YuLife partnered with Bespoke Events Management to create the Festival of Yu, a three-day private summer festival bringing more than 230 colleagues together at Hartswood Estate. For a company built around wellbeing, community and making everyday life more rewarding, a conventional company away day was never going to be enough. The festival needed to give the team time to connect, learn, recharge and celebrate, while creating an experience that felt unmistakably YuLife.
With a large team and three days together, the programme needed enough variety to appeal to different personalities and interests without making guests feel as though every moment had been scheduled for them.
Wellbeing and learning were important parts of the experience, but so were fun, celebration and genuine downtime. The challenge was to bring all of these elements together within one cohesive festival, while managing the accommodation, production, hospitality and logistics required for hundreds of guests staying on site.
We transformed Hartswood Estate into a private festival environment, complete with a glamping village and a programme that allowed guests to choose how they wanted to spend their time.
Yoga, forest bathing and mindfulness walks sat alongside workshops, talks, sports and team challenges, creating different ways for colleagues to participate throughout the festival. Shared meals and company moments brought everyone back together, while street food, live music, interactive entertainment, a quiz night and outdoor cinema shifted the atmosphere naturally from daytime activities into the evenings.
Behind the scenes, Bespoke coordinated the festival infrastructure, accommodation, suppliers, activities, entertainment and guest experience across the three days.
Guests could start the day with yoga, head into a workshop or team challenge, take time out in the grounds, or simply catch up with colleagues before coming together again over food, music and evening entertainment.
Staying together in the festival village meant the experience continued beyond the scheduled programme. Conversations could carry on over dinner, around the site and into the evening, giving colleagues the kind of uninterrupted time together that is difficult to create during everyday working life.
The Festival of Yu brought YuLife’s culture into the real world, combining wellbeing, learning, play and celebration in one shared experience that gave more than 230 colleagues the freedom to enjoy the festival in their own way.
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