Festival season… but make it luxe!

Every year, Henley Festival serves as an important reminder of the power of spectacle, and the important role that glamour, glitz and get-togethers play in creating ‘peak living’ experiences.

This year, the festival more than lived up to its reputation as a wellspring of entertainment, inspiration and reverie.

The music, comedy, art and culinary itinerary never fail to disappoint, and this year with Rick Astley headlining, the event proved as much an opportunity to indulge in novelty, as it did nostalgia.

Although the high point of Friday’s floating stage performance was undeniably ‘Never gonna give you up’, the delight of this swing set ran much deeper than familiarity, and the salve of singing-a-long to the songs of one’s youth!

It was also, as Rick pointed out, a chance to luxuriate in the ‘dying art’ of big band - the rare sight and sounds of which only added to this swing soundscape’s potency.

True to expectation, the cornucopia of Henley Festival has lived up to its ‘something for everyone’ standard, whether you’re in it for the music, the art or the wining and dining.

Personally, it’s a case of all-of-the-above that has kept me coming back to Henley for what is three years in a row now. It’s an annual dose of the out-of-the-ordinary, which distills the therapeutic effects of social connection, dopamine dressing (there are few, if any, other events which replicate this event’s strict black tie dress code), music and ‘outdoorphins’ into a unique and universal tonic.

Basking in the afterglow of this year’s event, it’s safe to say the experience has not only compounded my belief that summer is by far the most superior season, but that ‘experiences not things’ and wellness are two sides of the same coin. Together forever, as Mr Astley would say.

www.henley-festival.co.uk