THE ESCAPE // 30 JULY - 3 AUGUST
The Escape is happening 30 July – 3 August, and this one comes with no event fee. Just book your stay and enjoy the full event.
Expect days filled with yoga, breathwork, sound healing, contact jam, hiking, cacao ceremonies, sauna & cold plunge sessions, creative workshops, and evenings of music under the stars.
On August 2, we'll also host the Ecstatic Dance Festival Turkey Warm-Up as part of the week. 🩵
No event fee, just a beautiful few days to slow down, move, connect, and enjoy everything happening around you.
Hope to see you here. 🌴
weekly tunes
Artemistique creates journeys where music feels immersive, emotional, and deeply connected to the people on the dancefloor. Blending organic textures, melodic grooves, and carefully crafted storytelling, every set unfolds naturally with the energy of the moment.
We're excited to welcome Artemistiqe to Dance Weekend, happening 6–10 August at Bonjuk Bay, where music, movement, and community come together for four unforgettable days.
bonjuk recıpes
beetroot cured with salmon gravlax
A Nordic curing tradition meets the earthy sweetness of beetroot, creating a gravlax that is both elegant and beautifully simple. Slowly cured with salt, sugar, herbs, and time, the salmon develops a silky texture while the beetroot gives it its signature ruby color and subtle depth of flavor.
Serves 4–6
Ingredients
500 g skinless, sashimi-grade salmon fillet
125 g raw beetroot, finely grated
40 g sea salt
40 g caster sugar
½ bunch dill, finely chopped
1 tsp crushed black peppercorns
Zest of 1 lemon
Optional: 1 tbsp aquavit, gin, or vodka
Method
Step 1
In a bowl, combine the grated beetroot, sea salt, sugar, dill, crushed black pepper, lemon zest, and the optional aquavit, gin, or vodka.
Step 2
Spread half of the curing mixture in a shallow dish. Place the salmon on top and cover completely with the remaining mixture. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and place a light weight over the fish.
Step 3
Refrigerate for 48 hours, turning the salmon every 12 hours to ensure an even cure.
Step 4
Remove the salmon from the curing mixture, gently wipe it clean, pat dry, and let it rest uncovered in the refrigerator for a few hours for the best texture.
Step 5
Using a long, sharp knife, slice the salmon as thinly as possible at a slight angle.
To Serve
Serve with sourdough bread, whipped dill cream cheese, pickles, capers, fresh dill, and a honey-mustard sauce. Finish with a squeeze of fresh lemon if desired.
The Genderification of Energy
Spend enough time on social media and you might start to believe that every human behavior belongs to one of two categories.
Masculine energy.
Feminine energy.
Leadership is masculine. Receiving is feminine. Structure is masculine. Flow is feminine.
Providing is masculine. Nurturing is feminine.
At first glance, these ideas can be useful. Many spiritual traditions have long described reality through complementary forces. Taoism speaks of Yin and Yang. Hindu traditions describe Shiva and Shakti. Jung wrote about anima and animus. The idea that life involves balancing different qualities is hardly new.
What is new is the way these concepts are increasingly being reduced into personality types, dating advice, and lifestyle branding.
Somewhere along the way, symbolic principles became gender stereotypes.
The result is that ordinary human qualities are now constantly being categorized.
A woman who is ambitious is told she is operating in masculine energy. A man who is emotionally expressive is told he is embracing his feminine side.
Someone who enjoys planning is masculine. Someone who enjoys spontaneity is feminine.
The framework starts to feel less like wisdom and more like a sorting machine.
The irony is that many of the traditions from which these concepts originate were never trying to divide people into boxes. They were trying to explain complexity.
Yin and Yang were not descriptions of men and women. They were descriptions of dynamic forces present throughout nature. Night and day. Rest and activity. Expansion and contraction. Stability and change.
Both existed within everything. Including every human being.
Yet much of today's conversation treats masculine and feminine energy almost as identities that must be performed correctly.
Women are encouraged to become softer, more receptive, more feminine. Men are encouraged to become more decisive, more dominant, more masculine.
What gets lost is the fact that a healthy human being likely needs access to all of these qualities.
A good parent needs structure and nurturing.
A good leader needs decisiveness and empathy.
A good artist needs discipline and spontaneity.
A good relationship requires both giving and receiving.
None of these capacities belong exclusively to one gender.
They are human capacities.
Perhaps the popularity of masculine and feminine energy comes from a genuine desire to make sense of ourselves. The language offers simple explanations in an increasingly complicated world.
But simplicity can come at a cost.
When every behavior becomes masculine or feminine, we stop asking more interesting questions.
Not:
"Am I in my masculine or feminine energy?"
But:
"What does this situation require from me?"
Not:
"What role should I be playing?"
But:
"What qualities would serve me best right now?"
Because life rarely rewards rigid identities.
It rewards adaptability.
Sometimes wisdom looks like structure.
Sometimes it looks like surrender.
Sometimes it looks like action.
Sometimes it looks like rest.
The goal is not to become more masculine or more feminine.
The goal is to become more fully human.
And perhaps that requires less categorization and more curiosity about the vast range of qualities we already contain.
If you have a story, project, or idea you’d like to share, we’d love to hear from you and help spread the word. Feel free to reach out to us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.