horizon.
is needed now More than ever
They weren’t lying about those breathtaking vistas.
The courtyard, its centrepiece a heart-fire with flames flickering out from an impressive steam-punk style ironwork sculpture, is the hub for this festival-with-a-difference designed not for escape but to ‘remember who we are’.
Luke Hasell, a proponent of nature-friendly farming and regenerative lifestyles as well as the founder of Valley Fest, usually held on this same site, has put together a programme that venerates nature, embraces holistic wellbeing practices, and gets back to the foundations of wholesome happiness rooted in good food, music and community.
Three tents offer distinctive strands of activity: Ignite hosts talks from organic growers, ethical food producers, radical musicians, activists and wild healers.
Soul is the wellbeing centre with yin, power and healing yoga sessions, sound baths and breathwork; and the Hearth is for listening, singing and getting busy on the dancefloor.
Yoga, saunas, panel discussions, poetry and music took place in airy tents found at the end of winding woodland trails at Fire in Your Soul
While the alternative ideas on offer here might cause some to pause – “there’s a fear around trying out alternatives, even just like deep breathing” acknowledges speaker Lilla Sinclair – the only way to find out, as we all know, is to hold the breath (more on that later) and dive right in.
The open-minded approach yields more pearls than expected.
The festival proves a feast of inspiration for those that spend the weekend exploring winding woodland trails, converging for discussions and workshops under canvas at trail-end, and breaking up the cerebral focus with movement and breath or fire and ice.
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Jack Witts introduces a small group to Wim Hof breathwork, a technique utilising a form of hyperventilation that charges up the nervous system before restoring it to a ‘rest and digest’ state that combats fatigue and brain fog.
In a ‘letting go’ workshop natural healing advocate Sinclair teaches a similar method she, in her frank and lively Scottish manner, calls “sook sook blow” that participants doing just that for half an hour or so find profoundly powerful (“what just happened?!” laughs one in delighted shock, while another smilingly tells the group she’s unable to move or sit up).
Sivo Wellness situate their sauna and ice baths above the lake for optimum views; a sweat-and-plunge session in this idyllic spot not only feels like a real indulgence, but one that’s good for body and mind.
Lilla Sinclair has big ambitions to heal Scotland with nature and wild medicine, saying it’s up to us to act against a ‘blame, shame, complain’ culture and take radical responsibility for our own health and futures
A panel hosted by EarthSonic is enlightening on the use of music to tell stories of climate change: Joey Dean, AKA Natural Symphony, passionately describes the vision that led to his active electronic music collaboration with plants, harnessing their live responses to human emotion through lie detector machines and turning these electrical impulses into beats, bass and melodies.
“The idea is to demonstrate these plants are alive and display the unseen connection between nature and humanity,” he says.
And activist/lyricist Madame Ghandi describes using hydrophones to record Arctic ice melting underwater, the basis for her own nature collaboration: “That glacier bass hits you in the gut – Mother Nature at her most powerful!”
EarthSonic is a project overseen by In Place of War, an organisation using art, music and culture as a tool for positive change in places experiencing conflict and to tackle climate change impacts
Both artists want their music to be as widely accessible as possible, broadening the audience for this kind of conversation and taking the nature/music intersection out of the ‘sound healing’ niche.
Fire in Your Soul could take a leaf out their book, the dull metallic thump of the hang drum and other cliched new age sounds of a similar ilk seemingly ubiquitous across yoga, workshops and musical performances.
That’s not to say there isn’t some fine entertainment on display. FFTP, their feet firmly on the ground, bring floating beings back down to earth with their gritty and heartfelt take on trad folk that belongs round a campfire.
Madame Ghandi began her set with a meditation, accompanied by hang drum and Bethany Ley on harp, before moving to a more upbeat performance that got the crowd on their feet, dancing
Madame Ghandi’s upbeat vocal bounce gets people on their feet, singing along with her mantras espousing positivity, hope and ‘speaking our truth’.
Bethany Ley’s harp-led electronica seamlessly traverses ethereal and earthly realms, breathy chants intoned over glitchy beats. And Natural Symphony’s set is a revelation, Dean stroking leaves to elicit plant power that feeds directly into his uptempo techno-flecked dance music.
While some larger festivals offer freedom in anonymity, Fire in Your Soul creates safety in community; a weekend surrounded by ever-more-familiar faces, sharing unconventional and sometimes vulnerable experiences – as well as the good stuff – means when the evenings come round the dancefloors readily fill up with enthusiastic bodies, losing themselves in music.
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While organisers might have hoped for a few more feet on the ground, the intimate nature of the event actually works in its favour, giving it a family or tribal feel, relationships and solidarity at its core.
If – as a panel on ethical food production comprising local meat producers and growers including Hasell, Kim Brooks of the Community Farm and Fernhill Farm’s Andy Wear attest – the way forward for the movement is to build community one step at a time through shared food, experiences and connection, Fire in Your Soul’s inaugural edition sets it on the right path.
The site’s peaceful woodland location is the perfect place to recharge, offering respite from city life
The price tag of ‘the alternative’ was raised repeatedly throughout the weekend, as attendees grappled with the thorny issue of creating equal access to holistic lifestyles, wellness practices and organic food, all demonstrably beneficial for quality of life – for those that can afford them.
While the festival is a bargain at £99 for the weekend (though workshop and wellbeing add-ons rack up for those that want to fully participate), the festival’s setting – a beautiful rural location named the best place to live in the south west by the Times this year – is not public transport accessible, with options for non-drivers limited to arguments with reluctant city-based taxi companies.
Abit of a bind for a climate-forward festival.
But it’s a niggle debuting events are commonly forced to reckon with, and not impossible to overcome in time for next year’s festival.
Fire in Your Soul, perhaps ambitiously, promised to be ‘transformational’. Surprisingly, it wasn’t far off meeting its ambition. The weekend served as an immersive rest and recharge in nature, fuel to the fire of those looking to make the world a greener, kinder, more connected place.
As promised it was a regenerative experience and a real reminder of what truly matters: good food for the body and mind, inspiration for the soul and a healthy dose of community forged in the process.
It’s hard to imagine leaving without a redoubled enthusiasm for rebuilding the world, one step at a time.
For more information, visit fireinyoursoul.co.uk
All images: Ursula Billington
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