🌳 Music, arts, food and wellness festival at Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire | 🪩 Multiple stages offering a range of live music and DJ sets |🍴Exclusive dining experiences on offer from world-famous chefs | ⛺️ Boutique camping available | 👶 Family friendly
Why we love Wilderness Festival for a weekend
“This boutique festival – now in its 14th year – has a glamorous reputation. Held on the beautiful Cornbury Park estate in bucolic Oxfordshire, Wilderness is an extravaganza of music, arts, wellness and feasting for the middle-classes. Yet despite its posh vibes, the festival is a fully-inclusive hedonist treat for everyone: one minute you’re going wild in sparkly clobber under an oak tree, the next your making life-long friends with a grandma who’s watching the same drag show as you. We love it.”
The thing about Wilderness Festival that we fall for every year is its eclecticism. Here, swaddled by Cornbury Park’s picturesque theatre of trees and lakes, you can find your very own version of bliss amongst the array of stages, shows, sets, pop-ups and experiences. In fact, Wilderness prides itself on the vast scope of its programme, truly offering something for a multi-generational crowd – on every single day of its four-day incarnation.
Dance purist? You’ll find dance floors alight at the hands of some of the most innovative DJs in the game (including The Valley, an incredible natural valley that becomes a late night rave hub late at night). Alongside the raving, you’ll go to secret sets, disco dodgeball, orchestral singalongs, mass aerobics workouts, arts workshops and erudite interviews and discussions with high-profile guests.
Nature lover? You can paddle out on the lake or ease strains in the lake-side hot tubs. For wellness seekers there are saunas or group yoga sessions. Meanwhile foodies can tickle their tastebuds at the hosted banquets where world-class chefs serve sublime menus. And, of course, there are colossal headliners to rush to once your massage is over, stopping by the bar to grab a glass of Veuve Clicquot or White Claw as you do. Wet Leg, Supergrass, Basement Jaxx – all delivered blistering performances at this year’s event.
With so much on offer, you’ll be surprised how spacious Wilderness is. This festival never feels uncomfortably overcrowded – or dirty. The grounds are kept tidy and clean by the hard-working and chipper staff – and the loos are definitely not as bad as some festivals we’ve been to.
Perhaps its the high ticket prices that keep the crowds sensible or the festival’s luxe reputation? Because it is luxe: Audi has been the festival’s sponsor for 2 years in a row and there are similar high-end brands who make their presence known on-site. Johnnie Walker, Nespresso and Disaronno were some of the companies with installations you could hang out in this year. There was even a Fortnum and Mason pop-up selling picnic hampers for those seeking ‘oo la la’ lunch under an oak tree.
Whatever it is that keeps the festival feeling so inclusive, safe, family-friendly and demograpically mixed, we hope it never changes. Bougie, bonkers and a source of delirious happiness for us every August where we can just be ridiculous and real. We can’t wait to go back.
The Essentials
- Location: Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire, UU
- Great accommodation options including camping (standard, quiet or family zones), boutique glamping (tipis, yurts, bell tents), live-in vehicle pitches with and without power hook-ups
- Typically held the first weekend of August (Thursday to Sunday)
- Known for gourmet food experiences
- Extensive wellness, family, and creative areas
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Expect both headline acts and hidden gems – plus secret gigs in the woods
Eye Candy
