Identity, The World Now, and The World As It Could Be at Wilderness 2017

Wilderness 2017

Thursday 3rd to Sunday 6th August 2017
Cornbury Park, Charlbury, Oxfordshire, OX7 3EH, England MAP
£178 adult weekend camping + booking fee

Daily capacity: 10,000

Last updated: Thu 27th Jul 2017

Wilderness festival, which is held at Cornbury Park in Oxfordshire from Thursday 3rd until Sunday 6th August 2017. has announced it's talks and debates programme, with other 250 speakers across 5 dedicated venues, which includes Vince Cable, Bruce Parry, Paris Lees, Will Young with Zoe Williams, Elif Shafak, John Lloyd, and Reni Eddo-Lodge with Lolly Adefope, with debate centered around three distinct themes: Identity, The World Now, and The World As It Could Be.

Bold discussions around Identity will be led by Tate Britain who bring the curator Clare Barlow for their latest exhibition, Queer British Art in an exclusive Sunday Papers Live panel. She's joined by performer Tim Redfern, artist Nick Hornby and activist Paris Lees to discuss the diverse connections between sexuality, gender identity and art to uncover a past which is richer and stranger than you might think. The panel runs concurrently with Tate Britain's latest exhibition 'Queer British Art, 1861-1967' (until 1 October 2017).

Award-winning journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge will be in conversation with actress and comedian Lolly Adefope, to present her powerful and provocative argument on the role that race and racism play in modern Britain - based on her viral blog post and book Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race. Galvanised by the hunger for open discussion Reni decided to dig into the source of these feelings by exploring issues from eradicated black history to the political purpose of white dominance, whitewashed feminism to the inextricable link between class and race.

What Makes A Real Woman? will be under debate with Paris Lees, Times journalist Katie Glass, NUS Trans Officer elect Jess Bradley, high-street campaigner Mary Portas, and former New Statesman Editor Serena Kutchinsky. The Frontline Club returns to Wilderness for the Sunday Papers Live world news section to present Generation M: Being a Muslim Now. How Affluent Young Muslims Are Changing The World. Also on the theme of Identity - in the Books Tent award-winning novelist Edward Docx will be in conversation with writer Howard Cunnell to discuss Making A Man: Fatherhood & Masculinity.

The last year has been monumental for global world politics, from surprise victories to shock general elections Wilderness have seen to it that we receive a peek behind the curtain with a series of panels discussing The World Now. Wilderness present their flagship debate State of The Nation, where Question Time meets cage-fighting in a frantic tag-team debate featuring all the best speakers from across the festival.

Whilst we might not know what the post-election landscape will look like now, Wilderness aren't shying away from the General Election. The RSA are set to host an Election Debrief. The Wilderness Utopias series will welcome Sir Vince Cable, economists Vicky Pryce, George Magnus, and shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Peter Doyd to discuss economics; and Newsweek take square aim at the brewing Trump-Russia scandals to ask Are We Heading Towards A Second Cold War?, Index on Censorship will make sure we know alternative facts from breaking news with their Fake News Quiz.

With one eye on the future, Wilderness will also explore the theme The World As It Could Be. Hear about Tribal Utopias with Bruce Parry, and peak into a world unlike ours as the The Economist present The World IF... Borders Are completely open, The Internet Goes Down, Energy Is free. Talks will also explore The Science of DeExtinction: Bringing Extinct Species Back To Life, and whether music is what's missing from seismic global change with Daniel Rachel's Can Music Change The World? in the Wilderness Books Tent.

Wilderness has also become a destination for the UK's best loved podcasts. The elves behind beloved TV show QI will be bringing their weekly show No Such Thing As A Fish, Jolyon Rubinstein & Heydon Prowse's News Roast will welcome special guests to their comedy podcast, Scrummy Mummies are be joined by TV host Cherry Healey for their comedy chat show for "less than perfect parents". Wilderness favourites Little Atoms return to talk transhumanism with Mark O'Connell. The Odditorium Podcast are joined by John Higgs to share the incredible story of Operation Mindfuck. Queer'Say present performances by three acclaimed LGBT poets followed by onstage interviews about their life and inspirations, hosted by award-winning broadcaster and comedian Rosie Wilby, the critically acclaimed show will be recorded for Resonance FM's LGBT magazine Out In South London.

Balancing out the serious side are the witty and irreverent. As well as economists, scientists and curators Wilderness will be home to explorers & adventurers, the Philosophy Puppet Show, the daily Today at Wilderness talk show with Radio 4 favourite Matthew Taylor, and a Sunday Papers Live special edition all day on the Sunday to clear out the cobwebs from Saturday night.

These join a musical line-up that has 'a Sunday of Nina Simone' with Laura Mvula and special guests Will Young, Honeyfeet's Rioghnach Connolly, Ronnie Scott's & The Wilderness Orchestra, along with headliners Two Door Cinema Club, Grace Jones, Bonobo (live), plus First Aid Kit, Michael Kiwanuka, Toots and the Maytals, Ray BLK, Hudson Taylor, Louis Berry,
The Correspondents, Crazy P Soundsystem, Jackmaster, Nightmares on Wax (DJ set), Nadine Khouri, Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker, The Langan Band, New York Brass Band, and many more. For the music details so far please see the line-up page. For details of other activities and entertainments please see the news items.

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An adult weekend camping ticket is currently priced at £178.
Young person (aged 13-17 years) tickets are priced at £105, junior tickets (aged 6-12 years) are priced at £35, with tickets for children aged 5 years and younger priced at £5.

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