It’s almost midnight and instead of being tucked up in bed listening to the sound of the ebbing Indian Ocean, I’m surrounded by a hot, sweaty, gyrating throng of people - barefoot, wide-eyed and wild. It’s not the usual Maldives experience, I admit, but Soneva Fushi doesn’t like to do ‘normal’. The cause of this exuberance is Usha Uthup, Indian diva extraordinaire, who is performing on stage, taking those on the sand-strewn dancefloor through The Beatles to James Bond, Bollywood to Arabic songs. Her energy is magnetic and the crowd behaves accordingly, dancing through one encore after another. I’ve never been to a ‘gig’ quite like it, but as I said... Soneva Fushi does things differently.

Usha and I are at the resort for the iconic Jaipur Literature Festival, which, for the second year running, has hosted a smaller sister festival at Soneva Fushi, bringing arts, culture and the literati to the archipelago. This year, the 10-day festival brought together an extraordinary line-up of award-winning authors, poets, artists and thought-leaders, discussing everything from politics and sustainability to astrology and the culinary arts. Usha is in good company, with the likes of Howard Jacobson, Muzaffar Ali and Shekhar Kapur sharing the spotlight for JLF Soneva Fushi 2023.

What brought JLF from the Pink City to the Indian Ocean? Soneva’s CEO and Joint Creative Director, Sonu Shivdasani. A creative, passionate individual with a die-hard vision to build a resort based around the principles of slow-living, sustainability and rare experiences. The JLF offshoot does that just, allowing guests to rub shoulders with literary greats in an incredibly intimate environment. Where else could you meet singers, actors, politicians and award-winning authors with no shoes on!

Rich cultural immersions play a huge role on the island, sitting under the resort’s Soneva Stars umbrella, in which an ever-changing calendar of visiting experts come to share their passions and impart their knowledge to guests. This year, Soneva Stars is bringing professional sports stars, celebrity chefs, healers, astronomers and astrophotographers to the island. But they’re not just ‘anyone’, they must fit the mould of what Sonu, and his wife Eva - Soneva’s Creative Director and Founder - have created since opening Soneva Fushi in 1995: a dream vision to let luxury hospitality and sustainability exist in a symbiotic relationship, in which the planet is more than just an after-thought.

As Sonu puts it, “We are guardians, not owners, of the island.” The island experience is wrapped around the 10-day JLF Soneva Fushi event, with mindfulness, yoga and stargazing woven through literary workshops, conversations and musical performances. Giving those who come for the speakers a true sampling of Soneva’s magic.

The island is huge - best traversed on rickety old bicycles that are all part of the charm - enveloped with coconut palms and Banyan trees, the trunks of which create a fascinating tangled web of wood above ground.

Slow-living is very much encouraged at Soneva Fushi, with no judgment on how much or little you choose to do with your day. Morning yoga sessions take place at Turtle Beach Champa, a wooden space enveloped in the island’s greenery; sunset drinks are sipped on a sandbank, soundtracked with traditional Maldivian music by Wood Berry band; skies are mapped at Soneva Fushi’s Observatory, spotting different constellations across the star-strewn heavens; books are browsed at Read, the island’s well-curated book boutique; old movies are watched at Cinema Paradiso, a rustic outdoor movie theatre; the underwater world slipped into, snorkelling straight from the beach to witness the reef’s bounty of aquamarine beauties; and knots undone at Soneva Soul, a tree-hugged spa that unites ancient and contemporary therapies, from Ayurveda and sound healing to hydrotherapy.

The essence of the island experience is to switch off and reconnect with nature; it’s made so easy for you here. Shoes are not required, screen time is gently persuaded against, and news comes from the jungle (grape)vine or a personalised newsletter left in my villa, printed on recycled paper, for course. With sustainability such a core part of both Sonu and Eva’s vision, no stone is left unturned on the island in creating a circular economy, where what is used, is repurposed and upcycled, either at Soneva Fushi, its neighbouring islands, or beyond.

I tour the ‘Waste to Wealth’ Eco Centro to see its recycling plant and how food waste gets reused, the mushroom hut cultivating home-grown fungi, and how cans and plastic are transformed into artworks for sale at Makers’ Place. At So Glasscycle, old glass is turned into something new, with island experts and visiting artists creating beautiful pieces of recycled glass art on display in the studio. And at Fresh in the Garden, I meet Ali, who has been tending to the organic vegetable plots at Soneva Fushi for 27 years, which grows everything from lettuce and asparagus to dragon fruit and garlic chives. What you see is what you eat. Fresh. No toxic fertiliser. All organic.

All of this experienced - and so much more - alongside the JLF hosts and speakers, sharing tables, canapés and conversations with some of the creative world’s greatest. We stargaze together, discuss travel, sustainability, the cosmos and women in power over sun-dappled lunches at Out of the Blue, and, of course, dance like nobody’s watching when Usha Uthup takes to the stage.

While Soneva Fushi is all about slow-living, the island doesn’t like to sit still, with JLF just one of many events curated to offer unique guest experiences - past, present and future. Upcoming in August, planetary astronomer Dr James O’Donoghue will host astronomy talks and after-dinner stargazing sessions; In September/October, the first-ever SOUL Festival takes place on the island, with a thought-provoking line-up of global health and wellbeing leaders, luminaries and pioneers; And in October, chefs Judy Joo and Esther Choi will conduct a spectacular four-hands dinner showcasing their skills and Korean heritage.

As Usha sings on her final night, “You may say that I’m a dreamer...” - John Lennon’s words so fitting, because few places on earth dream as big as Soneva Fushi.