THE first staging of a festival designed to promote health, well-being and fitness has been held.

Double Olympic gold medallist Dame Kelly Holmes officially opened the first ever Refresh Festival, held at Wellington Country Park, between Basingstoke and Reading, on Saturday, 2 September.

Held over two days over the weekend, Refresh was the first festival of its kind in the region with the health, well-being and fitness industry coming together in one place to provide a vast range of activities, workshops and product trials.

This included a variety of personal trainers, instructors and fitness experts, therapists, nutritional advisers, healthy food suppliers and a range of fitness clothing companies.

There was plenty of Basingstoke interest with demonstrations from Basingstoke’s own England’s Strongest Woman and the fourth strongest woman in the world Farah Fonseca and The Singing Dentist, and an array of gym, physical health, food and insurance companies from the town also represented.

Elsewhere, group fitness sessions including crossfit, bootcamps, yoga, zumba and dance were also held, as were cooking demonstrations and talks from influential bloggers and food industry entrepreneurs across four arenas, stages and tents and eight overall zones..

Refresh was created by Basingstoke event management and technical company H-Productions.

Jay Dodds, co-founder of Refresh Festival, said: “We were extremely proud of our team for the incredible support and production on this large scale event.

“We are excited to build on this and hear all feed back from our first year.”

At the event, artist Laura Starke produced and presented Dame Kelly with a portrait of the Olympian.

Laura said: “This has made my day.

“Being at a festival surrounded by talented individuals sparks so much positive energy.

“I can’t wait for next year.”