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Designer wellies. They’re everywhere at Wilderness, which over its 13-year history has developed a reputation as one of the poshest music festivals in Britain. Veuve Clicquot hosts an on-site Champagne Garden. David Cameron has previously attended. There’s a spa. Hot tubs. Nice toilets with a seemingly never-ending supply of loo roll. Josh Angus and Meera Sodha are two of many award-winning chefs charged with cooking dinner for punters. You’ll find no humble burger van here – unless it’s made of ostrich.
But Wilderness isn’t exclusively for those in a high tax bracket. I’m 27 with basically no assets – liquid or otherwise – and it is glorious. The leafy grounds of the Cornbury Park Estate in Oxfordshire lend themselves to lounging in the sun. Huge green hills backdrop the winding lake, frequented by wild swimmers and couples rowing boats as bankside pilates sessions, sound baths, and meditation classes ease revellers into each of the festival’s four days. And then, of course, there’s the music.
Faithless, the electro band responsible for the Nineties club classics “Insomnia” and “God Is a DJ”, are Friday’s headliners. In the middle of their first round of shows since the passing of their lead vocalist Maxi Jazz in 2022, guitarist Dave Randall stands front and centre as Sister Bliss pounds the keys. Their biggest hits have people on shoulders, but the set is bolstered by other artists’ tracks: Joy Division, Fred Again and, surprisingly, “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley. The party truly pops off elsewhere at The Valley, a dancefloor burrowed in the banks of the woods where jazzy deep house DJ Barry Can’t Swim (Joshua Mannie) sends crowds swirling until the early hours of the morning.
Saturday gets off to a slower start with the country-infused Aussie blues rock band The Teskey Brothers, who have climbed their way from Melbourne bars to festival stages since 2008. The duo’s charm and smooth vocals entice passersby into their ever-growing audience. The most soulful performance of the night, though, no doubt goes to 2020 Mercury prize winner Michael Kiwanuka who only last month made his return to music with his first single in five years “Floating Parade”.
Kiwanuka is happy to be back, beaming through an acoustic version of “Home Again” after telling the audience he loves Wilderness because it’s one of the only places where his ballads don’t get drowned out by louder bands on other stages. The atmosphere is appropriately intimate, but Kiwanuka does well to juxtapose the quieter moments of his set with sliding electric guitar breaks and dance-inducing singles like “Cold Little Heart” (of Big Little Lies fame) and the title track from his first UK No 1 album, 2016’s “Love & Hate”. Emotional and understated, Kiwanuka’s voice lingers long after he’s left the stage.
After Saturday’s soulfulness, day three is about dancing. Hordes of local teenagers and twentysomethings descend for a rave held by electro duo Bicep. Before the sun sets, Jessie Ware gets feet moving with a flirty disco set. Strutting onto the stage as her children watch from the wings, she launches into “Ooh La La” and “Freak Me Now”. Lastly, with a flawless cover of Cher’s “Believe” and the liberating call to arms “Free Yourself”, Ware sends us into the night exalted.
With the absence of long queues and one-hour treks between stages, there’s time to take in the arts programming, which includes talks with film critic Mark Kermode and Strictly Come Dancing host Claudia Winkleman, as well as conversations with authors like Jeremy Deller and Caroline O’Donoghue. Thanks to the diversity of its packed schedule, and the little luxuries like loo roll, Wilderness may well be one of the only festivals you return from feeling better rested than when you left.
