What a great festival of bohemian revelry yet again! The entertainment, food and impressive themed outfit commitment from the Wilderness crowd did not disappoint as Cornbury Park‘s four day extravaganza unfolded in a riot of sequins, champagne, celebs and wonderful frivolity.
As well as the always popular cricket (with extra nudity thrown in for good measure), the tunes flowed, the champagne gushed at the Veuve Clicquot tent, superb cocktails and badminton were enjoyed in equal measure in the uber-luxe IMG garden, wood-fired hot tubs relaxed revellers on the lake, foodies chowed down at the stunning feasts and everyone danced along to the enviable music line-up.
But here are out Top Five favourite moments at this year’s stunning Wilderness Festival in case you missed out:
1) Managing to get a seat for the MamSham Feast! If you follow the London powerhouse duo AKA Maria Georgiou and Rhiannon Butler, curators of all things food, comedy and creativity, you will appreciate just how exciting this was. Serving up three courses inspired by three comedy acts, with Baby Lame, Crybabies and Sukh Ojla (see main pic)they theme their food and entertainment. The football themed comedy was superb and the beef shin pie won the day, alongside the can of white line spray (salad dressing).
2) The Riddle Bar in the Walled Garden was a stand out highlight with the energetic DJ sets leaving us with warnings on our step count. The garden booths there are bookable by the hour which made hooking up with friends nice and easy and the eccentric cast of Alice in Wonderland drag characters kept the queue for the loo overtly interesting! No pics were allowed though!
3) Social Pantry’s Social Supper consisted of four chefs, four prison leavers, and one mighty fine dinner in this, the the ultimate supper club. Each prison leaver, employed at Social Pantry was paired with a top chef to help prepare, cook and serve a feast to remember.
4) Famous actress Olivia Coleman brought the house down when she made a guest appearance at Letters Live this year in one of the finest hours of entertainment you will ever experience, the top-secret cast of readers heightening the anticipation, hot on the heels of her recent box-office hit Wicked Little Letters.
5) Music-wise the endlessly innovative and unpredictable Alison Goldfrapp wowed with her synth-pop vocals, the incredible and unique Michael Kiwanuka, whose take on soul combined with his Ugandan heritage and stunning voice carried an impressed crowd along in his wake, the high-energy DJ performance from Faithless and Bjorn Again which got the whole crowd singing along, keeping all the ABBA fanatics happy.
And one for luck: Comedian Russell Kane remained a firm favourite with the Atrium Crowd, and he delivered a live podcast on the essence of festivals, delivering some strong stats on the potentials pitfalls of festival culture, laced with some lighter comedic notes and keen to stress that a lukewarm Aperol is still at the top of the Wilderness abuse list…
All of which meant the tickets were worth every penny for this indulgent weekend of bohemian sanctity, slap bang in the middle of the Oxfordshire countryside. And with new dates announced for next year (July 3 -August 3 2025) get ready to indulge again in style! https://www.wildernessfestival.com
Heather Fletcher