Eat, sleep, rave, retreat: Where to stay during this year’s biggest festivals

Festival season is for adults like Christmas is for kids – full of wonder and delight. But the alcohol, late nights and sun-scorched skin all eventually add up to one thing: an almost unbearable feeling of roughness. You simply can’t avoid it. Great fun is always followed by greater hangovers. It’s an immutable law of nature. However, the trick is to recover well: recharge, recalibrate, and drink enough green smoothies until you feel alive again. In fact, we have just the place for it, whether you’re in Berlin or Nashville. 

Here’s the Soho House guide to the best places to stay when the party’s over.

Big Feastival – Soho Farmhouse 

Best for: scrubbing off the grub

After the weekend festival in the Cotswolds, you might find yourself a little frayed around the edges. Sure, it might be known as one of the more genteel festivals in the UK, but dirt and grime are no respecter of gentility. You will be caked in mud; you will be feeling worse for wear. Retreat, then, to the deep comfort of an enormous bed in one of our Farm Huts. Handily, they offer total privacy to sleep off the ennui – they have their own terrace, an outside wooden bath, and a walk-in shower that’s so big you could clean your car in it. Plus, Blake’s Kitchen is within crawling distance, so you can have a ready supply of cinnamon buns at all times. Trust us, it helps.

Book a bedroom at Soho Farmhouse.

Glastonbury – Babington House

Best for: rest 

Glastonbury is surely the greatest festival in the world. The acts, the location, the roiling chaos of it all are unrivalled. And so is the awful way you feel afterwards. The best cure, as ever, is sleep. Lots of it. That’s why the sensible Glasto-goer books Babington House for some post-party R&R. You can sweat out your sins with an infrared sauna blanket at the Cowshed spa, then fill yourself with health-giving salads and soups at the Deli Bar. Your body – and mind – will thank you for it.

Book a bedroom at Babington House.

Primavera – Soho House Barcelona

Best for: recalibrating

When we think of Primavera, we think of one thing: sand. It gets everywhere. No item of clothing is safe from it. That is one of the few downsides of this beachfront festival. Still, there’s no festival like it in Europe. And no hangover like it in Europe when it’s over. Wash away the blues – and the sand – at Soho House Barcelona. Recentre yourself with a yoga class, get a Cowshed facial, or just snooze your way back to health by the rooftop pool.

Book a bedroom at Soho House Barcelona.

Austin City Limits – Soho House Austin

Best for: sleep

To say the days following Austin City Limits can be particularly tough is like saying The Doors were a bit wild. The post-party recovery seems to stretch out in front of us like an Arctic tundra – so cold, so unforgiving, so endless. To get through it, you need to fill your time. That’s where Soho House Austin comes in: watch a film in the screening room, dip your toe in the rooftop pool, fill up on jerk chicken in the restaurant, and then collapse in one of our emperor-size beds. Soon, you’ll have happily wiled away a day and be one step further along the road to recovery.

Book a bedroom at Soho House Austin.

Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival – Soho House Nashville

Best for: eating yourself better

There are many things for which the American South is famed, but the greatest of these is surely its food. It’s just so comforting – like a hug on a plate. And you’ll definitely need all the hugs you can get after Bonnaroo. We suggest relaxing by the pool at Soho House Nashville, then indulging in steak and fries at Club Cecconi’s. Soul food at its finest.

Book a bedroom at Soho House Nashville.

Pitchfork Music Festival – Soho House Chicago

Best for: easing into it

After a three-day summer festival, you’re guaranteed to feel a little worse for wear and, quite frankly, hungover. Ease your way back into reality with a pitstop at Soho House Chicago. It has everything you need for recovery: a rooftop pool with plenty of sunbeds, massages at the Cowshed spa, and a barber to make you look respectable, even if you don’t feel it. 

Book a bedroom at Soho House Chicago.

We Love Green – Soho House Paris 

Best for: retail therapy

There are many things that make Soho House Paris ideal for threadbare festivalgoers: its quiet location in Pigalle, the fact it’s so near the shops of The Marais, and the Winter Garden where you can nod off in peace. It’s the perfect tonic after spending Friday to Sunday with 40,000 people at We Love Green. We suggest pulling up a chair in the Library and snoozing your way through the afternoon – though if you’re very brave (or foolhardy), you can hit the Cabaret Room and keep the party going.

Book a bedroom at Soho House Paris.

Melt – Soho House Berlin

Best for: sweating it out

Melt festival takes place in the Ferropolis in Gräfenhainichen. This is all well and good when it comes to the event itself – it is an iconic venue, after all – but there’s one problem: the one and a half hour journey back to Berlin gives you a lot of time to question your life choices – and alcohol intake – when the fun is over. So, beat the post-festival blues by heading straight to our Berlin outpost and sweat out all those cocktails in the gym and sauna – or just go to the club bar and Picante your way through the pain.

Book a bedroom at Soho House Berlin.