Review: Wilderness Festival 2011

Set in the very English idyll of Cornbury Park in Oxfordshire, Wilderness Festival joins the ever-growing lineup of boutique festivals. 

This was the first ever Wilderness, and its organisers are no doubt hoping that its unique combination of the usual music and dancing, and deluxe banquets hosted by top chefs, will establish its reputation.

The programme of music was carefully curated: Saturday had a global feel with appearances from Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Toots and the Maytals and Gogol Bordello, while Sunday’s lineup was folksier, including The Low Anthem, Laura Marling and Antony and the Johnsons.

Sadly, we could only spend Saturday at the festival so, having set up camp, we ventured out to take in as many of the sights and sounds as we could. After taking a turn around the site, we found ourselves at the main stage in time to catch Hayseed Dixie, whose bluegrass cover versions of classic songs like ‘Walk This Way’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ belie their evidently superb musicianship.

We then made for the lake on the other site of the site, for a quick swim. Wilderness, along with its big sister festival Secret Garden Party, is surely unique in offering visitors the opportunity of a bracing dip in a lake full of pondweed. And for those who want to spend some time near the water without actually being submerged in it, there was also boating, fly fishing and a spa equipped with saunas and hot tubs.

Next on our agenda was a visit to the academy set up by genteelly erudite magazine The Idler, where we saw a lecture on the hedgehog by ecologist Hugh Warwick. By now it was time for dinner – the feast prepared by Sam and Sam Clark was fully sold out, so unfortunately I can’t report on how this tasted, but the smells emanating from the banqueting tent were certainly alluring.

Having had some more typical festival food we returned to the main stage, where reggae stalwarts Toots and the Maytals played a crowd-pleasing set. Headliners Gogol Bordello then took to the stage with their turbocharged brand of Gypsy Punk. Gogol Bordello are a band best experienced live; their colourful stagepresence and huge energy levels make for one of the best shows around, andtheir Wilderness performance was up to their usual standard.

The final item on the bill was the midnight masked ball, where live music was provided by hip-hop inflected brass band Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. The naked conga line promised in the programme failed to materialise, but perhaps that was for the best.

Since this was Wilderness’ first year, there were a few areas where improvements might be made. The claim that the festival site is a ten minute walk from Charlbury Station is a serious underestimation, and the one-in one-out policy at the midnight masked ball was rather irksome.

Although this late night event was over-subscribed, the festival as a whole seemed sparsely populated. Whether the sense of spaciousness was deliberate,or whether many tickets went unsold, I don’t know; but I hope the former is the case as this new, unique festival deserves a prominent place on next year’s festival calendar.

Words: Alan Ashton-Smith

Wilderness Festival, 12-14 August 2011, Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire