Spa Executive March-April
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social and experiential communal experience<br />
it is today, a performance art, incorporating<br />
everything from elaborate, theatrical<br />
shows with dramatic towel work to quieter<br />
meditative journeys and sound baths.<br />
Aufguss in the 21st Century<br />
According to Sauna With Alex, one can find<br />
both large wellness parks and smaller sauna<br />
facilities all over Germany offering a variety of<br />
aufguss. The rest of the world is following suit.<br />
For example, the first event sauna in<br />
North America opened in 2022 at Resorts<br />
World AWANA <strong>Spa</strong> & Wellness in Las Vegas.<br />
AWANA’s event sauna measures 360 square<br />
feet and can accommodate an audience of<br />
up to 40 people. The theater-inspired space<br />
was created by Design for Leisure (DFL) in<br />
collaboration with aufguss consultants Lasse<br />
Eriksen, vice president of Aufguss-WM, Rob<br />
Keijzer, a three-time world aufguss champion<br />
and professional trainer, and spa consultant<br />
Cary Collier at Blu <strong>Spa</strong>s.<br />
World Aufguss Championship<br />
There’s even a World Aufguss Championship<br />
(as you might have noted from the above<br />
mention of three-time world Aufguss<br />
champion, Rob Keijzer). This year’s nationals<br />
will soon take place in countries around the<br />
world, including the UK, which will hold its<br />
first-ever national championships in <strong>April</strong><br />
2023, and winners will go on to compete in<br />
Germany in September.<br />
Resorts and properties with the space<br />
to create larger facilities and hold events<br />
may see benefit from offering aufguss<br />
experiences. Since the pandemic, pundits<br />
have been touting the allure of social and<br />
community wellness experiences. Not only<br />
does Aufguss fit this bill, it offers the added<br />
benefit of novelty for many.<br />
An example of a champion Aufguss<br />
performance:<br />
Sauna WM 2015 - Sauna-Aufguss<br />
Italienmeisterin Tanja Ennemoser<br />
Also, the UK’s first sauna festival, Saunaverse,<br />
took place at the Community Sauna Baths<br />
in Hackney Wick in February 2023. The<br />
Community Sauna Baths is part of an<br />
emerging sauna movement in London,<br />
offering wood-fired saunas and cold plunge<br />
facilities for £10-£15. Saunaverse includes<br />
aufguss experiences and aims to promote<br />
sauna culture in the UK and make use of<br />
unused spaces in London.<br />
In Canada, a number of Nordic style spas<br />
have opened up recently,like Nordik <strong>Spa</strong>-<br />
Nature, offering Aufguss rituals.<br />
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| <strong>Spa</strong> <strong>Executive</strong>