What to do at Wilderness Festival

What to do at Wilderness Festival

03 August, 2011
by: Spoonfed Festivals

The Spoonfed team select the finest cuts from the Wilderness tasting menu.

So Wilderness Festival is round the corner: the thinking man's crumpet, this brand new festival sounds like exactly what we at Spoonfed need after the Glade-Glasto-Lovebox-SGP marathon...

Imagine the lushness of a luxury spa on a sparkling lakeside. Step steaming from a sauna, only to dive into a crystal clear lake surrounded by trees, before taking a hot tub under the stars, being careful not to submerge your champagne flute. Prick your ears and you'll hear some incredible music from established greats and the newly cool, acts from the leftfield, folk and indie worlds. From CW Stoneking to Gogol Bordello, Laura Marling to Antony & The Johnsons complete with the Heritage Orchestra. Gorge on Michelin starred food - consumed communally at huge banquet tables. Flex your lazy brain cells at some of the most firecracking talks and debates you'll find. Wilderness is everything you could ask for in a handy three day tableau. Here are our picks of the bunch.

Best Food
Tom's Feast
Friday, August 12th
This year sees three big old banquets taking place at Wilderness Festival, with food provided on Sunday by Skye Gyngell of Petersham Nurseries, and on Saturday by Sam and Sam Clark from Moro, but for us it's Friday night that's the pick of the bunch. Thomas Hunt presents all manner of seasonal deliciousness: from 'summer plenty' garden soup to deer slow roasted for 16 hours with hay and juniper. We're kinda salivating already...

Best Debate
Technology is creating more serious problems than it's solving
Saturday, August 13th
One of the more interesting aspects of this year's Wilderness Festival is The Forum, a programme of talks, discussions, debates and other events designed to challenge the way we think. There's appearances from Ian Goldin, Tom Hodgkinson, James Delingpole, Mark Stevenson, and a host of other luminaries. Our pick is a discussion about the effects of technology on contemporary society, organised by the brilliant folks over at Intelligence Squared.

Best Theatre Show
'Bugs' by The Factory
Avant-garde theatre company, The Factory, set up camp at Wilderness Festival with Steven Bloomer's play Bugs in tow. Famed for their imposing use of props and downright reckless use of actors, The Factory walk that fine line between insanity and genius. They tend to land on the genius side.

Bugs pushes the idea of social networking and imagines literal electronic connections between people, allowing us to sychronise experiences, knowledge and ideas. The actors will only know their cues and lines as they perform the play 'blind'.

Best Live Music
Daniel Johnston
Sunday, August 14th
One of the most talented and troubled artists of modern times, Daniel Johnston is held up by many to be the singer/songwriter of choice for underground music. Active since the early ‘80s, over the years his work been championed by the likes of Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo and Half Japanese, and famously, Kurt Cobain was often photographed wearing one of his T-shirts.

Having to fight a daily battle with a mental illness that has plagued him most of his adult life, Johnston’s music is unflinchingly direct in a way that often borders on embarrassment. Yet, despite the often gloomy subject matter, Johnston never comes across as cynical, downtrodden or whiney. In fact, his playful, eccentric and slightly naive indie pop is some of the cutest music ever devised, and anyone who is feeling a little browbeaten by life’s uppers and downers should make time to spin one of his records.

Wilderness Festival occurs in Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire.
August 12th - 14th 2011.
Tickets are £99
Day tickets are available at £49.50

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