Village 2 Family Friendly Retreat 2027

Led by: Ruth Love and the Dharma Team
Location: Frog Mill, nr. Throwleigh in Devon
Experience level: Open to all
Age Group: Adults and children

Prices

Adults & 17 year-olds: donation tier (includes the equivalent of the cost of one child ticket to support others)- £510, waged – £400, low waged-£325 , no wage- £250
Teen (13-16): waged- £190, low waged- £130 , no wage- £110
Child (3-12): waged- £140 , low waged- £110, no wage- £90
Baby (0-2): £30
Car pass: £15
Live in vehicle – large (6m+): £30
Live in vehicle – small (6m & under): £30

We gather to connect with the theme for the year in 2027- The Heart of the Lotus. This will provide us with material to create a positive community on our beautiful Dartmoor land.

There will be meditation for all, including the option for one-to-one meditation reviews, talks, yoga, daily kula groups, maybe hot tubs, games and play, creativity and green crafts. We will have rituals to connect us to the land and our highest ideals and the opportunity to connect in the lodges in separate binary-gender groups or mixed groups.

Retreat Conditions

The retreat will also be closed. Therefore, we ask that you come for the whole time and plan not to move your vehicle after arrival until the departure day. We ask everyone to stay on site for the entire retreat. We have support if you need essential items during this time. We have a pleasantly full schedule of activities on-site for all ages.

Vehicles

We must look after our precious land and soil structure when it comes to vehicle capacity and movement. Therefore, please note the following:

• If you are bringing a vehicle to the retreat and it is staying onsite, you need to buy the relevant vehicle pass. This helps us to manage the number of vehicles. Please do not bring a vehicle if the relevant pass is sold out.
• Please plan to arrive before dark so you can be parked correctly and consciously. We will be closing the gate at dark on arrival day and will not allow further access until the next day.

FAQs

• We have an extensive Retreat FAQ page here. Please read this thoroughly – especially the family-focused questions – and, if you have a question that isn’t answered, get in touch.
• Further information – including directions – will be sent out a couple of weeks before the retreat.
• For this retreat, we offer lifts from the bus stop at The Post Inn in Whiddon Down

More retreat information

What is it like to be at Village?

This is a piece written by one of our long-term regulars who brought their child to Village for many years until they became an adult and then started joining the team and helping to run Village. It’s a great view of what it’s like to come to Village and why it’s important. You can also see photos and some of our sound archive on that page.

What is the food provision like at Village? Can you cater for restricted diets?

Village is fully catered from the evening meal on the first day until lunch on the final day. Snacks will be provided, and the urns and tea stuff will be available all day. We ask you to bring your own cutlery and crockery for this event, including mugs. We can provide you with a tote bag to put everything in and a hook in the eating area to hang it on, so you don’t have to carry it around. Or you can bring your own tote bag if you want it to be more distinctive and perhaps easier to spot among all the others. We provide plenty of hot, soapy water for washing up.

We can offer a restricted range of food to support medical dietary needs. The full list of food we will offer during a retreat (not at every meal) is here. Unfortunately, we may not be able to cater to all complex needs due to resource constraints and the unique challenges of cooking for an outdoor retreat with no refrigeration and limited storage. For example, we cannot cater to a vegan keto diet.

It is tricky to be on retreat or working in a field with dietary restrictions, and this can create a level of understandable stress. However, please check the list, plan to bring your supplies if the items on there are not enough and check with us via our contact form if you are unsure. We’d like to ask that any food you need to bring for yourself and plan to eat in public areas is vegan. If you need anything beyond this, please take care of it discreetly and outside public areas. We understand that feeding children in this environment can be challenging, and you may need to bring and provide food you know your child will eat. We ask that if you do need to do your own cooking and/or supplement with snacks, that you do this away from the main public area and out of sight; otherwise, it can create a cascade effect with the other children wanting things that their parents have not brought

The kitchen team on-site cannot make changes or offer anything outside the given parameters.

We cannot accommodate last-minute changes or preferences beyond medical needs. If you can eat the general food, then please do so to reduce strain on the kitchen team.

Please note that most meals are gluten-free, so apart from a few exceptions, anyone following this diet can eat the main meals. Ingredients of each meal are provided in the servery so you can check at each sitting if you can have the food.

What are the kids’ activities at Village 2?

This retreat offers a range of activities for different age groups – toddlers, 5-10-year-olds, 11-12-year-olds (BOBs – between-ers of Buddhafield – not quite kids, not quite teenagers), and teens. These might include: art sessions, games, crafts, puppet shows, talks and so on.

Activities are always offered during the morning kula period, giving parents a chance to attend the kula sessions while their children are occupied. For toddlers, kulas take place in the toddler area, and a team supports the children during this time whilst also allowing them access to their parents whenever they need.

Other activities might take place at different times of day – schedules are posted daily.

BOBs are offered the chance to go on the Independence challenge during the retreat – a supervised, day-long walk on Dartmoor with wild swimming and treats at the end.

Teens have their own tepee and activities supported by the teen team.

What is the work period, and what work will need to be done?

Each retreat has a team who are working to create the experience. At various times, the work needs some input from retreatants – typical tasks might include chopping vegetables, washing up, chopping wood, taking care of certain spaces, and so on.

When booking, you will be asked to choose work periods that might work for you. We try our best to get everyone into their preferred group, but this isn’t always possible.

Do I have to do the work period if I have young kids / my children need me/ etc.?

We are very mindful that having your children on retreat already involves a certain amount of work. We ask you to select the work types that work for you during the booking process, and we’ll do our best to ensure you get your preferred options. Ultimately, if you are unable to be present during the work period, we completely understand, and it’s okay. It would be great if you could let us know if you think this will be a retreat-long situation.

What is a kula group?

Village 2 is quite a large event, and it’s good to have smaller groups within it so people can practice, get to know one another, and be supported by the community. Kula groups are held every day and, depending on the group, may include some meditation, some Dharma input, and/or a check-in period where people either discuss Dharma and the theme of the day or share more generally about their experience.

Kula groups are not compulsory, and we know that people may not be able to make it every day – that’s fine. Most people find that being part of a kula group enhances their experience of the retreat. You are asked about Kula group preference on booking – we do our best to assign you to the group you have requested, but this isn’t always possible if we are full or if we do not have enough people interested to run a certain group.

Most of the group names are self-explanatory, except for Samadhi kula, which is for people with more than three years of meditation experience who wish to dive deeper into practice during the Village. It does not include a check-in element, and we ask that people are certain that they will be able to attend every day before they sign up for this group.

What about kula groups and children?

Children are welcome to be near you when you are in kula groups and come and go during the groups. We provide children’s activities during the kula time which gives many parents more flexibility to attend. If you have young children, there is the option of the toddler kula, which takes place in the toddler area where we have people to look after the children so they have supervision but still have immediate access to you.

I can no longer attend the Village. What is your refund policy?

For Village, we refund 100% of all children’s tickets and 80% of adult tickets up until one month before the event. After that, we will refund the same if we are fully booked and can fill your place from the waitlist. If we cannot, then we will refund 50% of your total booking so that we can cover the costs involved.