Beer, Metal and a Little Balance: MetalYoga at the Cart & Horses

On Tuesday, July 7, 2026, those who had signed up and made the trek to London’s legendary Cart & Horses were presented with a combination that, on paper, sounds almost deliberately contradictory: yoga, heavy metal and beer.

In this context, it made considerable sense.

The Beer Yoga event at the Cart & Horses was presented by Metalyoga.cl, a Chilean project founded by certified yoga instructor Carolina, who has spent the past several years taking yoga out of the traditional studio environment and putting it into places where metal fans already feel at home. The July 7 session was advertised for 6 p.m. at 1 Maryland Point in Stratford, with the wonderfully appropriate slogan, “Sin om, solo brindis” — roughly, “No om, just cheers.” 

And there could hardly have been a more fitting place to try it.

From the Mosh Pit to the Yoga Mat

The Cart & Horses occupies sacred ground in Iron Maiden history. The East London pub became one of the fledgling band’s earliest regular venues during the 1970s, and today openly celebrates itself as “The Birthplace of Iron Maiden.” Its walls are packed with photographs, records and Maiden memorabilia, while the pub continues to function as both a neighborhood watering hole and grassroots live-music venue.

That made the decision to hold a MetalYoga session there more than a novelty.

Metalyoga.cl was founded in Chile in 2020. Carolina describes herself as a certified instructor who had practiced yoga for years before developing her own metal-focused approach. Rather than treating heavy music and yoga as opposing ideas, she built classes around the physical and communal possibilities of both. Her project has since appeared at festivals and events in South America and Europe, including multiple editions of Spain’s Resurrection Fest.

Only days before arriving in London, Metalyoga had led sessions at Resucamp during Resurrection Fest 2026, with scheduled noon classes on July 2 and July 4.

Three days later, the yoga mat landed in Stratford.

So What Exactly Is Beer Yoga?

Despite the name, beer yoga isn't simply an excuse to drink while attempting increasingly questionable balancing poses.

Different organizers approach the concept differently, but beer yoga generally combines an accessible yoga session with the social ritual of having a beer. Some classes incorporate occasional sips into the movement; others simply finish the practice with a beer. London was already experimenting with the idea almost a decade ago—in 2017, Time Out reported on beer-yoga classes where participants completed yoga before enjoying a cold beer afterward.

Metalyoga's version sits within a broader philosophy.

Carolina's regular classes typically combine yoga movements with metal rather than conventional meditative music, turning something that may appear intimidating or overly spiritual to outsiders into a much more familiar environment for metal fans. Her stated ambition has been to build community around the practice and make yoga approachable to people who might never consider walking into a conventional yoga studio.

Adding beer simply pushed that idea another step toward pub culture.

The important distinction is that the beer is part of the social experience rather than the athletic challenge. Nobody needs to prove enlightenment by holding a pint above their head while attempting a one-legged pose.

MetalYoga Comes Home to Maiden Country

What gave the July 7 event additional weight was its timing.

It took place just days before EDDFEST at Knebworth House on July 10–11, the enormous celebration surrounding Iron Maiden's 50th anniversary year. Knebworth ultimately brought together more than simply a Maiden concert: its Maidenville area included music, exhibitions and activities built around the history and community that has grown around the band.

The Cart & Horses itself had been leaning heavily into that anniversary atmosphere. On June 9 it staged its “50 (Not) Wasted Years” celebration, marking 50 years since Iron Maiden's first show there in 1976 with an Iron Maiden Pub Quiz, karaoke, a Live After Death screening and fundraising for Heavy Metal Truants. The pub explicitly promoted that event as a way of preparing for Maiden's forthcoming Knebworth celebration.

Beer Yoga therefore arrived at an interesting moment.

Maiden fans were beginning to converge on England for EDDFEST. The Cart & Horses was once again functioning as a pilgrimage site. And into a room associated with sweaty club gigs, pints of Trooper and the beginnings of one of the biggest metal bands in history came a collection of yoga mats.

It was absurd enough to be completely appropriate.

Heavy Metal as Community Rather Than Costume

The most interesting aspect of MetalYoga isn't really the juxtaposition of distorted guitars and downward-facing dog. It is the philosophy underneath it.

Metal culture has traditionally created community in places that don't look particularly therapeutic: clubs, rehearsal rooms, festival fields, record stores and pubs. Yet the social effect can be remarkably similar to the things wellness culture constantly talks about—belonging, shared experience and temporary escape from everyday life.

Carolina has repeatedly emphasized that side of Metalyoga. Her project has taken part in events ranging from conventional metal festivals to Metal por la Infancia in Bogotá, where yoga and metal were combined as an activity for children and families. Bogotá's municipal cultural coverage described the concept as using music as a vehicle for creativity, connection and physical and mental wellbeing.

At the Cart & Horses, the same concept simply appeared in its most naturally metal habitat. And perhaps that is why Beer Yoga works better than the name initially suggests.

A pub has always been about more than drinking. At its best, it is a communal room. The Cart & Horses is an unusually powerful example because people now travel from around the world to stand in the same building where an unknown Iron Maiden once played to East London crowds.

Yoga asks people to occupy a space together, concentrate on movement and temporarily remove themselves from everything happening outside it.

Metal gigs do something remarkably similar—only louder.

Add a beer afterward and the distance between the two begins to look considerably smaller.

No Om, Just Cheers

There is also something pleasingly unpretentious about hosting yoga at the Cart & Horses.

This wasn't yoga being imposed upon heavy-metal culture in an effort to make metal respectable. Metalyoga works because it travels in the opposite direction: it adapts yoga to the culture of the people taking part.

Metal stays metal.

The pub stays a pub.

The beer stays cold ( well, for as long as the session lasts..).

The only significant difference is that, for an hour, the crowd stretches instead of headbangs.

For a venue whose history began with a young band testing itself in front of an East London audience half a century ago, that willingness to try something strange actually feels perfectly appropriate.

On July 7, 2026, the birthplace of Iron Maiden briefly traded the live music act for the yoga mat, and some beer.

And appropriately enough, nobody needed to say om.

They could simply raise a beer.

Yoga in the basement of the Cart and Horses on a hot summer day, with a beer... of course!