Entrepreneur Co-Founds Ireland’s Only Health, Fitness and Wellness Festival
Entrepreneur Anthony Kelly is one of the founders of Ireland’s only health, fitness and wellness festival, which returns to Herbert Park in Dublin 2 for its second year next month.
The WellFest festival takes place on 17th and 18th September, and will feature some of the world’s best-known health and fitness experts, alongside homegrown talent such as Kathryn Thomas, Bressie, The Happy Pear, Pat Divilly, Roz Purcell and Alison Canavan.
Mr. Kelly founded WellFest last year, along with a team of three others, after noticing a gap in the market for such an event. He points out that while there were health and fitness exhibitions taking place already, they included very little activity and audience participation – this is what sets WellFest apart from the rest.
A former solicitor, having qualified and worked in Matheson until 2013, Anthony always had an interest in events and knew it was something he wanted to get back involved in. He served as Entertainment Officer during his time at UCD and was involved in setting up the first UCD Ball that took place on campus in 2005.
This is Mr. Kelly’s second business venture, having set up Glofox, a business management solution system for gyms and studios, where he now works as Head of Marketing and Business Development.
Commenting on how Glofox contributed to the development of WellFest, he said: “ Glofox capitalised on group exercise and boutique fitness studios, which is a big trend in fitness at present and over 80% of our customer base are group exercise businesses. This customer base includes diverse businesses that specialise in many different fitness styles, such as: Yoga, Pilates, Crossfit, Spin Studios and Fitness Studios (offering a selection of different exercise classes).
“At Glofox, we provide these customers with the software they need to create their classes and memberships packages. Customers can then purchase the services through their own website and through a custom mobile App that we create for each customer.
“I could see the opportunity in group fitness every day in Glofox but it became apparent that there was not one single event around that brought everything together. Through Glofox I knew some of the country’s top fitness coaches and trainers and it’s because of this that I was able to get them involved in WellFest. ”
The line-up for WellFest 2016 includes:
- The Pure Results Bootcamp Challenge, hosted by Kathryn Thomas, which will take place on both days.
- Fun and unique Voga sessions with the House of Voga team on the main stage, where classes are set to energetic 1980s aerobics beats and combine traditional yoga poses with “voguing”, a dance style originally popularised by Madonna.
- Cooking demonstrations by famous foodies Roz Purcell and The Happy Pear.
- Workshops with The Skinny Bitch Collective’s Russell Bateman – the fitness movement that counts Ellie Goulding and Laura Whitmore as celebrity fans.
- Musician and mental health campaigner, Bressie with his movement for wellbeing A Lust for Life.
- WellBeing workshop with Morgan De Young (The Southern Yogi), an Instagram yoga phenomenon with 220,000 followers.
- Digital mindfulness maestro Chris Flack of Unplug.ie.
- Health and wellness coach, and author / model / presenter, Alison Canavan.
Weekend tickets for WellFest cost €65, while day passes are available for €40 (plus booking fee). Tickets can be purchased at: www.wellfest.ie. They include unlimited access to classes, talks and workshops on health, fitness, nutrition, cookery, yoga, pilates, mindfulness, and more.
WellFest 2016 is sponsored by Glenisk, Gourmet Fuel, Pure Results, Reebok, Vita Coco, and Berocca.
