With festival season in full swing we are delighted to announce that the jewel in the crown of any fun-lovers calendar, Wilderness Festival, have announced their day by day programmes.
THE FRIDAY PROGRAMME
On Friday Wilderness will be firing on all cylinders. The Seeing Double costume theme will be making everyone look twice.
Friday’s Main Stage, with BBC Music, hosts some of the finest fresh names. Two Door Cinema Club are helming, with Swedish harmonising trio First Aid Kit following rising stars from Norway Aurora and Sigrid. Festival favourites The Turbans have migrated from the Folk Barn fixture onto the main stage - sure to be an all-out stomping session to go down in history.
The Valley kicks off with ex-Magnetic Man Artwork heading up proceedings in an all-new look forest dance-floor. PBR Streetgang will be laying down those golden four-to-the-floor essentials for which they are famed.
Thomasina Miers presents a Mexican-inspired Long Table Banquet. Tommy Banks is in charge on the Chef's Table and Angela Hartnett’s Cafe Murano and Petersham Nurseries throw open the doors to their field restaurants.
The Atrium is bursting with gold with a Ronnie Scott's takeover providing the unbeatable atmospherics that only they can present with Lucky Peterson in the house. The National Theatre Live screen their 5 star production of Amadeus from The Olivier. A fringe highlight of Sadler’s Wells’ annual festival of hip hop dance theatre - Breakin' Convention, Freestyle Funk Forum will be throwing down. Artistic Director Jonzi D hosts an evening of improvised theatre in hip hop’s answer to “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”, a series of skits are brought to life through the elements of hip hop including dance, beatbox, turntablism and rap. Truly unmissable.
Over at The Folk Barn, discover the mesmerising folk songstress Alice Phoebe Lou and the hotly tipped My Baby - who combine the folk and blues-roots of the deep South with out-and-out funk and dance.
The Love Hotel throw open their doors for the first time, with a brand new stage secret underworld where conformity is rejected and losing your inhibitions is encouraged. Anchorsong, Blue Lab Beats, Cosmo Pyke and glittery performers a-plenty.
The Carousel kick off with their Friday Voodoo Rising party. Next-level festival favourites Flamingods bring you Eastern and African flavours sieved through psychedelic prisms.
The Playhouse continues its tradition of showcasing the best new writing and welcomes fringe highlight Katie Bonna with her five-star, hilarious, moving show All The Things I Lied About. Marcel Lucont, the flâneur, raconteur and bon-viveur returns to Wilderness and international burlesque siren Missy Fatale has curated an entire Tricks and Tease Cabaret Show to thrill you.
Ideas to be explored by our Talks and Debates include What Makes A Real Woman? Generation M: Being a Muslim Now, Making A Man: Fatherhood & Masculinity. Reni Eddo-Lodge: Why I am no longer talking to white people about race.
THE SATURDAY PROGRAMME
Saturday is the day to shine as Wilderness goers are invited to dress Mirror Ball for a day. Saturday’s headline show is from the incomparable Bonobo - who brings his live ensemble to the main stage, with ska and reggae legends Toots and The Maytals providing the sunshine vibes. BBC Music Sound of 2017 winner Ray BLK brings her elastic lyrical styles and upfront festi-favourites. Meanwhile, down in The Valley, revellers will find the extra special treat of Jackmaster and Eats Everything playing back-to-back beneath the trees.
Tonight Wilderness will host The Spectacle - a thrilling, one-off collaboration with a master of light Chris Levine. Come Saturday night we hope you're reflecting.... Prepare to be transformed.
BBC Music present She Drew The Gun performing at The Love Hotel. The Liverpool band have really made everyone sit up and listen. Expect a PJ Harvey-esque show that crackles with the magnetism of Cat Power and Radiohead.
Portuguese master Nuno Mendes will be preparing a Long Table Banquet, while Hamish Brown presides over the Chef's Table.
The Atrium plays host to some of the finest names paving the way in international dance. Visionaries from Sadler's Wells and Company Wayne McGregor perform special shows this afternoon. German piano virtuoso Hauschka has earned a remarkable reputation as a purveyor of imaginative, distinctive, prepared piano music. Alex Mendham and his Orchestra perform hot jazz and sweet dance band music from the Art Deco era – with a modern energy and passion.
The Wilderness Cricket Match - the only proper cricket fixture on the festival circuit - is a cornerstone of incompetence and genius in equal measure. A Wilderness tradition, complete with dubious umpires and streakers.
The Playhouse continues to present theatre from the forefront of the scene. Elephant & Castle and Doppelganger are two Gig Theatre shows from Camden People's Theatre - both encompass experimental live music and use gig elements to tell their stories. Gender-twisting visuals and gothic storytelling combine with music, crossing boundaries and blurring lines.
THE SUNDAY PROGRAMME
Wilderness will play host to a special Warrior Sunday at Cornbury Park. The original polymath, the incandescent, the irrepressible Grace Jones will be headlining.
Michael Kiwanuka plays soul-drenched numbers, and Louis Berry pops his 50s inspired hits into the fray. In The Valley Sunday closing party It's Nightmares on Wax who will be rolling you gently into the nostalgic haze of electronica, spliced with his party starting sensibilities. And live disco outfit Crazy P will be bringing those sizzling tunes live and direct. Warriors: assemble.
Welcome too, to the perfect day at The Atrium: Letters Live are, coming to Wilderness for the very first time. As headliners of the festival’s Talks and Debates programme, Letters Live will descend upon The Atrium to delight the audience with, as ever, a cast of readers and letters designed to surprise and delight.
A Sunday of Nina Simone pays tribute to the High Priestess of Soul with a performance of her astonishing back catalogue. The Wilderness Orchestra will be joined by Brit Award and Mercury Prize nominee Laura Mvula, the ever effervescent Will Young, Honeyfeet’s Rioghnach Connolly, and Ronnie Scott’s present a quartet including multi-award winning singer-pianist Liane Carroll, and Paul Robinson – Nina Simone’s drummer for two decades - singing along is highly encouraged.
The Love Hotel hosts the Otis-Redding compared Liam Bailey tonight as a highlight of Sunday over at the Love hotel, with Tru Thoughts signed Lakuta warming things up.
In The Forum, Bruce Parry discusses Tribal Utopias, The Economist presents The World If and our Wilderness Utopias discuss Myths, Money and the Future of Democracy.
The annual tradition that is the Wilderness Orchestra will return. The set of live film scores which closes the show on Sunday night has been honed and buffed to absolute perfection.
Next up is the Wilderness Choir... Take your place alongside a symphony orchestra in a hundreds-strong harmonic celebration as part of our Sunday night festival finale.
As usual, there are no bystanders. You are invited to marry your mates at the Mass Wedding, flex your rap skills with Hip Hop Karaoke, enrol in the sock wrestling championships, mail a letter with the Secret Postal service and Become A Spy for the afternoon. It is all about the taking part.
Published on 15 June 2017 by Ben Robinson
