Wales’s New Running and Music Festival Is Hosting Speed Dating on the Trail

A new music festival in Wales is offering something dating apps cannot match. A country trail. A pair of trainers. And a stranger to run alongside.

The Festival of Running and Music, known as FORM, runs from 25 to 27 September at Three Pools Farm in the Brecon Beacons. Among its activities is what the organisers call the first running speed-dating event of its kind, the BBC reports. Participants are matched in advance with two or three potential suitors. Each pairing runs three one-kilometre loops together on a route the team is calling “romantic,” before voting anonymously on whether to meet again.

The event is the work of Ed Jenkins and his partner Helen Morton, a Bristol couple whose own first ten dates were 10k runs. Jenkins also leads a Bristol run club called Ravers2Runners (R2R), where conversations about dating have come up often enough that he decided to do something about it.

“The running speed-dating is slightly tongue-in-cheek, but I think it really does represent quite a serious issue in society right now,” Jenkins told the BBC. “We’re seeing a lot of a mental health crisis around dating through our run club at Ravers 2 Runners. If people need a safe place to meet other people and are trying to forge a deeper connection and lifelong relationship, then why shouldn’t we use our space to create that?”

How it works on the day

Three Pools Farm sits on the edge of the Brecon Beacons. Jenkins describes the on-site loop as “a fantastic, very romantic, one kilometre (0.6 mile) route” with the surrounding hills as backdrop.

The festival team will pair each participant with two or three matches in advance. Each pair runs three one-kilometre loops back to back. Organisers are handing out ice-breaker prompts to take the pressure off the first stretch, according to the festival’s own description of the activity. Registration for the dating run is open only to FORM ticket holders.

“After the run, you will anonymously indicate to the team whether there’s anyone there that you’d like to go and have a coffee, or a beer, or a boogie, or a swim with, and let’s just see what happens,” Jenkins told the BBC. “Let’s see if we get our first FORM festival wedding off the back of it.”

A response to swipe fatigue

Among those signed up is Marc Harvey, 38, from Bristol. Harvey joined R2R about 18 months ago and said his social life had “absolutely exploded” since, including a couple of romances. He has also given up on the apps.

“I can only speak from my own personal experience, but I was just so jaded by the whole field of dating through dating apps,” Harvey told the BBC. “I found them so discouraging, as you just kind of sat there swiping. I said to myself, ‘surely it’s a lot better to go out there and see someone in the wild, so to speak’.”

What appeals to him about FORM is that nobody has to explain why they are there. “Running speed-dating is a great idea because we’re all in the same place to do the same thing and there’s no pressure,” Harvey said.

Hannah Ward, 36, who has worked at Glastonbury and Boomtown, has also bought a ticket. She said she had noticed a “massive shift” at festivals towards activity and wellness, and that a running festival with singles activities felt overdue.

“I’ve never understood why there’s not speed-dating at every festival,” Ward said.

Like Harvey, she has stepped away from the apps, which she described as “disingenuous.” “I don’t have the time, with my work, to be wasting on apps, and I’d rather find someone more organically these days,” Ward told the BBC. “Events like [FORM], where they are focusing on the singles market, are great, because no other event that I’ve seen has really had any singles activities.”

She also expects the FORM crowd to work in her favour. “With R2R festivals, I know the crowd they attract is sort of a Venn diagram of my main two interests, and therefore there could more likely be connections,” she said.

For runners weighing whether to sign up, the format is straightforward. Three short loops. A handful of strangers. A short anonymous note at the end. No phone, no profile, no swipe.