From Dancefloors to Trail Running: Finding my new festival fix at Salto

8 Minute Read

Art & Culture

Written by Angie Fay

What do you actually do when you’ve spent a lifetime perfecting the art of festival debauchery?

When pretty much every weekend in summer used to be devoted to line-ups, gathering groups of friends, and dancing til dawn. When the only running you did was towards the bar, and sleep was merely what happened after you’d wrung every drop of fun out of it all.

Then life does that quietly subversive thing: you grow up a bit. You realise that sleep is pretty amazing, like, really nice. You start to look after yourself – treating your body like something more valuable than a vessel for whatever you can pour into it. You’re limiting your caffeine intake, eating blueberries, journaling, and taking your walks in nature. You’ve downloaded an app on your phone to help you continually monitor your use of your phone, to try to help you not constantly use your phone. And whilst you know all this balance and wellbeing is the ‘right thing’ to do, and admittedly you do feel quite good, but with all these reclaimed weekends that once belonged to beautiful, reckless abandon, what do you do now?

Turns out, you go to Salto.

Salto is a weekend festival set in the stunning volcanic forests of La Garrotxa, Catalunya. Its focus? Trail running, hiking and movement with a supplement of music, open-air parties and incredible food, ice-baths, massages, meditation, talks and wine tastings. And it’s not just for those now retired from the dancefloor – it’s for everyone. From committed Strava enthusiasts to social runners to first-time hikers. Every type of person and their dog (literally, pets are welcome) joined its debut this year. Yes, there is music – good music – but it ends early, with sound baths and yoga starting from 7am and a first run that leaves at 8.

I’m invited last-minute by a friend who knows both my festival past and my current wellness-based present, so it’s easily sold to me:

The Journey My Salto experience starts by flying into Barcelona, where I have a few hours to walk the palm-fringed boulevards, enjoy sitting outside sipping trendy coffee and checking out the latest in Spanish streetwear. From here it’s an easy hour and a half drive out of the city and into the Catalonian mountains. Forty minutes into the journey, and the view opens up to a landscape of rolling green, sun-streaked peaks and swathes of trees. It’s breathtaking, and I kind of can’t believe that with all my former visits to Barcelona over the years for festivals and parties, I never escaped the city once to see what lay outside.

We arrive at the site and are greeted in the car park by our first new friends – an ensemble of horses, ponies and goats. We get an even warmer welcome at reception by Salto founder Sam, along with his brother and girlfriend, who are all part of the operation. The vibe is instantly familiar and friendly.

We get shown to our tent by Sam, who tells us a bit more about why he started Salto.

“SALTO came out of me, trying to combine all my passions in one place: running, exploring nature, music, food, and people. I felt like there was space for an event/weekend that’s more in tune with how people actually want to spend their time now. There seems to have been a cultural shift (maybe it’s an age thing too haha), where people want to come away from a festival feeling energised and inspired, not zapped & wiped out….something more rounded – where you can move, explore, eat amazing food, hang with your mates, meet new ones, try something different, and then party to great music. Trying to tick all the boxes of a holiday, retreat and festival in one weekend, with like-minded people.”

"There seems to have been a cultural shift, where people want to come away from a festival feeling energised and inspired, not zapped & wiped out….something more rounded"

The Site

The site itself is set out in a pleasingly simple format of zones. There’s the Oasis – for talks, tastings and offline time. The Main Stage – for music; a soundtrack by day and more of a main event by night. The pool – giving Palm Springs vibes with retro chic parasols and luminous inflatables, complete with its own set of decks. And then the Crater – a green bowl with a volcanic wall backdrop that hosts the classes, of which there are around six a day to choose from; a mix of yoga, pilates, HIIT, sound-baths and on the final day, the only really competitively fuelled event of the entire weekend – the Salto beer-relay.

In the surroundings are the camping sites with a mix of boutique bell tents or pitch-your-own, and facilities with hot running water, showers and flushing toilets. There are food trucks with tacos, pizzas, and coffee stations that provide fresh pastries every morning, along with your oat flat white. There’s a BBQ each evening and a full cooked breakfast station served each morning. Each meal is sumptuously delicious and widely catered for, but created with runners’ requirements in mind.

The Vibe

The overall vibe is a mix of English country garden party meets summer camp. It’s sweet and welcoming. I want to say it’s got an innocence to it, but it’s got more drive, more power, more determination than that. There’s a different fuel to this festival – endorphins? The crowd are mostly clad in easy athleisure wear and are relaxed. A full cross-section of ages and demographics, with groups of friends, couples and solo adventurers. I see someone sitting on a deck chair, casually juicing their own fresh juice from a huge bag of oranges each morning and to me, this is an instant sum-up of the space that’s been curated here. I’m on board.

Looking through the programme, there are daily runs led by local Barcelonan run clubs with everything from 5k hikes to 17k runs with a mix of paces – some female-only, some with intervals, some with bootcamp (might skip that). Every time a running group returns, there’s a round of applause from whoever’s on reception and high fives and good vibes all round. Massage tables are set up ready to serve by the finish lines, and ice baths are refilled regularly for those returning or, more in my case, for those who’ve been sunbathing and need to cool off.

The Moments

Waking up the first morning, I realised I’d missed the yoga session I was planning to attend by a full hour and a half (immediate flashbacks to the dancefloor late last night). So instead, I opt for a coffee and sit in a deck chair and just look out. Like, just sat there, NO PHONE. The person juicing their oranges is just off to one side of me. And I’m just sitting and staring out at the mountains. And I feel something inside of me. Something that’s still and settled. I think this might just be me ‘be’-ing. I’m at a festival and whilst I’ve slept in and woken up late, it’s still only 8.30 am. And I feel fresh. I have my oat flat white and fresh croissant, I have the hills and the views and my whole day ahead of me. I have an itinerary that I can just pick and choose from. And unlike at a regular music festival, I know that at 9 pm, not only will I still have full possession of my phone, wallet, and faculties, but everything I’ll have done before then will have only benefited my own personal health. And tomorrow, barring a few potentially achy muscles and effects of a couple of glasses of natty wine, I’m going to wake up feeling pretty good again.

I spring into action, this new revelation that whatever I do, it’s only doing me good. I stride into my first group run. I do yoga. I ice bath, which, to be fair, was a 2-part process. First dip – around 2 seconds. Second dip – pushing on for the 3-minute plus mark. Just saying. All around, runs and hikes are setting off and returning. Massages are being had in the fresh open air, and the pool party is popping off. This is more than a festival; it’s an ecosystem, and it all works in total balance. The perfect activity to close is the wine tasting, as the sun sets and thoughts turn to dinner and dancing. Sunday morning, and this time I make my sunrise sound bath. As I lie down and settle in, the vibrations flowing through us all, I gaze up at the sky in front of me and see a solitary hot air balloon gliding across, seemingly in perfect sync with the chime of a crystal bowl. In this moment, I think I could live here. In these hills, watching mountains, running trails, and being in nature. At the very least, I’ll join a running club when I get back.

The Realisation

SALTO RUNNER, who completed their first 18K at Salto:

“I came to running pretty late on. I’d always thought it ‘wasn’t for me’ but over the last few years, I discovered how amazing it was to be able to stride out of a morning… Salto was everything that I thought running clubs weren’t. It was such a privilege to be surrounded by friendly, open, all-level runners in the most serene setting in the volcanic country of North East Spain. I never thought I could run the distance I did, but with the encouragement of someone we met at the festival, I ran an 18k trail with ease.”

I’ve spent a couple of decades operating in the dance music domain on both a professional and party basis, and festivals have been a huge part of both. For various reasons (SLEEP), it’s not as regular an occurrence now, and to be truthful, that’s more than fine. I’ve done my fair share – in fact, I’ve done a lot of people’s shares – but since then, there has been a void.
But this weekend has opened up so much. It’s been eye-opening and life-affirming. And actually it is a bit like raving – you’re having a great time, you lose all your mates and end up chatting with random people – but instead of the smoking room, it’s on a 17k run where the guide takes you to get fresh ice cream at a local dairy at the 15k mark. There’s camping, but there are showers. And hot water. And flushing toilets. There’s a bar, but with an astonishing array of kombucha, Mattes and local wine where the grapes have been harvested with horse-drawn carts. There’s music and dancing, but it’s a soundtrack, not a statement.

And it’s at this point I realise Salto’s not really about running at all, or hikes or HIIT classes. It’s about a deeper connection. Yes, with all these amazing people you share these experiences with. Yes, with the immersive nature that envelops the site. Maybe even a bit with the full moon that blessed the Saturday night. But it’s ultimately about a deeper connection with yourself – understanding your own mind, your body, your potential.
This weekend has shown me so much about myself. It’s started something new in me. And I’m so grateful to have found myself in this completely new way. I can’t wait to see how far I’ve come when I return one year from now. Thank you, Salto.

www.saltofestival.com