Be:FIT London Review

It’s not often I give myself a day off; contrary to popular belief us bloggers have to work really hard at what we do and a lot of that involves hours upon hours in front of a laptop, so when I got the chance for a day out with one of my fitness faves, Hannah from Fox.Phys, I literally star jumped for joy!

And the day out in question…why Be:FIT London of course!

Now, if you’ve not heard of Be:FIT before (seriously where have you been!?!) then let me explain.

What is Be:FIT?

Be:FIT is a health and fitness festival for women, in fact it is currently the only UK health and fitness festival for women, although I strongly predict that this will change based on just how popular this market is! The festival runs over three days and is held at the Business Design Centre in Islington, which is an absolutely amazing venue – really light, airy and spacious with just the right amount of ‘cool’ about it.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect and yep I’ll 100% put my hands up and confess that I was kind of imagining it to be very showy, a bit fake and full of lycra clad, Insta-perfect girls that were just about young enough to pass as my daughter. So, yeah I was a teensy bit concerned about, well let’s just say…not fitting in.

Turns out I was wrong and had I done my research (come on you’re meant to be a blogger!) I’d have discovered that Be:FIT prides itself on creating and bringing together a community of women who are strong, motivated, inspiring, welcoming and above all else striving to be the best version of themselves. Pretty good ethos, wouldn’t you agree?

With tons of hand-picked brands offering everything from gym kit, fitness retreats, protein powders, snack bars, nut butters etc, live kitchen demos from the likes of Madeleine Shaw and Joe Wicks The Body Coach, nutritional checks, fitness classes, expert Q&A’s, as well as a VIP lounge and Skinny Prosecco bar, Be:FIT London is a fantastic, positive reflection of the female health and fitness movement that is taking modern society by storm.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, there was definitely still a degree of showiness, some people just can’t help it, but by and large I was pleasantly surprised by the mix of sizes, ages and abilities of the women I saw wandering around. And do you know, not once did I ever sense a feeling of anyone looking down their noses and from what I saw there was no bitchiness, no snide comments, no ‘knowing’ looks, no judgements. It was very much a sea of friendly faces in an incredibly supportive atmosphere and that is an absolutely amazing place for women to be at.

So, me and Hannah rock up in the obligatory activewear and we’re greeted with our VIP wristbands. Yep, we’ve only gone and bought VIP tickets baby, woohoo! If we’re doing this, we’re doing it properly. VIP gets you a few little extras, such as:

  • Access to the beach themed lounge, where you can chill out on deckchairs, have your hair braided, get a manicure, have a massage or play around with the lifeguard station photo props,
  • Fast pass into classes and talks,
  • A glass of Skinny Prosecco,
  • A Reebok goodie bag packed with a whole heap of stuff (see picture),
  • Snacks on tap – fruit, water, low calorie Zeo sparkling drinks, Oatly milk, Emily vegetable crisps and packets of Chrips.

Well worth the additional ticket price, although my only advice to the Be:FIT organisers is that the actual lounge itself lacked atmosphere (well other than the ridiculous cloud of hairspray gas from all the braiding going on!) and kind of felt a bit like an empty airport lounge. It would have been nice if there had been a bit of sand, you know to make an actual beach, and perhaps some sounds of the sea and turning the temp up a bit deffo wouldn’t have harmed, it was freezing in there!

But all that aside, we did feel proper posh sloping off up the VIP escalator…it’s the small things in life!

When you go along to an event like this it’s kind of presumed that you’ll be taking part in one of the numerous and varied exercise classes, but shock horror we both decided not to.

WTF?!?! I hear you cry and yes I know it seems crazy but hear me out. See it’s the whole getting sweaty and wandering around all day thing that I just don’t get. Because boy do I sweat when I work out, and it’s not so much that I care what I look like (believe you me I am beyond comfortable with how I look) it’s more the stench factor. There aren’t any showers there, I’m guessing that would be a huge clean up job, and OK so there’s free Soft & Gentle deodorant samples and there’s always the toilets to freshen up in, but come on there’s only so much a spray of deodorant is gonna do!

Instead we treated the day as a bit of a research trip and made the most of the expert talks that were held throughout. Highlights for me were listening to Clare Goodwin the PCOS nutritionist chat about all things hormones and how they affect women’s health both in terms of weightloss and fitness, and also Pip and Joan from Mumhood talking pregnancy and post pregnancy fitness. All three women were incredibly natural speakers and really engaged with their audience, but next year microphones in the mindfulness den please – music sooooooo loud!

And of course we tried lots of food – cactus water, protein shakes and ALL the snack bars you could possibly think of, plus a pretty tasty salmon salad from the upstairs cafe.

Is it for you?

If you’re into fitness, care about how your body functions, if you love nut butter, if you live in activewear, if you want to try out some new classes and you just generally love the whole health and fitness industry then yes you will absolutely LOVE Be:FIT.

My top tips:

  • Take a change of clothes,
  • Book classes in advance,
  • Go VIP
  • Eat everything,
  • Try everything,
  • Embrace everything,
  • And most importantly…have fun!

I have never been to an event like this and if you’d have told me 5 years ago that there was even such a thing as a health and fitness festival, let alone the fact I would be going to one, I would’ve spat out my full fat Prosecco!

Oh how times have changed!


Did you go to Be:FIT? What did you think?

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