Wilderness Festival 2021, review: What a joy and a relief it is to dance again – iNews

On Saturday evening, with mud splattered up my legs and rain plopping into my can of San Miguel, bopping up and down to the spectral Apricots by the electronic duo Bicep, under a rainbow, I was struck by a sense of relief.

It was my overwhelming feeling at Wilderness my first festival in two years rather than the euphoria, anxiety, or trepidation that I had imagined, returning to that vivid, busy, unpredictable world.

Relief, that the crowds felt so safe and so normal; relief, that live arts are back with such fervour and joy; relief to be in nature, the safety of which we clung to those months when it was all we had left.

Wilderness began 10 years ago, in the sloping hills of Cornbury Park in Oxfordshire, and its Cotswold location, wonderland site (deer gallop in the fields, a tiny lake offers wild swimming and boating, late-night DJs host raves in a mystical tree-canopied valley) and boutique size and feel have a reputation for attracting the well-heeled.

Even with this weekends downpours, and after the pandemic hit pause on hedonism, this was still about as civilised as a festival might get a spa, fancy dress cricket, literary panels with as much emphasis on fine dining and wellness as on the music (the festival has its own orchestra).

The hottest tickets were a talk by Philip Pullman, at which drenched fans teemed out of the long round tent to hear him disparage the education system, and the rowdy sit-down banquets (I gave a standing ovation to chef Jay Morjaria after eating smoked brawn dumplings and kimchi and offal fried rice at the Flank Fire Feast).

A sense of communal delight and unity, sitting at long tables with strangers for the first time in years, was unexpectedly, almost spiritually, moving. For a friend of mine far more actively seeking enlightenment, that soul fulfilment came from daily paddleboard yoga, astrology sessions, wild swimming, intention-setting, and flower-crown weaving.

The music offered catharsis of a different kind no matter that Croydon rapper Loyle Carners beats are languid and pared-back nor that DJ and The xx frontman Jamie XX leaned on sparse samples, only breaking into climax at the very end (with his sirenic, looping hit gosh, to puffs of Technicolor smoke) it was a thrill to move in a crowd for the first time.

Northern Irish Bicep upstaged those headliners with exciting lightshows and juddering beats that could have taken us long into the night, while London electropop star Georgias energy was unmatched. She marvellously vanquished the torrential rain that diluted her audience, bashing drums alone on stage, conjuring menacing rhythm and cascading synths with her hit About Work the Dancefloor, hurling drumsticks into crowd like a rebel javelin thrower.

Lets sing loud enough so Kate can hear us she said, introducing her cover of Kate Bushs Running Up That Hill: aside from Rudimentals closing set, it was the closest the main stage audience came to a rousing chorus this was a line-upcurated for dancers.

Festivals have been one of the arts worlds greatest casualties in this pandemic: several postponed two years in a row, many more were called off last-minute due to insurance concerns, and others have had lineups thinned after acts were called to isolate.

Wilderness is only the second major festival, after Latitude, to get the green light (outside government pilot schemes) this year and for artists, organisers, and vendors it has been the hardest to pull together. That it went ahead, safely, and with such curiosity, mischief, confidence and heart was a triumph and a relief.

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Wilderness Festival 2021, review: What a joy and a relief it is to dance again - iNews