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Company Information:
Founded: January 2023
HQ: Hackney Wick Community Sauna Baths, London.
The Saunaverse works in partnership with the Community Sauna to provide high quality, safe and sustainable mobile saunas, as well as training and ongoing maintenance. The Saunaverse sauna festival was hosted by the team of the Community Sauna Baths and we hope to run many more sauna events in the future.
Founders:
Tom de Wilton: CEO and Chief Sweat Officer
Lia Orlando: COO
About the Saunaverse:
The Saunaverse is passionate about creating a community of sauna enthusiasts across the UK. Our mission is to provide resources, information, and live events to connect people who share a love for the heat and the benefits it brings. From our bespoke sauna builds and sauna map to our blog and podcast, we strive to offer a wealth of knowledge and inspiration for those looking to incorporate sauna into their lives. We believe that sauna is not just a relaxing pastime, but a way to promote health, wellness, and social connection. Join us in exploring the world of sauna and becoming part of our growing community.
The story so far:
Having moved to East London in early 2022, Tom and Lia soon fell in love with the Hackney Wick Community Sauna. Tom already had a couple of sauna builds under his belt, having built a shed sauna in North London, and a horsebox sauna for their sister festival, Treehouse Music Festival. The Treehouse sauna found its way to Hackney in the late summer, quickly being adopted as the sauna of choice for private leaf whisking sauna rituals.
Leaving the world of tech in November 2022, and with a few months to spare before heading off on a year of travels, Tom set up shop in the corner of the yard across from the community sauna. He worked through the freezing months to build his next sauna, a 12 seater horsebox sauna optimised for high capacity and even higher heat. Halko (the Finnish word for a piece of firewood) was rolled across the yard between Christmas and New Years and immediately went into action. Having learnt so much, Tom decided to build Haapa, a near replica of Halko, in half the time. Haapa was commissioned just before The Saunaverse festival and now sits over at the new community sauna site in Stratford.
It was during the long, cold days of building that the idea for The Saunaverse began to grow. What began as an idea for a Sauna Festival, quickly evolved into a wider community for all things sauna culture, where guests could find all of the information that Tom wished he could have found months earlier.
Having set a date for the UK’s first ever Sauna festival at the end of February, armed only with a name, no brand, no social media and no website, the screenshot of Tom’s iPhone note was the only way to get the idea out there. With the creative support of @emilygeorge.jpg our beloved floating Astronaut was born, and The Saunaverse began to take shape.
Tom loves working to a deadline. Not content with spinning up a brand new festival in under a month, when the Hackney Community Sauna found themselves without their original flagship extra large sauna at short notice, Tom decided that it was now and never, and that they would take on the challenge of building the UK’s largest mobile sauna in time for the festival.
19 days later, less than 9 hours before festival gates were scheduled to open, the last screw was driven home and The Saunaverse sauna was officially open.
The festival was a huge success, with several hundred guests joining throughout the 2 day event to sweat it out in the 10 wood fired mobile saunas, before grabbing a cocktail and dancing to the bands and DJs on the main stage. The celestial sauna gods were shining down.
The festival was a body positive, non-sexual, clothing optional event, with alcohol served throughout. Welfare and consent were front of mind and clearly communicated to all guests on entry, and the team were pleased that everyone adopted the Finnish approach of drinking only in moderation.
Logo:
You can download the logo files here
Image gallery:
You can view a selection of high quality images here
Photographers:
Brenna Duncan
Jason Warner