“Freedom gives infinite power, it can move mountains.”
– Camp founder Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan
Welcome to Zenith!
Zenith Camp is a Sufi meditation camp with a community that comes together every summer to celebrate love, harmony and beauty. Tracing back to the youth camps Pir Vilayat organized in the French Alps, we’ve been organizing multi-week summer events for over 50 years.
Meditation and retreat are the central focus at these gatherings, while dance, movement, and music are integral as well. There are spaces for silent retreat, for workshops, for conversation. Essential to our community is collective effort: Volunteers build the Camp’s structures and meeting places before the participants arrive, make running the camp possible through their work in a variety of staff positions, and later dismantle the buildings at summer’s end.
While being an independent organization, the Zenith camp stands in the tradition of the Inayatiyya, a Chishti Sufi tradition brought to the Western world by Hazrat Inayat Khan. The Sufism of the Inayatiyya is universal in its acceptance of all people and paths leading to the unfoldment of the light and power latent in the human being. Read more about our mission and values here.
2027 Summer Camp: July 27 – August 07
We’re currently planning the program for our next Sufi Summer Camp in 2027. It will take place at Windlicht, a community seminar center on the Windberg. This is a wonderful location in the heart of Thuringia, on the outskirts of Kölleda (Beichlingen district). If you’re curious, feel free to visit their website.
We’ll be hosting a two-week camp in 2027. The program planning group is just getting started, and we’ll keep you updated on our progress here, via our newsletter, and on social media. As mentioned in previous newsletters, Pir Zia won’t be at the camp in 2027. We’re confident we’ll be able to offer you an enriching seminar program nevertheless.
Up to 75 beds will be available for booking, and of course there will be plenty of space for camping, trailers, and RVs.
Our Year 2026
While we didn’t have our classic summer camp this year, it has still been a rich and eventful year: After our online program with meditation and music in winter, the everday-retreat “Desert Light” was met with wonderful feedback.
Then, from July 19 – 26, we had a wonderful community gathering in Pfarrkeßlar with approx. 100 participants.
Following the cancellation of our traditional seminar format, we ventured into a new direction: a true Community Camp. Hosted on the beautiful grounds of Pfarrkeßlar, the week became a inspiring and joyful experience. Instead of a central teacher, the program came from within the community itself. In a creative process, participants co-created a diverse schedule featuring workshops, meditations, and bodywork. It was a beautiful opportunity to discover the many hidden talents within our circle.
With a dedicated children’s program in a yurt, deep conversations among the youth, and a beautiful Universal Worship service to close the week, we experienced a profound sense of love, harmony, and beauty. This successful gathering showed us how well such co-created spaces work for our community. Latifa & Azim wrote about their experience:
Some images from past years, showing the old location of the camp in Campra / Pü:
