Attending your first-ever Aufguss World Championships (Aufguss WM) can be intimidating, especially coming from the US, where sauna culture is only just taking off. Very recently, new bathhouses featuring large-format event saunas for aufguss rituals have opened in New York (Othership and Bathhouse) and Las Vegas (Resorts World and Fontainebleau), with more to come.

Yet here I am at Thermen Bussloo, a stunning wellness and sauna centre close to Amsterdam, in The Netherlands (see p74). I’m surrounded by hundreds of partially clothed bathing enthusiasts who’ve paid €100 (US$109, £84) for a daily ticket to be taken on an emotion-driven journey of artistry and heat.

Bare necessities
The word ‘aufguss’ is the first thing a newbie must get their head around. This German word translates as “steam infusion”, but the word has become an umbrella term to describe the 15 to 20-minute experience that an aufguss or sauna master leads you through.

Aufguss comes in many different forms. Classic sessions, that’ve been practised for decades across Europe, see a sauna master’s role as raising the temperature and controlling the wafting of the steam, heat and aromas via creative towel waving. Ritual (or zen) aufguss sessions take guests on an inward journey, including meditation, yoga, sound bathing or breathwork. While full-on theatrical or show aufguss sessions – the focus of Aufguss WM – are best described as an emotion-driven journey of pure-performance art.

The ‘stage’ for the shows is Thermen Bussloo’s new €2 million (US$2.2 million, £1.7 million) Sauna Theatre that’s been purpose-built to stimulate the senses with state-of-the-art lighting and sound systems and an LED screen over 4.5m wide. With 160 participants, the championships attract the best aufguss masters worldwide and I can confirm that a 15-minute stint in an 80°C sauna has never been so engaging.

The next thing to get my head around is the near-total co-ed nudity in the sauna, save for the actual performer and those of us with judiciously placed towels. Nudity makes sense when you’re in the moment (sweat and clothing don’t go well together), but this (mostly European) practice is initially off-putting. However, I take it as an opportunity to celebrate cultural differences and embrace body positivity.

Competition time
Over the five days of Aufguss WM, 16 sessions are performed daily, featuring qualifiers from the 16 participating countries in the singles and teams competition. A jury meticulously marks each round, whittling qualifiers down to 16 finalists to compete for the world championship title on the last day.

Aufguss masters are judged on multiple fronts – from professionalism to the ability to increase and distribute the heat, towel-waving techniques (complete with deductions for dropping a towel), theme and implementation (does the theme make sense? Is the audience engaged?), atmosphere and overall feeling and team coordination (including performance set up, which is kept to a strict 15 minutes).

The championships have been held since 2015 and next year, there will be even more competitors as three new countries – Canada, Iceland and the US – launch national qualifying events.

Attending the final sessions as sauna masters vied for the top spot, I was blown away by the level of detail and performance. A newcomer from Team Japan, Itsuki Minotani, brought us into his VR world as he fell in love with a virtual girlfriend, taking us on a journey of first dates and kisses with exceptional towel waving. Barbora Brozova, a trained dancer from The Czech Republic, swept beautifully around the sauna as she told the story of loss and the power of following her dream.

This year’s winner, Italy’s Michael Niedermair, moved me nearly to tears as he beautifully explored the struggle many of today’s youth are experiencing with depression and mental illness. It was his fourth time in the finals, but his first win. “My aim with an aufguss is always to send a message,” he exclaims. “When you fall down, accept this, accept yourself and move forward.”