I’m still wondering how to describe Wilderness Festival this year because as everyone partied on the Cornbury Estate, four days over a barmy, warm weekend overlooking mellow horizons of Cotswold countryside there were riots in the streets around the country.  I was called away from what is a wilderness wonderland for the curious and creative, on the Saturday evening, and returned on the Sunday, literally not able to find a way back in, as the ‘blue’ entrance, where I had entered two days prior, had become an exit only. I eventually found my way in via – appropriately enough – the green entrance.   Wilderness Festival is a Shangri la.  This year they even had a session on ‘behind the scenes’ which sadly I missed because I was called away.

With all that is going on in the world, this entrepreneurial annual festival now in its, 13th year,  has a Mask of the Red Death feel to it, as though everyone was bathing in the beauty of the surrounding countryside, the majestic oaks, ethereal in their symmetry, shadowing the marquees and stalls, with their cornucopia of workshops and lectures, music and carefully curated chaos, engaging the innovative in everything from macrame, to aerial and surf board yoga, to lake swimming to foraging, picking, even taxidermy and butchery (how to cut up a deer), to Live Letters, this year in support of the festival charity Choose Love, to art therapy, to glamping, even gimping.  It is an immersive delve into the Sunday broadsheet newspapers with a special supplement of kink.

On the surface it appears like a music festival. The Wilderness Stage, the main arena hosts the big names, the ones that even those post sixty in the shires, will know about.  But this is only a small part of the overall framework, which is much more holistic, covering every type of music, from country to heavy(ish) metal, for those Baby Boomers and Gen Xers harking back to their air guitar days of Motorhead, and Rainbow. The Atrium, set in nature’s valley as though carved for the purpose to host orchestras and jazz bands of global repute, for this is no ordinary festival.  This is also the place where comedians such as Rory Bremner and Russell Kane perform, and Live Letters with Olivia Colman speak forth to hundreds on the hill.

Scattered like sweets on the field, which undulates, forming natural stages and arenas for each attraction, from the holistic sanctuary, close to the lakes and forest, where you can go fish and forage as part of the excellent company Hunter Gatherer Cook, which shows those who wish to know how to take one step closer to self-sufficiency, should the Waitrose be closed.  Being a woodland theme this year, a lot focused on self-sufficiency and sustainability.   Chefs playing host to long table banquets chefs included Andi Oliver and Richard Corrigan and all focused on food which was sustainably sourced.

There was a strong forest bathing, dining (you could dine in the forests, but they were all sold out early) and other workshops like learning how to woodland weave and events titled self-sufficient Sundays workshop, and even a masterclass in an intriguingly titled bohemian wirework (specified only for 16 plus).  All the master classes are taught by masters in their field, not just this one outside Chipping Norton.

My favourite area has always been the Playing Fields where cricket and football and the Grand Irrational were played, with streakers and imagination in abundance, this area is my favourite for the mischievousness of it all.  Commentators dressed in red and white striped onesies, with a tad too much showing, announce the games.   More’s the pity as it is laugh out loud funny regardless of the weather, and this year Wilderness was blessed.

Each day everyone is invited to dress up to a theme, woodland, ethereal, farmyard, take your pick, and consequently there are some wonderful costumes.  The days I was there, people were dressed as nymphs, mushrooms, sheep and riding blow up horses, pigs and a blow-up granny.   I still can’t get that image out of my head.  There is a large marquee for yoga and sound baths where the quality of the instruction is excellent.      Quality is the buzz word but also is thinking.  The talks on at the Forum, where this year I spent most of my time, held host to speakers like Claudia Winkleman, which you would expect, and Jess Philips, perhaps who you wouldn’t.   Claudia got the larger audience and biggest applause of the event but Jess came in a close second.   This bubble-land of privilege does peek out of the box occasionally, and Jess as well as many of the comedians who performed there were not backwards in coming forward about inequalities in society. This is a very polished privileged festival, where everyone is in a safe space and even the marquee with the kink, which is all tastefully done, has people going up and down the queue before entry about consent so that everyone knows they are in a safe space within a safe space. So doubly safe.

Exploration is a key element to Wilderness and an overriding theme, in each of the areas. A social anthropologist would have a (excuse the pun) field day, people watching, and it easy to spend time sitting and just doing this, some of whom look straight out of Saltburn and The Riot Club.  It is time not wasted, but I suggest you don’t linger too long because there is so much of interest and value to learn and inspire.

Sustainability is also a constant theme of the festival where this is one of the key principles of the annual event.  Reuse, refuse, recycle, reduce are common themes – festival goers are encouraged to carry round a forever mug – which I did and take your litter away, which again, everyone did.  Although the car park was busy, people are encouraged to cycle, take public transport, (buses in from near by train station at Frimley) and there was even a run which started, appropriately enough in Richmond (my home town) of all places, which is a marathon indeed.

Everyone is respectful of the beauty of the landscape and of the time and effort gone into making the festival this special.  In the very early hours of each day quiet and meticulous volunteers tidy up and everyone has a field of litter-free green on which to start again.

Amongst the huge names you get the bands who are almost there, but in my mind, made me think differently about the music I enjoy. Please check out the Dutty Moonshine Big Band which rocked the leaves off the trees with only a forty-five-minute set on the main stage.   Their raps were simply brilliant.   I managed to find my way into the performance section where the artists go pre gig and spoke over coffee to one of the saxophonists whose other job is a Cambridge University lecturer.  You’ll find a lot of the workshop leaders emanate from St Martins’ and top colleges, and even the poll dancers have Oxford degrees.

The festival is cocooned both physically by a security operation Donald Trump would have needed recently, and everything is themed to be positive, meditative, educational, provocatively playful, and making the most of exploring the beautiful forests, and lakes on the estate.  It is designed to make you think and question as much as enjoy and indulge.  The hedonism is tempered with acknowledgement that this is also a family festival, the camping area for families, being the cleanest and most efficient one I have ever visited, and that includes those in Switzerland.   The showers, toilets were spotless.

It is worth pre booking activities in advance as soon as they hit the app – usually about a week in advance. The long table forest banquets are always sold out early and it is a wonderful way to experience this beautiful landscape.  In many ways it is the natural backdrop, the incredible oaks which dotted the festival, the endless vistas of fields and tractors bringing in the hay, the fact that the bird song in the morning was so loud and proud it woke you up.

The estate is the star of the show and this year, the festival played homage to the beauty of the landscape on which it annually pitches its super-sized tents.   You do not need to gild a lily, and the theme turned in onto the theme of respecting nature and being sustainable.

You are only able to come onto this land during festival time, and it was the privilege of being here that made it special. The festival may add the whistles and bells, but the estate is the heart and soul of Wilderness and teaches us what is important in life – how to look after nature and each other.

As I drove off, having eventually found my car after a half hour walking around a field in the dark (yet more steps – there’s always a positive), I pondered about the festival and how best to approach it. Just as in life, don’t waste time, expect the unexpected, including getting distracted, choose your tent and tribe and tree well.    I found mine.

To book in advance for next year’s festival (which is discounted) contact www.wildernessfestival.com