The WALD & WONNE Festival took place at ALEA PARK on May 29 and 30. Superstar LEA enchanted the crowd with an open-air concert under sunny skies. Numerous visitors to the sold-out festival took part in the diverse workshop program, which ranged from live yoga and qigong to forest bathing and bird meditation in the forest of Orb.
The festival in the spa district was rounded out by a diverse culinary selection: from vegetarian sushi and cheese spaetzle to pinsa, Lina’s homemade lemonade, and local and Mediterranean wines. TV host Judith Rakers led the program, which featured science slams and short talks on mental health.
Bad Orb is booming. At the Wald & Wonne Festival in ALEA PARK, visitors enjoyed a diverse program: In addition to the highlight concert featuring LEA, foodies were treated to a high-quality culinary selection. At the food court, ALEA showcased its full range of offerings: TAPATA brought Mediterranean magic with pinsa and a Mediterranean bowl, the chefs at FOGO rolled vegetarian sushi, and the brand-new Lina’s served food and drinks based on Grandma Lina’s recipes for the first time. The sommeliers from TAPATA and Lina’s paired these dishes with Mediterranean and local wines. In between, festival guests could enjoy guided bird meditations and forest bathing in the nearby forest of Orb, yoga in the park, Qigong, breathing exercises, and many other workshops.
“ALEA brings top acts to Bad Orb. German poet LEA fits perfectly into our green park. We’re celebrating the forest and the month of May. Food, wine, and yoga – it was a truly delightful day at ALEA PARK,” says ALEA founder Henning Strauss. A colorful, hands-on forest education program makes the Wald & Wonne Festival a family celebration. Children carved, painted with natural colors, and earned a forest ranger badge.
On the Wald & Wonne stage in the park, TV host Judith Rakers guided the audience through a diverse program. At the Science Slam, scientists presented the latest research findings in an easy-to-understand format in just a few minutes. Here, for example, Dr. Tim Hollstein from Kiel University Hospital presented the “cake paradox” and the current state of research on metabolism. In her keynote address “The Forest Works – Why Our Souls Need Retreats,” Inga Scheunemann, Head of Human Resources at Strauss, spoke on Thursday about mental health for the New Work generation. Another highlight was the panel discussion “MIND GAME: Success Is All in the Mind” featuring Prof. Dr. Hans-Dieter Herrmann, former team psychologist for the German national soccer team; Christian Haser, head of medical services at ALEA partner Eintracht Frankfurt; and Olympian and bobsled world champion Laura Nolte.
