What’s On at Soneva
Immerse yourself in a world of vibrant celebrations and exclusive gatherings with Soneva’s year-round calendar of events in the Maldives and Thailand. Our Soneva Stars Programme presents a diverse array of activities and rare experiences such as destination dining with Michelin-starred chefs, coaching sessions with sporting legends and wellness workshops with acclaimed therapists. In 2024, guests can also enjoy seasonal highlights with our Summer and Winter Collection, traditional festivities and our pioneering SOUL Festival.
Festivals & Celebrations
Upcoming Soneva Stars
No stay at Soneva is ever quite the same thanks to our Soneva Stars. Throughout the year, we host residencies by acclaimed Michelin-starred chefs, authors, astronomers, sporting legends and wellness specialists.
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Igor Oleynik
Igor Oleynik is ranked among the top 16 football freestylers in the world and is a four-time Russian national champion. He started playing football when he was six years old and switched to freestyling at 16. He went on to successfully participate in numerous international tournaments, including the prestigious Red Bull Street Style events.
During his professional career, he has been a brand ambassador for Nike and Adidas and collaborated with Volkswagen and FC Lokomotiv. In 2018-2019 he played for Amkal, one of the most popular media football teams in Russia and also one of the biggest YouTube projects.
In addition, he is the founder of iFreestyle, the largest freestyle and street football school in the world which united around 250 children. A talented coach, Igor never stops learning and polishing his skills. Passionate about inspiring others, he never sets limits for himself, constantly inventing new tricks.
Learn more about Igor Oleynik
Dr James Gilbert
Dr James Gilbert is a space engineer, astrophysicist and inventor. He is known for his work on multiple new technologies for some of the world’s most complex scientific machines, including planet-finding telescopes on Earth and wildfire-fighting cameras in space. He is currently leading the development of mission-critical electronics at Rocket Lab in New Zealand.
Originally from the UK, Dr James emigrated to Australia in 2009 and – almost by accident – found the fascinating world of scientific instrumentation. Since then, his career has spanned multiple technical disciplines including optics, photonics, electronics and robotics.
A passionate advocate of ‘blue sky’ research, Dr James has also led programs that take cutting-edge technologies out of the lab and apply them elsewhere to improve life on Earth. As a result, he is now an accomplished leader in academia and industry and loves to share stories that connect uncompromising technological achievements with the human condition.
Dr James has a PhD in astrophysics from the University of Oxford and has authored over 50 peer-reviewed astronomy and space technology publications. He was recently named Engineer of the Year 2023 and Researcher of the Year 2022 at the Australian Space Awards. He is a trusted authority on space technology with multiple interviews on Australian national media, and his TV documentary appearances have been broadcast worldwide on networks including ABC, BBC and Discovery Channel.
Learn more about Dr James Gilbert
Charlotte Stirling-Reed
Charlotte Stirling-Reed is an award-winning nutritionist specialising in baby and child nutrition, supporting many celebrity clients like Joe Wicks, Stacey Soloman, Jamie Oliver and more. Charlotte’s mission is to give parents confidence when feeding their children, making it an enjoyable experience that leads to lifelong healthy eating habits. Charlotte is passionate about creating recipes for babies, toddlers and families that are healthy, easy to make and delicious for all family members, made without the vast amounts of salt and sugar used in many of today’s recipes.
Her three books How to Wean Your Baby, How to Feed Your Toddler and How to Feed Your Family were all instant Sunday Times Bestsellers and cemented Charlotte’s credentials as ‘The Baby & Child Nutritionist’.
She is regularly invited to collaborate with other brands and celebrities and was the consultant for Joe Wicks’ bestselling ‘Wean’ in 15. She has supported thousands of parents through the weaning journey, toddler years and beyond using her evidence-based guidance.
Learn more about Charlotte Stirling-Reed
Petr Horálek
Born in 1986 in the Czech Republic, Petr studied astrophysics at Masaryk University Brno and at Silesian University in Opava, Czech Republic. He is an astronomer and astrophotographer. His images were featured more than 30 times by NASA as Astronomy Picture of the Day, as astrophotographer and science outreach worker he cooperates with NOIRLab, National Geographics’ TWAN (The World At Night), European Southern Observatory, and many more. An asteroid 6822 orbiting between Mars and Jupiter is named after him. He travels the world to capture and show the immersive beauty of the starry sky and unique or rare sky phenomena.
A long route brought him also to Soneva Fushi in 2019, where he experienced a beautiful night sky and took many photographs of it. Petr specializes in the outreach of modern astronomy with his talks to the public and in photographing the night sky phenomena to show what amazing Universe around us can be even seen by naked eyes all around the world, including the Maldives.
Learn more about Petr Horálek
Marcel Gurk
Hailed as one of the best football freestylers in the world, Marcel Gurk is the current German champion, holds ten Guinness World Records and is the author of the world’s first book on football freestyling. He made it to the semifinal of Germany’s Got Talent, Das Supertalent, and travels around the world sharing his unique skills.
Having studied sport and media management in Dusseldorf, Marcel also specialises in working with children and has designed his own unique concept to help take his students’ skills to the next level. While in the Maldives, he will be hosting football freestyling workshops for Young Sonevians at Soneva Fushi and Soneva Jani.
Learn more about Marcel Gurk
Armin Kleinboehl
Dr Armin Kleinböhl is a planetary scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He is also the Deputy Principal Investigator of the Mars Climate Sounder instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been operating on Mars for over 16 years and established the longest time series of global atmospheric measurements on Mars to date. Since 2008, he has provided landing support for all landings on Mars conducted by NASA and his scientific work focusing on the structure and dynamics of the atmospheres of Mars and Venus led him to author or co-authored more than 100 scientific publications.
Dr Armin is also the Participating Scientist in Residence for the Japanese Akatsuki Venus Climate Orbiter mission, which leads him to spend several months of the year in Japan. His work also includes managing the “Cloudspotting on Mars” citizen science project with more than 8,000 registered volunteers, which allows members of the public to contribute to planetary science by analysing real data from a spacecraft in Mars’ orbit.
During his visit, Dr Armin will be hosting after-dinner stargazing sessions with a focus on Mars and Venus, which will be prominent in the evening sky and will share stories about planetary science and exploration.
Learn more about Armin Kleinboehl
Seasonal Highlights
Experience wonder all year round with Soneva’s seasonal celebrations, from the sun-soaked bliss of summer and magical festivities of winter.
