Metronomy, Burt Bacharach, London Grammar, and more for Wilderness

plus first guests, cooks, theatre, activities, and wild arts programme

By Scott Williams | Published: Tue 18th Feb 2014

Wilderness 2014 - Metronomy
Photo credit: Chris Mathews

Wilderness 2014

Thursday 7th to Sunday 10th August 2014
Cornbury Park, Charlbury, Oxfordshire, OX7 3EH, England MAP
£143.50 adult weekend camping + booking fee
Daily capacity: 10,000

Metronomy, Burt Bacharach, London Grammar, Jessie Ware with Wilderness Orchestra, Sam Smith, Connan Mockasin, Gregory Porter, Submotion Orchestra, Mount Kimbie, and Soak are the first acts revealed for Wilderness festival, set to be held at Cornbury Park in Oxfordshire from Friday 8th until Sunday 10th August 2014.

After dark, there will be Late Night Revelry with different enticing themes from Golden Ages to the Astronomers Ball to Aircraft Circus’s Midnight Circus.

The DJ line-up includes Greg Wilson, Futureboogie, Horse Meat Disco, and Zero 7 (DJ Set). A new secret stage will be revealed this year, hosted in the Quarry, and evening curators are Rumpus, Artful Badger and Shangri-La Superstar & Continental Drifts.

Plus Friends of the Earth Busking Stage, “BitterSuite” – A Sensory Concert, Travelling Folk Barn with Two for Joy , The Local and The English Folk Dance & Song Society.

The festival which is curated by the producers of Secret Garden Party and Lovebox offers musicianship, theatre, talks, panel debates, late-night parties, outdoor pursuits and food experiences returns for a fourth year. The musical roster is just one aspect of this multi-arts festival. 

The arts component features performances from theatre and arts troupes and performances from Oxford Shakespeare Company (performing “As You Like It”), Shakespeare’s Globe, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Petersham Playhouse, experimental theatre company Slung Low, members from Son and Sons Productions and intimate woodland workshops and performance happenings from Artful BadgerBitterSuite will also be on hand to awaken the senses with their synesthesia-influenced immersive experiences, and there will be art on show from the Bohemian Artists Studio

Two of Europe’s leading theatrical arts companies will combine in creating burning parades and spectaculars. And Now: and Macnas, will both be taking inspiration from Cornbury Park’s own mythological Wychwood Fayres performed under a full moon.

As ever, there will also be intellectual stimulation on offer with The Huffington Post UK co-hosting a series of talks, along side debates and literary arts with the Secret Forum

Participants include Intelligence SquaredSchool of Life, Project Wild ThingLetters of Note, Royal Observatory Greenwich, the Odditorium, George Monbiot, HuffPost UK’s Mehdi Hasan, Tongue Fu, Guerilla Science, Book Slam, Guerilla Archaeology, Spark London, Chill Pill, Ugly Animal Preservation Society, Liars League, and many more.

There will also be an instalment of the Sunday Papers Live, which brings the weekend broadsheets to life.  Furthermore, Now Live Events return this year with a bigger programme of celebratory rejuvenation, with the events championing unique ways of being in the moment. 

For children and families there will be Discover Children’s Story Centre, Charles Dickens Museum, Tap Tap TheatreStorystock, Angel Gardens, Hullabaloo Arts, Mortimer Nannies, Croquet, Bearded Kitten’s Cricket Match, Chap Olympics, Village Hall, and the Roald Dahl Museum onsite as well as circus skills, face painting, kids yoga, adventure quests, treasure hunts, family cabaret and puppetry workshops.

For those wanting to embrace the Great Outdoors there will be hunter gather cook, fly fishing, horse riding, longbow archerywoodland foraging walks, greencrafts, forest runs, woodland medicine walks,  philosophy walks, wild swimming in clear lakes and boating to indulge in. 

While those who just wish to relax and let the world melt away for the weekend can take refuge in the Sanctuary wellbeing area, with Sunset Yoga classes, Tai Chi, Morning Meditation, Capoeira, Pilates, massages and facials, or the Lakeside Spa, which comes replete with wood fired hot tubs and saunas to luxuriate in plus a private swimming lake.

The festival also presents an array of chefs to cook at the long table banquets including Simon RoganAngela Hartnett, and Russell Norman, plus catering experiences with Exmouth Market’s Moro and their Souk dining tent, the St John Dining Room & Bakery, and the Champagne Laurent-Perrier 'Orangery'.

buy tickets now >

Early bird tickets have sold out. An adult weekend camping ticket is priced at £143.50. A young person (aged 11 to 17 years) is priced at £75, with children aged 10 years and younger going free. A campervan ticket is priced at £65, and a car park ticket is priced at £10. Weekend Camping Deposits are available by putting down a non-rfundable first instalment of £71.75 up until Friday 6th of June and outstanding balances must be paid by then. Prices do not include booking fees.




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