A wellness festival built for your city

What the day is

A STRENGTH IN THE CITY wellness festival is one full day of movement in a public space in your city. A park, a plaza, a stadium field. You get fitness and wellness classes, recovery experiences and local vendors, and most stops include a community run and walk. We have been doing this since 2018, when it was one city: Chicago. In 2026 the tour reached 14.

Is it a race, a class or a market? Honestly, it's all three at once, and that is kind of the point. You can spend the morning in back to back classes, or you can take one class and wander the vendor rows with a friend. Nobody is checking.

Who teaches

The classes come from the city itself. Each stop works with more than 100 local instructors, leaders and community partners: studio owners, run club captains, yoga teachers, coaches who have their own following. That is why Austin doesn't feel like Atlanta, and Brooklyn doesn't feel like Denver. You might meet the person who ends up being your Tuesday night class for the next three years.

Each stop gets its own class schedule, built stage by stage, so you can plan your day around the sessions you actually want.

Recovery is part of the plan

We build in time to slow down. Recovery experiences sit right next to the classes, and at some stops that has meant a cold plunge outside. Our full write up of recovery events covers the evenings we run just for that.

The vendor village

Every festival brings in somewhere between 30 and 100 local brands from the host city. It's a good way to find the places in your own neighborhood you didn't know about. If you run one of those businesses, read how vendors and local partners join.

The extras people remember

• A welcome bag for the first 100 people through the gate.
• BINGO, with more than 50 prizes.
• A community run and walk, any pace.

There are only 100 bags, so get there early if you want one.

How big is it?

Each stop draws somewhere from 500 to 1,000 people, depending on the city and the venue. Big enough to feel like an event, small enough that you keep seeing the same faces, all the way to the cool down. Chicago, our home city, usually runs bigger.

Where it goes

In 2026 the festival ran in Austin, Atlanta, Brooklyn, Charlotte, Aurora and Naperville, Denver, Chicago, Nashville, Los Angeles and San Diego, with Washington, DC on November 7 as its first visit there. You can see every stop on the fitness festival tour page, with the venues we used.

New to all this? Our short guide, what is a wellness festival, explains how it differs from a fitness expo or a health fair.

What people say

Jared, from Milwaukee, put it better than we can: "Everyone here is coming with a common goal in mind, trying to figure out what wellness looks like for them." That's the crowd. Some lift every day. Some came because a friend dragged them. Both are welcome.

Getting a ticket

Tickets are sold through Speakeasy, and every city has its own listing with the date, the venue and the price for that stop. Prices are different from city to city, so we don't list them here. Start from our upcoming events calendar and pick your city.

Questions people ask