The Big Sweat

The Big Sweat is Australia's first national sauna gathering, held over two days in Leura, in the Blue Mountains.

Hosted by Blue Mountains Sauna with the Australian Sauna Association, the weekend brings together five saunas, each offering something different: a 25-person Finnish sauna built for heat and company, a Swedish bastu handmade from sustainably harvested and recycled timber, a cedar hut travelling up from Victoria's High Country with two cold plunges built onto the front, a wood-fired sauna down from the Sunshine Coast, and the Savu, the Southern Hemisphere's first public wood-fired smoke sauna.

Across the weekend there are Aufguss ceremonies, where a sauna master pours infused water over the stones and moves the steam through the room with choreographed towel work, alongside cold plunges, live music, yoga, breathwork, talks, workshops, market stalls and food trucks.

Sessions are clothed and open to all ages, and first-timers are as welcome as seasoned bathers.